5.1 audio changes after update 2.1.1

[misirlou]

Hi

I just updated to 2.1.1 and noticed some changes in audio etc
How can I set the sound to 5.1?

I get this now instead of being able to select 5.1 or stereo ...
(it's in dutch but you'll get it)

[misirlou]

The play button on my remote only got the pause function now since the update.

[misirlou]

It used to be something like this on previous versions.

[JSLover]

There are many posts on the forum about this issue, see my reply here...

• Re: TO VLC TEAM NEW 2.1.0 WONT LET ME PLAY 5.1 OR STEREO WHY

...the sad truth is: They removed that menu (or should I say "they re-purposed the name Audio Device to mean something else than what it meant before"...don't get me wrong: the new meaning is better, but the old menu items need to make a comeback, somewhere else)...& they can't understand why that upsets us -- they didn't even understand the problem for the 1st 10+ posts -- I'm still not even sure the Devs understand the problem: we need/want those menu items!

I hope they will bring those menu items back (in a new menu). We should be able to select the options that were on the previous "Audio Device" menu. Make a new menu, call it "Audio Output Mode" or whatever. We should be able to force 5.1/Mono/etc in VLC without changing it in the OS. Why should we be able to? -- cuz it was a feature that was already written/implemented & worked fine!

[misirlou]

Well that blows big time.
What is the latest version that enables 5.1?

[misirlou]

So I dumped 2.1.1 and returned to 2.0.8

[hijack3rr]

Omg I can't believe that the old version was better. I'm very angry.
Since I've installed this one I have problems. No 5.1 audio through AMD HDMI output.
I've tried almost everything , nothing worked! plzzzz fix thisssss

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

'm still not even sure the Devs understand the problem: we need/want those menu items!

But WHY?

So far, you have not explained why.

If your device has 5.1 speakers, it is automatically using 5.1 on 5.1 audio tracks and stereo on stereo track.
If your device has stereo speakers, it will automatically downmix from 5.1 to 2.0 on 5.1 audio tracks.
If your device speakers are misdetected on Windows, you can force them in preferences.
So what is your usecase?

The HDMI or SPDIF is a bug, that has nothing to do with the rest.

The only usecase I can think of is if you want to force downmixing because your Windows configuration is mis-detected when you plug/unplug devices.

[JSLover]

But WHY?

So far, you have not explained why.

...actually, I think my posts on this subject have been very clear (I could try to go dig up some of my quotes, but instead, if I really haven't explained it, I'll just explain it here): those menu items used to exist (actually, they still exist for me, since I haven't updated!) (no, this isn't the "why", keep reading).

It's GREAT if everything auto-detects & "does the right thing", that's fine, actually, that's AWESOME! I just want those menu items back, so I can "force" it, if I want/need to (reason {the "why"} coming soo).

• Why can we force the Aspect Ratio or Crop?: because some videos are encoded badly (they "claim" to be 16:9, when they are really 4:3, so you use AR/Crop to temporarily "fix" the video, so you can watch it).
• Why would I wanna force 5.1/2f2r/Stereo/Mono, cuz some videos have badly encoded/mixed audio.

I have to admit: I have no use for the 5.1/2f2r options, since I don't have a 5.1 speaker setup (but it is nice to have the options & see what they do). However, I do need to be able to force Mono (down from Stereo or from 5.1)...not because I like listening to Mono audio, but for the example case of a badly done video (the audio portion of the video).

So what is your usecase?

...let's say a video "claims" to be "Stereo", so VLC treats it as Stereo, but the dumb person that made the video put ALL of the audio on the Left (or Right) channel. I need to be able to force Mono...just temporarily (for 1 video, not by changing the OS or setting a permanent VLC pref), so I can make it thru that 1 video. I cannot listen to a video with audio in my left ear & nothing in my right ear, it's disorienting & annoying, so I use VLC to "fix that".

That is why we need those menu items (at least Mono, but why not bring them all back?): to overcome really badly done videos. Not because VLC can't "do the right thing" & detect the speaker setup & audio track format, not because the "Windows configuration is mis-detected". We need those menu items for the simple fact: videos can lie about what they really are. They can say they are 16:9, when they are not...they can say they are Stereo, when they are not (technically they "are" Stereo, but with all the audio on one side).

We just need the "manual override" back.

The HDMI or SPDIF is a bug, that has nothing to do with the rest.

...I agree: it's not related at all. I have seen that "SPDIF issue" mixed in with some of these 5.1 topics & I too was confused: how does an SPDIF bug relate to these missing menu items?...it doesn't. Which is why I never addressed/mentioned the SPDIF bug. I'm only focused on the "missing menu items".

[arnoschaefer]

But WHY?

So far, you have not explained why.

Ok, here's my use case: I have surround speakers with a stereo jack for headphones on the surround system's control box. When I plug in the headphones, the surround speakers switch off. To VLC the output device is still the surround system with 5.1 channels, but I can only hear the two stereo channels in the headphones. In VLC 2.0.8 I then switched to stereo mode and everything was fine. That is no longer possible, so I will have to go back to the previous version for now. It would be great if you could bring that feature back, there really are legitimate uses for it.

Best Regards,

Arno

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

But WHY?

So far, you have not explained why.

