Audio distortion when watching video from PC

I recently (today) purchased TiVo Desktop Plus. Everything is working fine except when I stream video podcasts from my PC. The audio is WAY to loud and only come out of the left channel. The audio is so loud that it distorts resulting in an incredibly annoying crackle.

Is there any way to have the desktop software transcode at a lower audio level?

P.S. I did check the "Audio Boost" level and it's set to Normal.

 

After a little further research I found that if I downloaded the exact same video podcast in xvid or wmv format the audio issues are gone. Although, the video on the wmv file had a strange jittery look to it. The xvid file works perfectly though. Viva La Open Source!