Whenever I try to play a video file with 5.1 sound – currently I’m testing using an AAC 48kHz 5.1 encoded stream in a matroska container, but I have the issue with other codecs as well and I’m guessing it applies to all 5.1 streams – it plays the rear channels through my 2.0 (laptop) speakers. I hear no dialogue. This happens in both vlc and mpc-hc, so I definitely think win10 is the culprit.
Going into the sound control panel > selecting the speaker audio device > opening speaker properties > spatial sound (or sometimes it is the advanced tab), and clicking “restore defaults” will solve the problem temporarily, but something resets the issue at regular intervals.
I’ve tried to figure out what causes the problem without success. The following is a list of stuff that doesn’t cause the issue:
- Putting the computer into sleep mode.
- Restarting the computer
- Muting the audio device.
- Playing other 5.1 audio streams
- playing 2.0 audio streams
- Using remote desktop to connect to another computer and using the audio device.
- Connecting a portable bluetooth speaker
- Using the laptop headphone jack.
Can anyone help me find a way to solve this that doesnt include me opening the sound properties every day? Any hints on what is causing the problem to reappear is also welcome.
