No DVD audio from front speakers (5.1 surround)

[Borzoi]

I currently have a problem where DVD's will not output any audio to the front speakers of my 5.1 surround sound unless something else is also sending audio there. For example, I watch a scene with lots of dialogue but I only have the background audio. If I open up my audio test at during this time and click on a front speaker to test, the test audio plays and I can also hear the audio from the DVD which should be coming from the front speakers (the speech).

This problem happens in every DVD playing software used. I have gone through all the audio settings in the various programs but nothing changes. Because this happens in every DVD playing software, I figure this must be something outside of the software. I have tried updating audio codecs and also changing settings for the DVD drive (disabling digital audio) but this doesn't help.

I use VLC media player but I have also tried Windows Media Player and Easy DVD player (somthing I found on Download.com).

In VLC, I have tried every 5.1 audio setting but to no avail. If I set it to Stereo, Mono or even 2 Front 2 Back I get all audio, just not correctly.

One other thing I have noticed is that in VLC (and Easy DVD), I could only select 5.1 surround if I had "Force detection of Dolby Surround" to "Yes" or "True" in the settings which suggests that for some reason, the software cannot automatically detect the surround sound.

I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[reedone816]

yes i also have the same experience with you, but having no energy to tinker, i just add a stereo/mono speaker (US$8) to the motherboard audio jack (mine is onboard realtek 7.1), there using the realtek software (you'll find the speaker icon in the lower left), i reconfigure it as front speaker/subwoofer). so whenever i can't hear the dialogue, i just increase the stereo speaker volume.
and this is not just happened in xp, in 7 also.
and the video software i use are power dvd and vlc.