Vista - Media Center works great, but sound is usually LOW!?

Hi all...have you guys experienced this? Even when turned all the way up, the video playback is great, but the audio is simply too low. Virtually every time. I installed some x64 codecs, but to no avail.

The same happens on my 2nd T60p which runs Vista Ultimate 32-bit. I use the VideoLAN player, which plays back almost anything, and I also am the proud owner of a license for PowerDVD Ultra, Deluxe version. No audio problems there. I have installed Service Pack 1 on both Ultimate x64, as well as x86, and the issue is the exactly the same.

Am I overlooking a small thing, such as not putting a checkmark in the right place? Is there some other kind of workaround?

Thanks all!

I know this is prolly a dumb question but have you gone into control panel and made sure your speaker setup is correct (5.1 or 7.1 etc) and checked the volume levels? I know it sounds silly but I've seen it happen a hundred times.

This may also seem like a dumb question, but are you watching HD videos? Because HD is broadcast/Encoded in 5.1 by default, so if you're like me and watching HD programming in stereo, you'll have to crank your speakers almost all the way up.

From what I understand, a lot of HD content has audio with a much wider volume range/spectrum/whatever...

I have this problem all the time when I switch from my analog cable channesl to ATSC HD OTA channels... annoying, but not much we can do about it I guess.

Some a/v recievers have "night modes" or similar, that condense the volume range so you don't have to constantly turn the volume up and down... I hate that...

Well, I hate to dispel the suggestions, but I run my sound through my AV receiver, using my home made Dolby Surround Sound with main, rear and center speakers, and I have a Hauppage TV Tuner and am still on analog cable - but whenever I run MCE in Vista (both 32bit before and 64 bit now) the volume from *anything* in MCE is lower than standard windows - and I have even checked the mixed when MCE is running -0 it is at 100%, my overall volume it as 100%, but whereas normally I run my receiver at about 5-7% (at 25% it is almost deafening - great for metal, but not so good when Vista pops up a critical error at 2 AM when you're doing homework and ppl are sleeping) but whenever I turn on MCE I have to push the volume on the receiver up past 12-13% - effectively doubling the volume.

Also, that gets annoying if windows decides to beep at me while I am watching something (like the Boston Celtics' spectacular win Tuesday night). I usually run MCE on one monitor and read forums and such on the other, but every now and again I'll miss a click or something - usually trying to click on one monitor while looking at the other....and the sound are *extremely* loud compared to the cable signal volume. and yes, MCE is maxed at 50.