How to watch movies on Macbook Pro 2017 ?

[Sovon Halder]

In windows I use MPC-HC+madVR to watch full hd movies.

Bought a 2017 macbook pro 13" TB couple of days ago.

Airpods are my primary audio device and sounds just fine in iTunes but while playing a movie in quicktime or VLC, the overall volume level is not loud enough. Way low compared to windows.

Media consumption is the main part of my entertainment in the laptop. Most movies being 1080p, they are not quite as sharp as retina quality, they are being upscaled, I get that. But about volume level and other things. I need a GOOD setup to watch movies in full glory.

Which media player should I use? Are there anything else that I should do/change ?

 

[Populus]

Maybe there is something you're doing wrong with VLC. You'll see, when you swipe down with two fingers in VLC, you're lowering the volume, and this volume is individual from the main system one.


You can check, with this two finger gesture over the VLC movie screen, if the VLC volume is at 100% because maybe you accidentally did this and you pulled down the volume.

And if you're at 100% you can always try to rise the volume to 120-150% and check if this meet your needs of quality and volume.

By the way, the system volume in Mac has independent values when there are no audio device connected and when there is. So double check the system volume as well.

If everything else fails, maybe you need some good on-ear earphones.

 

[Sovon Halder]

Thank you for your reply.

Different audio devices(including internal speakers) has their own sound profile if I understand correctly.
I checked what you mean. The volume in VLC with Airpods isn't that low, per se. I meant, it's just not loud 'enough'.
At first I thought there was a volume limit somewhere or something that was capping the maximum db at the most explosive moments in the audio track. But I couldn't find anything of that sort.

Last night I watched GOT S07E07 and in VLC i was using about 150% volume while my system sound(device Airpods) being 100%.

If watching movies and listening to stuff is the highest priority, what player should one use ?

P.S. This is my first mac system.

 

[Populus]

@Sovon Halder well, in that case, as I said in the last paragraph, maybe what you need is not another player, but another pair of headphones with more power. But be careful, we don't want you to become deaf

I don't own the AirPods so I don't know how if the volume output of this device. I do own the regular EarPods and they fulfill my needs in that regard.

Media players? I used to install a few, like Movist (the free version, almost obsolete), MPlayerX (now it has malware on its installer), but I ended up using always VLC because, simply put, it is the best player for me. Now I don't bother with the alternatives, I only install VLC.

You're welcome!

 

[Sovon Halder]

Thank you for the info Populus.

 

[Sovon Halder]

I'm watching Pirates.of.the.Caribbean.Dead.Men.Tell.No.Tales.2017.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H264-***

Is this kind of resource usage normal ?