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  1. I have an issue with sound balance - the sound can appear louder from either the left or right. This happens even when playing directly from the DVD, but is more obvious when I use headphones.

    At first I thought it might be Handbrake and I tried different audio codecs - when a few experiments failed, that was when I decided to check the DVDs and find the problem actually exists on the original too.

    I've tried different video players - VLC, Media Player Classic, Windows Media Player. But they all give exactly the same result.

    I have to stress that the problem does not exist in all my DVDs. I've noticed that it occurs more in more recently titles.

    Is there anyway I can sort out this issue automatically with software? If it means I have to re-encode the affected titles, then that's fine. As long as the channels are balanced when they should be. Handbrake doesn't offer much in the way of options.
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  2. I think you should try listening to the audio with a player that's not your PC to see if the problem goes away. It seems quite unusual. I doubt it's the audio itself, but some sort of decoding, playback issue.

    Have a look at your sound card settings in control panel, or wherever it's hidden these days, and make sure there's no effects enabled. Also, check that it's correctly set for the number of speakers you have (stereo, surround etc) and that the outputs are plugged in correctly, assuming you're using the analogue outputs. The green output on the back of the PC is generally the one to use for stereo speakers.
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  3. This is the thing - the problem was actually noticed wearing bluetooth headphones and was very obvious. When encoding I pay more attention to the visual output, however the audio output is on a Creative soundcard. Only when I noticed the imbalance on my headhpones was when I decided to check if the problem existed with my normal soundcard - and it does.

    I even played the original DVD to see if the problem was to do with the encoding. However the problem exists on the DVD also, and has carried through into my encoded files.

    I will try reinstalling Windows, as I do have the K-Lite codec pack installed. I wonder if this has something to do with my problem.
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  4. Member netmask56's Avatar
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    Have you played the DVD on a standalone player simply connected to a hifi unit. ie no PC involved?
    SONY 75" Full array 200Hz LED TV, Yamaha A1070 amp, Zidoo UHD3000, BeyonWiz PVR V2 (Enigma2 clone), Chromecast, Windows 11 Professional, QNAP NAS TS851
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  5. Professionally produced DVD shouldn't have sound problems like you describe. So the problem is most likely in your computer setup. Given it's happening with several different media player the problem is probably an automatic gain control (night mode?), or bad down-mixing, in the audio drivers.
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