Sound problem with speech on commercial DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Syd17]

I cannot hear characters speaking on commercial DVD films as sound is very muted. Help please?

 

[mm1352000]

Dialogue often sounds quiet if you have a stereo (2 speaker) setup and select the surround sound audio track on the DVD without enabling down-mixing in your audio codec settings. It's a common mistake. If this could be what's happening in your case, you ought to either select a stereo (instead of surround) audio track when you play the DVD, or enable down-mixing in your audio codec settings.

 

[CyberSimian]

I cannot hear characters speaking on commercial DVD films as sound is very muted.

enable down-mixing in your audio codec settings.

In the UK, the HD TV channels have the capability to transmit multi-channel sound, and this occurs for a small number of programmes (typically blockbuster movies, prestige drama productions, "The Simpsons" on Channel 4). These programmes suffer with the same problem of inaudible dialogue, so using appropriate mix-down settings would provide a cure for both DVD and HD TV.

In "MP Config", click: "Codecs and Renderer" (left side menu) > "DVD Discs/Images Codecs" tab > spanner icon for "LAV Audio Decoder" > "Mixing" tab, and then:

Select "Enable Mixing".
Select "Stereo".
Set "Center Mix Level" to 0.8.
Set "Surround Mix Level" to 0.6.
Set "LFE Mix Level" to 0.0.

These settings are a starting point; obviously you can change the values to suit your own preferences. The tabs for other devices also have these settings, but in fact they appear to be the same settings (so changing them on one tab changes them on all tabs).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Syd17]

Thanks for the advice. Now works perfectly after changing to a stereo setting.