Windows 10: Screen/Sound Quality

Hi,

I recently purchased the Acer Swift 3 SF315-41 with Ryzen 7 2700U, 256gb storage, 8gb ram and Radeon Vega 10. IPS screen, unfortunately glossy I know, but I couldn't find anther decent looking/feeling machine with metal chassis under £550 with the same or similar specs. Realtek HD speakers. Acer trueharmony. Not sure if this is the right place for help but I've also posted this on the Acer community site.

I'm not sure if these are problems that can be fixed or just me being fussy, but the screen and sound don't seem as good as my 7 year old laptop.

When looking around on the internet etc I notice the picture quality doesn't seem very good with faces and details. They seem a bit patchy/grainy and not as clear as my older machine somehow. Photos I took on my phone at a wedding, the faces are awful but on my older laptop they are clear and colours are fine. I tried watching some videos on youtube and again they don't seem as clear or smooth. In the windows options there is only brightness. In the radeon control panel it has the colour and saturation and brightness but they don't seem to change it. I've left the hue at 0, moved saturation from 100 to 104 (out of 200) and lowered brightness a bit as I find the white backgrounds on pages too bright. Contrast I lowered slightly too. But again with these raised or lowered it doesn't alter the quality of picture, just the brightness and colour. I would have expected everything to look better than the older laptop that was HD but not FHD. In the radeon graphics panel I can't see anything that suggests it would make it better. There's a list of different viewing modes for Cinema, home tv etc but I guess these are for watching videos and not for photos or the general pictures on internet and news pages etc.

With sound, I have Acer trueharmony but the bass isn't very good. There is no equalizer or options to change any sound settings other than just volume. I have searched online and seen lots of people to say to go back to an older driver so I can get an equalizer, but I tried this and selected an older driver in the list. It removes trueharmony and adds a bass option in enhancements tab, but this seems to decrease the rest of the sound quality compared to the newer driver without the bass option but with trueharmonyin it. Also after trying the older driver, the next time I tried to open radeon it said there was a problem between the settings and the driver and it said I had to fix that before it would open open. Not sure if this is to do with the sound driver being changed as I didn't amend the radeon driver as far as I know as there were no sound options in radeon so I didn't think it was linked. I don't fully understand the swapping drivers etc to get different options but I always thought I needed the latest drivers for things to work properly and that if I use an older one it will just update itself via windows update anyway?. I went on radeon site and swapped back to what I thought was the driver I had, to put trueharmony back on and put things back to how it was before again. I'm sure the radeon driver date was november 2018 before I changed it to the older one to try and get an equalizer, but then when went on Radeon site to download latest driver again it had a date of 2019, but there was no updates available for the original driver I had dated 2018 as I checked before I tried an older one, so I don't know if I've now installed a different driver to what was originally on the machine, but the radeon graphic panel seems to work again, but with an extra tab that wasn't there before called Connect.

The speakers are Realtek HD but there is no control panel for this anywhere, again not sure if this is because it has Radeon or trueharmony but can't find a sound panel for those either. In programs list it has Realtek but when trying to start it, it does nothing. In the driver section for this it says further installation needed. The date showing that message is from a few days ago when I had changed the drivers, but there was still no panel before I tried the older driver. In the device list it has the Realtek speakers listed under Audio inputs and outputs and in properties says location internal HD audio.

But then in the video and sound and gaming driver section it lists the AMD Radeon and the Realtek HD, but in properties under location, the Realtek location says 0 "on AMD serial bus" and on the AMD it says 0 "internal HD Audio Serial bus". Is this because it has trueharmony that both of those look like they are not turned on, or should one of these have a number or description for location? I don't know but it looks like they are not being used. I don't want to fiddle around changing them if it is going to remove more up to date versions etc but I don't really understand it all to be honest. Do I need to do something or is this just how it is? I get much better bass and more realistic sound if I plug in speakers to the audio jack, but just on laptop it doesn't seem to have much bass, I expected better as its marketed as good sound etc too and expected to be able to adjust levels.

Any help or suggestions is appreciated. I don't know if these are faults, or things I need to do and setup to use as i'm just used to things working out of the box, or just how it is full stop.



:)

 

Sound Quality

One thing that sticks out from looking at your "My Computer" specs. You list "ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)" which suggests you do not have the correct sound hardware driver. Your motherboard has Realtek sound and the first step is to install the Realtek sound drivers. My ASUS also came with Sonic Studio 2 which is a sound enhancement package. Check the ASUS install disc to see if you have something similar.

May not be a speaker problem.

 

Microphone Sound Quality

Hello, xodjbgxo,

This tutorial lists several steps on improving sound quality.

How to Manage Your Windows 10 Sound Settings - Make Tech Easier

 

Good surround sound headset

I know you say you're not that guy, but stepping into the $250+ range really brings a change in build quality that might have you never having to buy another set. Otherwise, getting 6 speakers with decent sound in a headset is hard, and that's what you are asking for, and I have no suggestions, but just a bump up the list. *Stick Out Tongue