Ok, here's my use case: I have surround speakers with a stereo jack for headphones on the surround system's control box. When I plug in the headphones, the surround speakers switch off. To VLC the output device is still the surround system with 5.1 channels, but I can only hear the two stereo channels in the headphones. In VLC 2.0.8 I then switched to stereo mode and everything was fine. That is no longer possible, so I will have to go back to the previous version for now. It would be great if you could bring that feature back, there really are legitimate uses for it.

That is a valid usecase, yes. Unlike most of the rest of the comments. We'll see what we can do.

[roscoboxer]

awww man ... I just updated and couldnt figure out where the 5.1 went ...now i find out its been removed. Thats one of the MAIN reasons i use VLC !!
On my soundcard setup, this setting is the ONLY way for me to get decent audio from movies/videos that use 5.1 ...it will not work automatically...it has to be forced, at least on my system. GOM player wont do it, windows media player wont do it. its VLC or nothing.
and now, that feature has been removed??

i will have to re-install the old version.
(dont get me wrong...i still do very appreciate the work, skill, and talent thats gone into VLC, regardless of this)

[rocketskunk]

The loss of this is huge for my set up please can you reinstate the ability to force it. I no longer have DTS/5.1.......I have loved VLC for many years but this is a major problem. I have gone back to 2.0.8.

Appreciate all the work you guys do.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

awww man ... I just updated and couldnt figure out where the 5.1 went ...now i find out its been removed. Thats one of the MAIN reasons i use VLC !!
On my soundcard setup, this setting is the ONLY way for me to get decent audio from movies/videos that use 5.1 ...it will not work automatically...it has to be forced, at least on my system. GOM player wont do it, windows media player wont do it. its VLC or nothing.
and now, that feature has been removed??

i will have to re-install the old version.
(dont get me wrong...i still do very appreciate the work, skill, and talent thats gone into VLC, regardless of this)

Tell us more what is your usecase.

[SamuelBTL]

Tell us more what is your usecase.

I have the same use case as Arno. I have a set of 5.1 speakers that work great with the latest version. However, when I connect headphones to the built-in headphone jack on the control unit, there doesn't seem to be a way to force stereo 2.0 sound. This results in output of the front L and front R channels to the headphones. As a result, since there is no center channel, no voices are heard. Not to mention the sounds that would be coming from the left and right surrounds. I would recommend restoring the option to manually force the toggling of the audio between Mono/Stereo/5.1 (even if auto detection was the default).

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I was asking roscoboxer, tbh, because he seems to have a different usecase.

[voicufcristian]

Hi Jean-Baptiste Kempf, I have the same headphone problem as Arno and SamuleBTL please consider adding that option back. Thank you.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Please avoid saying +1. This does not help. I need OTHER use cases.

[golemka]

It used to be something like this on previous versions.

there was a new update

my question is :
is this issue still up and i should keep the 208 version or they have fixed it in 212?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It won't be fixed before 2.2.0

[golemka]

It won't be fixed before 2.2.0

okay ,thanks

[drewster]

JSLover, thank you for the best summary and explanation I've seen in the many threads that are addressing this issue! I've reverted to 2.0.8 and will check in again after 2.2.x.

Kind regards.

Edit: I also really missed right-click access to cropping and resizing, as well as audio settings (e.g. mono). I'm loving having my 2.0.8 back

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Sorry but I have so far seen mostly three "cases" for the old menu:

1) Enabling S/PDIF pass-through (or HDMI pass-through).
The S/PDIF checkbox in the preferences was indeed broken in VLC version 2.1.0 on Windows, but it has already been fixed in newer releases. Just enable the S/PDIF checkbox in the preferences.

2) Specifying different channel mappings for different output devices.
This is actually much better solved now that VLC can change physical devices easily. Just make sure your channel mappings are configured correctly at the operating system level, as VLC will probably never support per-device overrides. At least Windows and Linux (with PulseAudio) support that just fine.

3) Working around broken system settings.
This is a rather silly use case, since the system settings should be fixed. Monopolizing the Audio device menu for this was just poor design in that respect. But you work around them in the VLC preferences for your audio output plugin as before anyway.

4) Forced downmixing for poorly mixed audio tracks.
This is a corner case. You can work around it in several different ways, with OS settings, VLC settings, VLC audio filters, and often simply by selecting a downmixed track in the source media. This use case is not much less relevant than selecting the output device is. Nowadays, multiple output devices is the norm, not the exception (HDMI, BlueTooth, USB, S/PDIF...). So the repurposing of the Audio device will not be reverted.

Proper surround downmixing by the Audio channels (a.k.a. Stereo mode) menu was never supported in VLC. If you care, please post a patch and it should get into VLC 2.3.0.

[TheDrummer]

OK. I've tried 2.2.0 nighly - it is not fixed yet:

I've noticed major issues with 10.8.5.
My Audio Monitors are set up for ITU 775 in 5.1 Surround.
So is OSX's Audio Midi Setup for the MOTU 896 mk3 Audio Interface.
Quicktimeplayer 7.6.6 plays right.
Quick Time Player 10.2 confused channels of the 5.1 Output as well (2+3).

But VLC 2.1.2 is worse!
Not a single channel is right!
For L C R LFE Rl Rr the channels should be 1 3 2 4 5 6.
IF VLC would do that again, it'll be fixed for good.

I've tried VLC 2.0.5 - it works fine in Surround - with the same setup of course!

So please fix this - you got enough hints now

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

TheDrummer, if anything, you are making things worse by mixing up different issues and thus confusing the thread.