Audio Device on VLC 2.0.8 and 2.1.0

[ovodda]

Hello everyone, I just installed version 2.1.0 of VLC for Windows 7 32-bit and unlike the version 2.0.8 from the menu on the audio device disappeared items 5.1 and 2 front 2 rear.
Is there a way to have the same menu also on version 2.1.0 or at least a way to set each time the 5.1 or 2 front 2 rear?
Thanks for your attention.

[ovodda]

anyone!?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

No, so far it is not possible. What is your use case?

[ovodda]

No, so far it is not possible. What is your use case?

Hi, thanks for answer.
I use vlc simply to see dvix and dvd on pc desktop

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

So, it is automatic and adapts from the source.

[Mellbourn]

No, so far it is not possible. What is your use case?

I definitely have use cases.

First of all, I feel there is a problem with terminology here. Previously "Audio Device" meant something like "output encoding". Now it means something like "playback device". Note that for the same "playback device" you can definitely have several "output encodings".

• For instance, the HDMI of my PC is connected to an A/V Receiver, a SONY STR-DN1040. I have MKV files that can output both "Linear PCM" and DTS. Both are good (6 channel) formats, but it is certainly possible to perceive differences between them. In VLC they used to show up as "5.1" and "A/52 over S/PDIF" respectively. The SONY STR-DN1040 can receive both of them. It receives them over the same HDMI cable (naturally), so it is the same "playback device". I personally prefer PCM. I want to be able to choose PCM over DTS. Now I don't even know what algorithm is used by VLC to choose between them.
• Also, in the past VLC has often defaulted to stereo, while much better "audio devices" have been available, such as 5.1 or A/52. Perhaps VLC has better defaults now. But I would still like to verify that. I can't even find what "audio device" (in the old terminology) is truly used.
• There can be other differences than pure quality between PCM and DTS (and Dolby Digital). I have come across the phenomenon that one of them lags behind the video much more than the other, so that I definitely want to choose a particular one.
• PCM might be 7.1 and Dolby Digital might be 5.1. Which is best for me might depends on whether I have 7.1 speakers or 5.1 speakers. In my case I have 5.1 speakers, so I want the "lower quality" 5.1 that is correctly mixed for my setup. VLC has no way of knowing how many speakers I have (especially since the Receiver is between the PC and the speakers).

Thanks for a great piece of software!

[Morodus]

Greetings,
my basic setup: Win PC, Creative X-Fi, 5.1 soundsystem.

No, so far it is not possible. What is your use case?

1. Under some circumstances I want to play a 5.1 source as Quad or Stereo.

2. I want a stereo source to be upmixed to 5.1 by my X-Fi soundcard (which has nice features).

In 2.1.0 a stereo source is upmixed by VLC to the speaker configuration of the output device. In the lower versions the VLC output was stereo, same as the source, and the soundcard could work its own magic.
Also, the VLC upmix is too loud on my rear speakers and can't be controlled.

PS: For now I'm gonna roll back to an older version of beloved VLC

[Ludrax]

First of all, I feel there is a problem with terminology here. Previously "Audio Device" meant something like "output encoding". Now it means something like "playback device". Note that for the same "playback device" you can definitely have several "output encodings".

• For instance, the HDMI of my PC is connected to an A/V Receiver, a SONY STR-DN1040. I have MKV files that can output both "Linear PCM" and DTS. Both are good (6 channel) formats, but it is certainly possible to perceive differences between them. In VLC they used to show up as "5.1" and "A/52 over S/PDIF" respectively. The SONY STR-DN1040 can receive both of them. It receives them over the same HDMI cable (naturally), so it is the same "playback device". I personally prefer PCM. I want to be able to choose PCM over DTS. Now I don't even know what algorithm is used by VLC to choose between them.

maybe that over S/PDIF was confusing when using HDMI?

[BigRedBrent]

I can not get surround sound to work over an optical out to my receiver with the new version. It worked fine with the previous version. (And still does because after messing with it for hours I ended up reverting)

I used to have it set up to always try to play surround sound but when I would switch the default audio device in windows to my pc speakers that are stereo it would automatically know to mix all the channels for stereo. It don't work for surround sound at all, and the stereo will not mix the channels anymore unless I have it set to only try to use stereo.

I think what is happening is that it is not using S/PDIF like it used to.

[thebignewwave]

Ever since upgrading to 2.1 audio from all types of sources (stereo, mono, etc.) is upmixed to 5.1 (my speaker configuration). Can this be changed? I would prefer to listen to stereo sources in stereo. I've been using other media players since upgrading to VLC 2.1 because I haven't been able to figure out how to correct this bug yet!

[rxvirus]

I just wanted to chime in with my use case. I have a 5.1 speaker setup plugged directly into the motherboard so VLC correctly detects this as a 5.1 system. However when I use headphones with the plug on the front of the speaker (a much more convenient location to plug in headphones) it is only playing 2 of the 4 channels and for many videos this eliminates most of the audio. If there is a way to fix this please let me know but from scouring the forums I couldn't find anything that suggested a way to fix this.

[Dobbin]

Audio is now a disaster for me.

I have used s/pdif to my outboard decoder for years, I checked "use S/PDIF when available" in prefs ,the decoder saw the flags from the file (DTS / Dolby /none etc.) and every thing was fine. I could also tell VLC to send stereo, l/r, r/l, mono to my amp instead if I wanted to but now no flags seem to pass through, there's no manual choice and the decoder flicks to its default "try Prologic" - no good at all.

