The VideoLAN Forums

When I play any video file, the stereo audio mode is always set on 'Headphones':



The sound is a bit weird when on Headphones and when I set it to Stereo, it all is fine. But every time I open a video file, its defaults back to Headphones.
How do I set it to Stereo on default?

Do you have your headphones plugged?

The sound is a bit weird when on Headphones and when I set it to Stereo, it all is fine."

Yes, this is very annoying. I have external 2.1 speakers plugged into my system which Windows detects as 'headphones'. VLC seems to pick this up and automatically changes its audio setting.

I can't find an option in VLC to force "stereo" output instead of "headphone", I always have to change it. When I play certain videos with surround sound (eg, 5.1), the "headphone" setting pans the vocals part way to the right making the vocals off-balance, and it's very irritating.

I just bought a "7.1" headset. I was watching a movie that has 5.1/7.1 audio, and was going crazy because everything was being right balance heavy. i noticed if I set the audio to mono, or stereo this problem goes away. I also verified it was only happening with VLC. If I try to chose "Original" for the audio it keeps going back to headphones.

I'm not sure why headphones are set to no be balanced, or why I can't keep the original and play the 5.1 or 7.1 audio on my headset that shows up as supporting all the channels in Windows 10.

I'm also confused why headphone mode would ever be off balance?

I was 30 minutes through a movie suffering from this going crazy, so I'm glad I kind of figured this out as a temporary solution.

Two and a half years after this post, and this is still a problem. I actually returned a set of headphones not realizing it was actually VLC causing the problem. Got the same pair. Same issue.

This is something that is hard to Google for a solution. Luckily, I too stumbled on that if I put the audio to stereo, the problem goes away. I only realized it wasn't the headphones by trying windows media player to play the movie.

The dialogue and treble is very noticeably right balanced when using headphones mode. It's incredibly disruptive. Why is this even an issue? It makes no sense. I'm actually considering looking for a VLC alternative. But VLC is so awesome..

Please don't re-use an old post and instead create a new post, especially for something over a year old.

What is the setting in Audio menu -> Audio Device?