OK, I'll try to keep this as simple as possible. I have a large VCD collection that I've "ripped" to mpeg format. By "ripped" all I mean is that I copied the .dat files to my harddrive and renamed them with a .mpg extension. I did this so that I can put a bunch of them on a DVD and play them on my Philips 642. Problem is practically all my VCDs are dual channel (meaning that they have 1 audio stream recorded on the left channel and another different audio stream encoded on the right). Not suprisingly, both audio channels will play when I pop my disc into the Philips player. My question is, does anybody know how to select one channel (left or right) to play on both speakers? I thought it'd be similar to playing a regular VCD (you'd just press the Audio button on your remote to select the appropriate channel) but I tried pressing the audio button and all I seem able to get is sound on the c0 channel. Messing with the audio settings on the system menu haven't yield any good results neither.
Well as of this moment I've given up trying to do this. The only methods that I've been able to get this to work on is by a) connecting the dvd player to a receiver and adjusting the balance to either the left or right channel from there, or b) physically connecting only one of the audio cables to your speakers, receiver, or tv. Neither of those options seem suitable for me. When I try a), my receiver will not play sound in either the left or right speaker (I wanted one channel to play in both speakers). Option b) seems cumbersome especially if you need to quickly switch between channels or if you pop in a disc where both channels can play simultaneously. Anyway I'll be returning my Philips 642 now since I've also discovered that it seems to have problems playing some of my older VCDs (even though my Panasonic has no problem reading those discs!). If anybody has a good recommendation for a DVD player that plays raw MPEGs & VCDs especially well I'd love to hear about it. I don't particularly care about DivX support as most of my files are not encoded as such. Thanks folks, I'm off to shop for a new DVD player now .