Have wasted a day trying to make 2.1.0 audio work, have now gone back to 2.0.8 64 bit (W7)

[JaTochNietDan]

Greetings,
my basic setup: Win PC, Creative X-Fi, 5.1 soundsystem.

No, so far it is not possible. What is your use case?

1. Under some circumstances I want to play a 5.1 source as Quad or Stereo.

2. I want a stereo source to be upmixed to 5.1 by my X-Fi soundcard (which has nice features).

In 2.1.0 a stereo source is upmixed by VLC to the speaker configuration of the output device. In the lower versions the VLC output was stereo, same as the source, and the soundcard could work its own magic.
Also, the VLC upmix is too loud on my rear speakers and can't be controlled.

PS: For now I'm gonna roll back to an older version of beloved VLC

I need to do this because of my headset (Logitech G930). If audio outputted to it is 5.1 then it's quite hard to hear some parts of the video, particularly dialog. Forcing the audio to output in stereo fixed this completely and I was missing this option in 2.1.0.

Fortunately I have found a solution which appears to be working as intended.

1. Go to Tools -> Preferences
2. Click on the "All" radio button in the bottom left corner
3. Go to "Output Modules" under the Audio section of the settings in the listbox on the left
4. Set the audio output module to "DirectX"
5. Expand the "Output Modules" item and go to "DirectX"
6. Set speaker configuration to what you desire
7. Save your changes and ensure that you restart VLC

[dttsou]

I just wanted to chime in with my use case. I have a 5.1 speaker setup plugged directly into the motherboard so VLC correctly detects this as a 5.1 system. However when I use headphones with the plug on the front of the speaker (a much more convenient location to plug in headphones) it is only playing 2 of the 4 channels and for many videos this eliminates most of the audio. If there is a way to fix this please let me know but from scouring the forums I couldn't find anything that suggested a way to fix this.

NOTE: This fix only applies to people who have Realtek audio chips on their motherbooard.

I have this exact same set up because sometimes I use the headphones instead of the 5.1 speakers to prevent noise to other people in the house. And I got exactly the same problem when watching a 5.1 audio movie / video where I only get 2 of the channels. I have a Realtek onboard audio, and this is how I've managed to fix the problem, and hope it helps someone here as well.

The trick is to make the front audio out jack appear as a separate audio out device. To do this, open up the Realtek Audio Manager, then in the top right hand corner of the window, there is a "Device advanced settings" link. Click on that. Then in the dialog that pops up, choose the option "Make front and rear audio devices play two different audio streams simultaneously". What this should have done is made your front audio out jack appear as a new audio out device to windows. You can verify this by going to Control Panels --> Sounds --> Playback tab. You should now see something like a "Realtek Audio 2nd output".

Now, if you start VLC again, under the Audio --> Audio Device menu, you should be able to select "Realtek Audio 2nd output", and all channels will now be mixed into your headphone.

[thebignewwave]

I've downgraded to 2.0.8 as well. I think I'll sit a few versions out and see if videolan ever gets their stuff together. Did the one guy who understands the audio code quit or something?

[sup2069]

I've downgraded to 2.0.8 as well. I think I'll sit a few versions out and see if videolan ever gets their stuff together. Did the one guy who understands the audio code quit or something?

Wow, didn't know these new versions were affecting so many people. Lost SPDIF and posted in another thread, hopefully the team can sort this out!

[{tim}]

I have an issue which is related to the audio changes in the 2.0.8 -> 2.1.0 upgrade. I have found a workaround / fix but wanted to mention it anyway for awareness.

I am using a Realtek onboard audio, configured as previously described by dttsou, with front headphones and rear speakers set up as separate outputs. This is convenient, as I can simply switch my output device from "speakers" to "headphones" and back as needed. I also quite like the changes in 2.1.0 which added the "output device" to the context menu -- previously I had to open the configuration page to change my audio device, and then restart the file that was playing.

In v2.0.8 I had configured DirectX audio output and set my audio output to "7.1 channels", and this worked fine whether I used the speakers or headphones. However, after upgrading to 2.1.0 (actually 2.1.1, but I tested and confirmed the same behaviour in 2.1.0), I found that listening to stereo tracks through my headphones resulted in the audio being panned far to the right. It was not totally right-channel only, as I could still hear low-volume sound in the left headphone, but it was still quite annoying. This only seems to happen with stereo tracks; videos with 5.1/7.1 audio seem to play normally through the headphones.

The problem can be easily fixed by going into the configuration page and setting the speaker config to either "2 channel" or "windows default"; when I do this, stereo and surround tracks both work fine in my headphones. However, it seems to me that the fact that VLC produces audio panned far to the right when the speaker config is set to "7.1" but the audio input and output are only 2-channel, should still be considered a bug (though a minor one).


Finally, on the main question of this thread I also think that it would be a good idea to keep the output channels option (previously "audio device" in 2.0.8), but also include the new 2.1.0+ "output device" option. This seems like the best of both worlds -- those with external audio devices can configure which output format they want to use, while those of us who want to switch between devices (eg speakers vs headphones) can easily do that from the menu too.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

SPDIF is fixed.

For other issues, please use one thread per issue/topic.