Audio Systems: Surround Sound, special effects, voices

Question
When I play a DVD you can't hear the voices of people. You can hear the music and special effects.

Answer
Hmmm...

Usually voices are mixed to the center channel in "surround sound" on DVD's.   If you are unable to hear them clearly you may have wired your system incorrectly or you may have accidentally turned down the center channel gain on your decoder.

I would suggest checking your manual to find out how to set the gain (a.k.a. "volume") of your center channel.  If it's a much smaller speaker than the rest of your system you may have to turn it way up (this should be a lesson: you need to get a center channel that better matches your Left and Right speakers).
  If that doesn't work, you may want to check the wiring - particularly make sure that " " and "-" are correct - if they are inverted then it may totally cancel out the speech that is mixed in to the left and right speakers - leaving you with NOTHING to hear.

  Let me know if that does not solve the problem, or doesn't sound like it applies to your situation.

  I wish you luck!