Member Avatar for culandun

Media Center has suddenly decided to stop playing the soundtrack for DVDs. It's fine for TV and recorded TV, it's OK for music, but Terminator 2 is just not the same without soundtrack. Can anybody give me some hope here?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Suspishio

Dani AI

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For — and following 's hint about codecs — the problem is usually one of two things: Media Center is sending the DVD audio to the wrong output or the DirectShow/decoder chain that handles DVD audio (AC3/DTS) is missing or broken. The checklist below is ordered from quickest checks to deeper fixes.

  1. Quick isolation
    • Try the same disc in VLC or Windows Media Player (VLC has built-in decoders). If VLC plays sound, the system audio and drivers are fine and the issue is a Media Center/DirectShow decoder.
  2. Output and mixer checks
    • Right-click the speaker icon -> Open Volume Mixer and confirm Media Center is not muted.
    • Right-click speaker icon -> Playback devices -> ensure the correct output is Default, click Configure -> Test. Temporarily set to Stereo to see if the soundtrack appears. If using S/PDIF or HDMI to an AVR, try local speakers/headphones to rule out passthrough conflicts.
  3. Driver and service checks
    • Device Manager -> Sound, video and game controllers -> update/roll back/uninstall the audio driver and reinstall the vendor driver. Verify the Windows Audio service is running.
  4. Codec/decoder checks (if other players fail or VLC works)
    • Remove recently added codec packs or filters that might have overwritten the DVD audio decoder. Consider using a trusted AC3/DTS filter (or let VLC play DVDs if preferred). If a recent WMP/codec change preceded the fault, a System Restore to a point before the change can confirm that.
  5. Advanced diagnostics
    • Run dxdiag and save the report, or inspect the DirectShow graph with GraphEdit if available, to see which filters are used.

Caution: create a restore point before changing drivers or installing codec packs and avoid unknown codec bundles. If the above does not reveal the cause, collecting the audio device model, whether output is HDMI/SPDIF or analog, and the exact symptom (no audio at all vs missing channels) will guide deeper troubleshooting.

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Member Avatar for Suspishio

Can we be clear:

1/
The terminator 2 sound track played OK on the same system just recently?

2/
The DVD movie is the same region designation as that in your DVD player?

3/
The DVD movie is an original, not one copied by DVD-Cloner (which has audio issues)?

Member Avatar for culandun

Yes to all.

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