5.1 audio changes after update 2.1.1

[rafaelguedes]

Ok, I'm just a newbie here, but I'm having the same problem. I'm using Windows 8.1 x64 and VLC 2.1.5.
Some videos I watch are 5.1 only, and I don't have this kind of system. I use stereo headphones and my sound card is onboard. It has only that 3 connectors (green, blue, pink), so I guess it produces only stereo sounds.
I don't know what's happening but when I watch these videos I get a low voice and loud music and background noise, I can't hear the actors. Usually I would go to "Audio", "Audio Device" and check stereo and it used to work properly, but this option is unavailable (grayed out).
Actually I downloaded the zip-pack for version 2.0.8, as someone commented here, and tried to play the same video and the sound is perfect.
Summarizing: 2.1.5 = automatically gives me low voices and loud background.
2.0.8 = automatically works fine
Is it a bug or something?
Thank you!

[insidious_tomato]

Did this issue ever get resolved (or are there plans to resolve it)? I've had to sandbox an older version of VLC for what feels like over a year in order to get around the shortcomings in the newest release. My use case is the same as the others: 1) external devices which - naturally - are undetectable to the OS and require manual manipulation of the audio stream, and 2) poorly encoded media that requires manipulation to have acceptable sound.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Some videos I watch are 5.1 only, and I don't have this kind of system. I use stereo headphones and my sound card is onboard. It has only that 3 connectors (green, blue, pink), so I guess it produces only stereo sounds.

Most PC audio chips support 5.1 or 7.1 internally. Also many desktop motherboards provide 5.1 or 7.1 connectors. If you only have stereo speakers, just set the correct speaker configuration in the OS. Either the OS or VLC will automatically downmix to stereo.

[rafaelguedes]

Most PC audio chips support 5.1 or 7.1 internally. Also many desktop motherboards provide 5.1 or 7.1 connectors. If you only have stereo speakers, just set the correct speaker configuration in the OS. Either the OS or VLC will automatically downmix to stereo.

Got it! Thanks for your reply!
I checked my system and it seems to be correctly set. Is there anywhere else I should check the settings?

[golemka]

It won't be fixed before 2.2.0

And it is still not fixed. Back to 2.0.8

[Jeronimo17]

I also have the same problem.

2.0.8 The audio is perfect in 5.1 and 2.0
VLC 2.0.8


From 2.2.1 to 2.0.9 audio is crap, the 5.1 sounds very wrong in a USB 5.1 card, stereo out noisy and unable to choose the mode 5.1.

Also it happens in other PC with internal sound card 5.1
VLC 2.2.1

[Mindfart]

Does anyone know of a good alternative to VLC that does allow 5.1 playback like VLC 2.0.8 does? I'm getting sick of this.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC is a good VLC alternative that supports 5.1.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I also have the same problem.

2.0.8 The audio is perfect in 5.1 and 2.0
VLC 2.0.8


From 2.2.1 to 2.0.9 audio is crap, the 5.1 sounds very wrong in a USB 5.1 card, stereo out noisy and unable to choose the mode 5.1.

Also it happens in other PC with internal sound card 5.1
VLC 2.2.1

Of course, this is difference between audio-channel and audio-devices.

You can set both to 5.1

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Does anyone know of a good alternative to VLC that does allow 5.1 playback like VLC 2.0.8 does? I'm getting sick of this.

VLC 2.2.1 allows 5.1 playback.

[Jeronimo17]

On older systems seems that new versions to version 2.0.8 do not properly audio

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

That is a rather vague and unsubstantiated comment...

[phil411]

I believe I'm running into issues related to this change as well: I'm running a Linux system and my hardware has 5.1 support and VLC audio is configured to use jackd.

Scenario 1: Everything was working as expected until I had to switch from digital 5.1 to a basic analog stereo setup (hardware change and jackd configuration change as well). However, now when I am watching either OTA or DVD video that is encoded using 5.1 I am usually losing most of the audio track (i.e. the main voice tracks... I can hear sound effects and background music just fine) unless I manually have jack patch channels 3 & 5 to 1 and 4 & 6 to 2 (there doesn't appear to be a way to save this setting as VLC registers with jack using a continually changing suffix... which is fine as I often have multiple VLC instances running so registering with jackd using a static 'name' wouldn't work for me) This is quite tedious.

Scenario 2: I too often have audio (podcasts, internet streams) where it appears not to be correctly encoded (i.e. it is supposedly a stereo file/stream but there is only audio on one channel... likely bad encoding by the originator)

When I had run into either of these situations before I would have VLC force the audio to stereo or mono as needed. I am also requesting that a future version of VLC provide some mechanism to quickly force stereo/mono. I'm in agreement with what others have requested and am not looking for VLC to revert and lose the other improvements that have been made. It doesn't need to be at the same location or called the same option it was before in the UI, just please recognize that there are a number of scenarios where a quick mechanism to force stereo/mono for various hardware and content situations was used quite a bit by some of us and the loss of this capability really limits the usefulness of VLC.

[rocky]

To force channels to the 'left' in vlc 2.2.0.
One channel cannot be output to multiple though.
5.1 / Stereo to mono in one speaker.

tools > preferences > show all (at bottom) > audio > filters > remap > everything in the box to the 'left'

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

This is not a regression. "Left" and "Right" settings in the GUI never worked for non-stereo audio tracks.

[misirlou]

How´s the changes in Version 2.2.2?
Is it still not possible the manually change to 5.1 audio?

[Excalibur]

When will changing to 5.1 audio be back? I have virtual 7.1surround option on my sound card that does very good job throughout Headphones. This option was very good and seriously I do not know whos idea was to remove it, but that was really stupid.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

What do you want to change to 5.1 from? VLC has never had the ability to upmix, so change to 5.1 is only possible from 7.1. And if your card supports 7.1 well, as you claim, then there are no reasons to change from 7.1 to anything.

[Excalibur]

It's noy that. And it's not upmixing.
This is how sound card works when enabling Virtual 7.1 thru Headphones.
If a game or video output is set to 5.1 and I'm hearing it thru headphones, audio card is able to detect 5.1 or even 7.1 then process it as virtual 7.1 (phase switch as I remember) and then output it to headphones. This is really done great on X-Fi and even Asus Strix Soar. Or any card that is able to do it

[Excalibur]

Also, I forgot to add, there are virtual surround headphones that have ability to mimic surround.

I do not know why this option is removed, it doesn't harm. Also, that VLC version also senses which speaker setup is by default in Windows. But, you also have ability to change output in VLC.

[tremor16]

Just dropping a note to say this problem still exists for me. I've been pulling my hair out for months with mkv videos in VLC when sometimes the voice audio does not play on certain video files. I'm outputting from my Mac Pro via HDMI to a stereo speaker setup on my tv and have never found a solution but now understand it to likely be problems with 5.1 audio not being properly downmixed to 2.1 audio and the voice audio track being lost in the background. After searching and finding threads recommending to downgrade to 2.0.8 I did, and it fixed the problem.

I see there are many arguments about what is 'right' between developers and users, but in my use case the latest version doesn't work as intended and 2.08 did work as intended. I'll be staying with 2.0.8 until it's fixed.