I've watched a number of films on a Macbook Air without that particular problem.

They are still terrible speakers, though. I almost laughed when showing a friend Star Wars for the first time; it doesn't even come close to doing the soundtrack justice.

I run Windows 8.1 on my MBP/r and don't have that issue at all.

External DVD Drive, play one of my DVDs on the Mac, audio is perfectly fine.

Play the same DVD on my Asus UX31, cannot hear the people talking, use VLC player to up the audio to 125% and its fine.

No. I have a System76 Ubuntu laptop and the speaker quality is excellent. Plays music nicely and sound is clear and crisp. How many quality laptops do you have experience with?

Never had a System76, but I've owned a few Asus and a Toshiba and when I lived with 5 other people in college, the topic came up and we all agreed on the quality of our respective laptop speakers. Of course I was in college quite a while ago.