5.1 audio playback on stereo speakers question.

[firefoxsilver9]

when you playback or convert 5.1 audio on/to a 2 speaker setup does the downmixing take the audio data from the 6 channels and stuffs it into a stereo stream or does it just reads the left and right streams and leaves out the other audio data from the remaining channels?

[guns1inger]

It depends how you have it wired up. If it thinks it has 6 speakers but you have only wired in two, you will just get those two speakers. If it knows it is downmixing, then it uses all of channels. If it didn't it would lose sounds that only appeared in certain channels.

[firefoxsilver9]

is there a way to downmix a 5.1 audio file to stereo while keeping all the audio data from all 6 channels?

[guns1inger]

Look under Audio Encoders in the tools section and you will find quite a few. Look for one that provides some level of normalisation or level control, as doing a straight conversion can leave you with low dialogue levels.