The VideoLAN Forums

Like Mac users have already figured, there's no Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) in VLC Media Player. Its absence is the only reason that keeps me watching original DVDs in Nero Showtime, who have mastered the trick on a post-production basis. Attaining DRC should not require to remix a movie: it is about making the softest sounds louder and the loudest sounds softer, so that when you for example rise the volume to hear someone whisper in a dialogue, you don't next get blasted by some special effect or music. Addressing this aspect of sound will show some respect to your ears and to your loudspeakers. If you are a developer of VLC and don't understand what this request means, try watching a DVD in Nero Showtime with the DRC setting enabled to find out.

a52 codec?

Thanks, j-b. I think I gather that you are suggesting that by ensuring that for instance, the center channel is there, we can get louder dialogues... but the DRC feature is, as far as I konw, codec-independent. I don't know how it is achieved but it takes what's there and compresses it to rise the volume of what's soft and lower the volume of what's loud. It seems to do it to content coming from any channel. The guys in the "VLC media player for Mac OS X Troubleshooting" forum are asking for the same (DRC) feature: and that's the last hurdle left to make VLC Media Player the perfect player to have in one's system.

I'd also love an on-the-fly compression setting. I live in an apartment and I want to both hear quiet dialogues, not both my many neighbours with loud sounds, and not want to be jumping up and down to change the volume constantly.