The audio volume of the more recent videos found on the net is horribly low, with my current system (simple terratec soundcard + stereo speakers) all turned up, it is still hard to follow dialogues and stuff - and my speakers would most likely explode, if I'd start an mp3 in XMMS with these settings. It is probably an AC3 output problem, though I had several of these low-volume videos with mp3 audio as well.

Is there any way to amplify the volume in MPlayer alone or could the AC3 decoder be set up to work better with my stereo speakers ?

have you checked the values of the mixer?? Maybe you've got the master level at max, but not PCM.

Hope it helps

The master level in the input tab of kmix was not maxed out - thx for the hint. Along with some MPlayer-switches (-af volume=10:1,channels=2) I pretty much solved this one.