EDIT: Sorry for the long post, but at this point I think I solved the issue, but would really appreciate it if someone could read to end and just confirm my conclusion.
I own the US bluray set of Starwars 1-3, including the Phantom menace. With Phantom Menace, I'm having trouble with the audio when ripping with MakeMKV and then playing with VLC. I've ripped most of my collection of blurays, but I'm still relatively new to it and may be missing something obvious.
With Phantom Menance, MakeMKV shows 9 titles all with 50 chapters and all with 40.4GB. The only difference is the Angle, which corresponds, 1-9. By default, MakeMKV checks the boxes for the first two angles only
Just doing a test with "angle 1" I included all the english tracks. VLC defaults to the first track, "DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English". I've ripped several blurays with this sort of track and it always works fine even though I'm currently running only two speakers in stereo.
Anyway, there's sound, but it's all sort of background or special effects/music, but the voices sound like they are off in the distance. This happens no matter what audio track I select. The exception is track 3, which I think is DD Surround 5.1 English, where the voices are normal, but there's also visually impaired voice over. The last two tracks,
DD Stereo English"
Taking "angle 1" the first title... I included all the english tracks. So, (1)DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English, and indented below "DTS Surround 5.1" english. Then below that "DD Surround 5.1 English" After that two entries for DD Stereo English are commentary tracks.
Anyway, under VLC, under audio pull down, you can select from "stereo mode". So far as I've noticed on this and other rips, it always defaults to "original." With the first two tracks (DTS-HD MA Surround 6.1 English, and indented below "DTS Surround 5.1" English), if I set "stereo mode" to "Stereo" instead of "original" I get good sound, including voices.
I tried to use MKVToolNix to adjust "stereo mode" to default to "stereo" instead of "original" but couldn't get it right. I could keep playing with that, but I'm not even sure I'm using the right video title. Also, I'd like to be able to play Phatom Menance on at least a 3.1 system. Will I have lost that function if I play on VLC "Stereo mode" instead of "Original"? Again, I've never had this problem with other rips. 6.1/7.1, etc always sounds normal on a 2 speaker setup.
Or am I just using the wrong title, in which case anyone have a suggestion of what to use given there are NINE of them?
Sorry, I'm still a noob at this and I think I'm missing something obvious. Help appreciated.
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EDIT: Okay, I'm back. Going back before I rip using MakeMKV where the titles are listed, under properties, I see I can switch from Default to AAC-Stereo. This provides extra selections under the audio title which I understand to be MakeMKV's option to downmix from the 6.1 or 5.1 surround.
I tried another rip with the AAC-Stereo choices enabled then opened the file in VLC. Again, just running on my two speaker setup, but now a new audio track option appeared "Stereo [English]" which I assume is the downmixed created from the 6.1 surround.
When, via VLC, I switch to this audio track the sound is good. Again, using VLC... It seems like this is the same as NOT ripping with AAC-Stereo" via MakeMKV, but then choosing "6.1 surround" for audio track, but then also choosing "stereo" (instead of Original) from VLC's "Stereo Mode."
Can anyone confirm this is true? What I think is happening is that although MakeMKV did not downmix, by selecting "stereo" instead of "original" form the VLC "Stereo mode" menu, it's VLC that sort of does the downmxing. Is this assumption right?
Anyway, I can make this work. For the RIp where MakeMKV added the AAC-Stereo track, I used MKVToolmix to go back in and set the MakeMKV created downmix (Stereo [English]) as default.
However, I assume that when I do run this video on a 3.1 or higher system that I'll really just be running in 2 speaker Stereo mode? Given I've changed the default, I'd have to manually switch back to the 6.1 or 5.1 audio track, right?
On every other bluray I ripped, this wasn't necessary. I could just let it default to 5.1 (6.1, 7.1 etc) but it would auto detect or auto downmix when I ran the video on a 2 stereo system. Is there anyway to make Phantom Menace do this so that detection is automatic and I don't have manually adjust for different speaker setups?