Using multichannel audio

Multichannel audio is an audio reproduction system that processes several channels of sound (typically more than two). For example, 5.1 multichannel audio is a surround sound system in which there are five primary channels (a center channel, a front-right channel, a front-left channel, a rear-right channel, and a rear-left channel), plus a subwoofer channel. This is how many "home theater" surround sound systems are configured.

Windows Media Player supports playback of multichannel audio in DVDs and in files that have been encoded by using the Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless or Windows Media Audio 9 Professional codecs.

If you have a sound card and speakers that support multichannel audio, you must configure Windows Media Player to use this hardware when playing multichannel Windows Media files and multichannel DVDs.

This section covers:

• To configure the Player to play multichannel Windows Media files
• To configure the Player to play multichannel DVDs

Notes

• You must have an appropriate decoder, such as a Dolby Digital decoder, installed to play back DVD multichannel audio.
• To play back multichannel audio, you must have a sound card and speakers that support multichannel audio.
• Multichannel audio is only available on select versions of Windows. For more information, see Special features.

Related topics

• Changing your audio and video settings
• Speaker Properties dialog box