Is there any way to play AC-3 on a PC without DRC?

[deleted user]

I'm a bit confused.

If you use MPC-HC, then why don't you just turn off the DRC there?
The default internal AC3 filter is LAV.  While playing your video, select the Play menu, filters, LAV Audio Decoder (internal).
Then on the first tab, the top option is Dynamic Range Compression.  Uncheck it.

Similarly in VLC go to Tools/Preferences.  At the bottom for 'Show Settings' select the 'All' button.
Then go to Audio/Filters and makes sure Dynamic Range Compressor is unchecked.

I wouldn't worry about dialog normalization, just turn up the volume.  It was one of those good ideas that never did what it was supposed to.

I did turn it off. To be fair, in MPC-HC neither of the tracks sound good, so it may not necessarily be an AC-3 exclusive problem.

In VLC I did turn it off, but it had no effect, as you can see in the screenshot. No Audio filter is selected in VLC, at all. And in the A/52 settings DRC is unchecked.

[Chewtobacca]

Do you have a 5.1 setup, TomArrow, or some other arrangement? You mentioned that you sometimes use headphones, but I'm not sure what your standard setup is like.

[deleted user]

On this computer I have a realtek onboard soundcard. It is 5.1 capable and set to 5.1, but I use a global filter system called Equalizer APO on top of this. For this filter system there's a plugin called HeSuVi, which is basically a convolutional reverb of sorts. It uses this convolutional reverb to transform the 5.1 to 2.0 headphone output. For this it uses convolutional waveform thingies created from many different headphone-audio-algorithms, from which you can choose the one you want; for example Dolby Headphone, DTS:X Headphone, Atmos Headphone etc. So in other words, it simulates the headphone-downmixing of some popular headphone-downmixers without having to install those or buy corresponding hardware.

[Chewtobacca]

Ah, so you do use headphones most of the time.  AC3Filter gives you the option to control the way in which 5.1 is downmixed to stereo, but it sounds as if you would use it (should you choose to try it) as a decoder rather than a processor and apply other effects to the output.

[deleted user]

Yeah exactly. That Equalizer APO thing is system-wide, so it works for all software that is running.