Strange sound problem during .mkv playback

[choracy]

Hi, I am facing a strange problem with a .mkv file. It's a documentary about Italy.

The file plays perfectly on my Vista notebook using Windows Media player v11.0.6, after installing ffdshow.

I copied the file on my home PC (Vista Premium), installed latest Codecs (full pack) and ffdshow but although the background music is reproduced fine, film's narration cannot be heard. I assume that speech is recorded separately than the music but I could not find any setting that makes the film play correctly.

Any ideas?

[Baldrick]

You probably just have to set the output to stereo(it's now outputed as 5.1 audio). Check your windows audio settings and in ffdshow audio decoder settings(from the start menu) under Mixer set it to stereo.

Or if that wont try ac3 filter as audio decoder or just try play with vlc or smplayer or kmplayer.

[choracy]

Setting mixer to Stereo in ffdshow did it!

My windows sound settings are 5.1 and I have 5.1 speakers only the two rear are permanently disconnected. I didn't bother to check if the center one is accidentally disconnected. I guess if I had all my speakers on I would hear the narration right??

Anyway, MANY,MANY thanks. It was driving me crazy!!

[redwudz]

With most commercial DVDs, the center channel carries the voices or narrations. The rear channels are just fill in for background. The two front channels usually carry the music. And the sub is the very low frequencies.

[Shashank12345]

I am facing a similar problem. I used VLC to play the mkv file. the background music is , but the film's narration cannot be heard. But I could not find any setting that makes the film play correctly.

Please reply ?