Low Sound Volume When Creating MKV

It has been so long since I used Fab, I didn't even know it had this option. Have you tried outputting to a different audio format. I use AAC when I am converting my rips. What playback software are you using? Does it do this with any other files that contain MP3 audio? Could be a setting with your audio decoder.

If DVDF has an option to use dolby digital, use that one over dolby prologic II and if you haven't already done it, try updating all the audio codecs on your laptop. Look for "K-lite codec full package".

I know nothing about this software & it is pay for unfortunately, but it does appear to do what you want.

Any of our members used it?

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I use VLCMedia Player for playback. It has it's own up-to-date codec pack.

I don't notice a volume drop with any other MP3 playback nor any other sound format.
When ripping MP3 files I've noticed I have to adjust ALSAMixer to adjust the volume. The usual volume control does not adjust my MP3 ripper (CDex).

Note I'm using CDex and DVDFab for Windows on Linux with Wine.
I don't know if playback of MKV on other devices has odd sound characteristics or low volume.
I play them on my PBO to watch them on my TV. I don't recall if the volume was low ... had to be turned UP.

DVDFab allow me to boost the volume up to 500%.
I tried 200% and 400% or 500%.
It sounded loud and raw on my 2-channel laptop.

I thought Dolby Prologic II superceded Dolby Digital.
I'm aiming for small file size to the point where I don't noticeably lose quality.

I want to be able to go mobile with a laptop or to play on various devices in different rooms.
Putting more movies on one thumbdrive or DVD would be advantageous.

When looking for small file size, or especially for laptop playback and streaming, why mess with the dolby digital? Just rip the AC3,6 channel. I encode as I said to AAC on the audio at a fixed bitrate of 192 kbps. I have never noticed any issue with the sound quality.
As you found out boosting the sound within a program like Fab, usually only results in distortion and extreme noise introduction.
I can tell you that I use MeGUI for my encoding. Not sure about running it on Linux though? My video tools are one of the main reasons that I haven't switched to running a linux box for my main computer as opposed to backup.
MeGUI

Create High Quality PS3 Compatible Video Files with MeGUI

On another note, have you tried EAC (exact audio copy), for ripping your audio files to MP3. It is excellent and considered the de facto of rippers by many. Again though, not sure about using it on linux?

Some information on running EAC in WINE that you may be interested in.

Run Exact Audio Copy (EAC) on Linux - Ubuntu Forums

I did a test batch of different forms and found that acc created a filesize # 100MB larger than MP3.

By Dolby Digital, do you mean AAC?

I tried EAC years ago and have been wanting to try it again but haven't gotten around to it.
It worked OK once but on a later install I think I got one LONG file instead of several MP3s from a disc and or MP3s had no sound.
It was long ago. I forget the specifics.

I've seen many using DVDRebuilder and other ware a LOT here. I thought Rebuilder wasn't ALWAYS required. I've used various rippers, shrinkers, etc. but have found DVDF to work well on it's own. Am I missing something? I thought DVDF was the simplest solution. Oddly, I've found older versions back-up some discs that the latest versions fail at and vice versa. Some rips took forever. some never completed. It didn't seem to like discs that weren't perfect. One install I didn't do the disc calibration. Another install I did the disc calibration but it still failed often.

I never compress my rips that I plan on encoding to a digital format until afterwards. Ok that sounded like gibberish. What I mean is, if I have a movie that I plan to store digitally on my harddrive, I will rip it from disk, run it through vob blanker and fix vts, and then I will encode it to mp4. Could just as easily be MKV, but my PS3 natively supports MP4. I encode to AVC and AAC as is shown in the guide that I posted the link to above. After all that is complete, then I will go ahead and run it through DVD Rebuilder to compress it to DVD 5 size so I can burn to disk. This eliminates encoding on top of encoding. Which helps to decrease errors and artifacts, in my opinion.