Have just purchased a new SVOA desktop (code PDC2.0G/AVW-ITC3/3Y) called ADVENT White (everything is white colour):

Pentium Dual CPU E2180 2.0GHz

2Gb RAM

250Gb SATA HDD 7200 RPM

22" wide LCD

DVD-RW

256Mb Graphics card

D-Link wireless card

inbuilt Ethernet LAN, modem, etc.

3 year warranty

Cost 24,990Bt at Data IT with a free web cam bonus. Seems like a nice unit, faster than my IBM laptop but maybe not so robust.

However, when playing movies the full sound is missing. For example, the music and effects are normal volume but the vocals are very low volume.

Is this because there is an audio channel missing ? How do I check and if so, how to fix ? Do I need a better Driver ? The hardware specified is ATAPI DVD A DH18A3P.

Sounds to me like you have it setup for 5.1 sound but only outputting the front left and front rights.. That way you get 'some' sounds but not the dialogue and surround channels..

Look into the player for 'downmix' settings and in control panel -> sounds to set up speaker config.

Thanks. Found the config setting in sound properties. Tried every setting and still the same. Guess it's back to the shop for some tech support.