Games & gear forum: PS3 audio problems (muffled center channel/dialogue)

The PS3 sound settings are linear PCM and I checked all the boxes in the
optical output screen to enable various audio output formats (Dolby
Digital 5.1, DTS, etc.). Now when I am in the initial PS3 screen showing
all the games on my hard drive, there is sound. However, when I
actually play the games there would be no sound. Things get weirder when I play DVD.

That sounds normal. Generally speaking, TVs do not have a Dolby Digital or DTS decoder chip in them, so they would not be able to process those audio formats. When you tick off those boxes, it tells the PS3 to send the raw surround sound data, and to assume that you have some device on the other end with a decoder chip for that format.

You want to disable everything except stereo, unless you know for a fact that yours is a TV set that has a built in surround receiver which I think has been demonstrably shown not to be the case, so that way the PS3 will decode and collapse the surround sound data into two channels. If and when you get a surround receiver and 5.1/7.1 speakers, then you can enable Dolby 5.1 and DTS audio options. However, until that time, enabling them is only going to lead to problems. Disable all audio formats EXCEPT stereo, because all your TV supports is stereo and mono.

Thanks for the informative response. Actually, I've attempted this with no improvements. As of now, all I have selected are 2 channel sound options configured "manually" under sound settings on the PS3. TV sounds fine with my Comcast Cable. It's only when using the PS3 for EITHER DVD's and Blurays does sound become a serious dissapointment, which leads me to believe there is a setting I am missing. Just sounds "muffled" and soft dialogue is REALLY hard to hear. There HAS to be. There's no way two different PS3's hooked up in the exact manner to two different TV's that would exhibit the exact same problem. Thus, I've concluded that there is a setting I'm missing in BOTH of the PS3's that I've simply overlooked.

Or, it's just poor audio mixing in the games. Also, a lot of times with movie DVDs/BDs, you can select the audio track, so make sure you're not selecting some surround sound format. The PS3 is perfectly capable of using such formats, it's just a matter of whether or not your TVs are without the help of a receiver or something to decode the signal.

Also, linear PCM isn't really going to help either. That just sends an uncompressed audio signal directly to each speaker, but you can do surround sound with that just as easily as any other format. You want to find something specifically marked stereo or 2ch/2 channel. I haven't tinkered with the audio settings on my PS3 in ages, so can't say where exactly to look, but you sound capable enough to be able to manage this on your own.

I had the same problem, sound ok but no spoken word. Chose sound > multiple audio out > on on my ps3 and this seemed to help. I know have my spoken word back.