ac3 to DVD results in low volume?

[takearushfan]

Hi,
I used Audition to create a psuedo-5.1 mix in stereo that sounded really great. I then used DVD Lab to mux the audio and video into a DVD for testing. When I tested it out on WinDVD, I made sure to specify that I was using a stereo mix and to use Dolby Virtual sound for playback. This does work, however I have to crank my speakers nearly as loud as they can go in order to hear anything. It's nice to know that the results sounded good otherwise. But does anyone know why the volume came out so low? I'd rather not have to turn my speakers up a ridiculous amount in order to hear anything :/
- Justin

[guns1inger]

AC3 has a wide dynamic range. That is, quiet is very quiet, loud is therefore, loud. How you mixed it, how much range you gave it, and what settings you used when encoding it determine what you finally get. However there should be no difference between the AC3 file that you produces, and the DVD. Authoring should not alter the playback. What may alter are the tools you use to play it back, which could in turn affect how loud you percieve it.

[tarrickb]

In the encoding options, set "dialogue normalization) to -31db and disable any dynamic compression.
Look at the following for more details:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=296900&highlight=