My dvds always play in surround sound.

[stupidguywithabigmouth]

I just want to watch a movie in the basement while I work out on my laptop but its Surround, and I can't hear the freaking talking. Is there something I can do to fix it?

[Sixdust]

Change your laptops dvd program's setting from surround(4.1-7.1) to 2.1 or 2.0 or even headphone mode.

[stupidguywithabigmouth]

I tried that. I adjusted the main windows sound option, I adjusted Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player, the only media players I use. Still, its the same. It is so annoying since I can't watch any dvds on the go.

[Otter]

Hit the audio button, dude. Most DVDs have two soundtracks - surround, and stereo.

 

(Surround is just a gimic anyhow. )

[dertyjerzian]

(Surround is just a gimic anyhow. )

How so? I'm seriously asking, I don't have an argument for the statement, I'd just like to know how it is a gimmick. Cheers Otter

[Otter]

No worries. There are plenty of schools of thought for the matter, but I've come to learn that a good stereo mix is indistinguishable from surround sound, with proper seating and speaker placement. The thing about surround is, you can sit anywhere and still get the effect. But who watches a film from such an obscure angle?

 

A clever mixer has tricks to make a sound come from "behind" you, or even above and below. It's not as good as say, a binaural recording using headphones for playback, but it gets the job done. Some machines can even take a 5.1 surround track and simulate this to some degree with stereo. This makes sense - you've got two ears. Two speakers (on headphones) will simulate environmental audio perfectly.

 

In practice, surround seems cooler, because you get this soundscape. But you're not up and walking around when you watch a movie, right? Therefore, a good stereo mix can position a sound in 2 dimensions, and simulate a third dimension, exactly like surround.

 

EDIT - I'd like to add that surround sound CAN be incredibly cool, and having five full channels of information can create some really nifty effects.

Edited May 20, 2007 by Otter

[stupidguywithabigmouth]

The dvd I want to watch says its menu only has three 6channel audio settings, and a 2channel for a Director commentary. But it plays just fine on my tv with two speakers. It happens with more then one media player so is there anything I can do? And its more then just this one dvd, I tried others and same problem arose.

[dertyjerzian]

 

The dvd I want to watch says its menu only has three 6channel audio settings, and a 2channel for a Director commentary.  But it plays just fine on my tv with two speakers.  It happens with more then one media player so is there anything I can do?  And its more then just this one dvd, I tried others and same problem arose.

The more I read about your problem, it has dawned on me that I had this same problem in my inspiron 8600 a few years back. You might actually have conflicting codecs or even inadvertently disabled the sound channel from your disc drive.

 

The audio wire is un-needed (for instance, my xp machine plays CDs straight from the drive with only it's ide ribbon and power supply hooked up. I have the CDA wire, but eff it. I dont need no stinkin CDA wire. That said, I doubt you have a dinosaur without built in CD and DVD reencoding for playback, so the codecs must be the problem.

 

The fact that you mentioned media player classic was my first tip, and the fact that nothing you've done so far helped finally reminded me that I had the KLite codec pack installed when I had that issue.

 

Klite is bad. I use it from time to time, careful on what I install, only getting that which I need, and definitely staying far away from MPClassic. It might work great for others, and mightve been your codec savior for a while, but for me it causes problems so I usually stray away these days.

 

Try completely uninstalling the klite codec pack, uninstall your disc and sound drivers entirely, then install them all in this order:

 

CD Drive

 

Sound drivers

 

(if you absolutely must) KLite. I imagine Klite might be where you are getting DVD playback from? Do you have PowerDVD? If so, that might be the issue because that is the one that came with my inspiron, and could have been the cause of this mysterious problem. I dont trust Klite, when I use it it is usually because I don't want to install quicktime or real. I've since decided I don't need to watch things in REAL and quicktime has a standalone still, it was just hard to find without iTunes for a while there.

 

@Otter: Cheers, you've won me over. You're so right, the proper technicians can create vast soundscapes with only stereo to work with. I'm reminded of Wish You Were Here, the album, and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Crude as it kinda sounds now, it's still an amazing feat of musical engineering that really wouldve sounded bleh without the proper fades and balances being incorporated. Makes me wonder, as a person who has struggled to make dynamic stereo experiences with music, if 5.1 and other surround sounds take out a lot of that hard work? Like, maybe it's easier for the technicians, maybe sound level and velocities become more focusable, leaving balances and fading to the back a little less tedious? I suppose kinda like Autodesk giving us Edit Poly Sweet.

 

edit: re-reading my post, I have to say, not that it is easier, but maybe it would be easier if they didnt have to mix for stereo and surround and surround+ etc etc. A tech can dream <3

Edited May 26, 2007 by dertyjerzian™

[stupidguywithabigmouth]

Derty Jerzian, that worked. I uninstalled k-lite, said goodbye to my old friend turned horsecrapeater, MPC, installed what media players I need and PowerDVD that came with my PC. Sound works good in all programs that run dvds now. Thanks.