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[davelr]

I run MC (23.0.22) on a dedicated HTPC to manage our movie and music collections. The HTPC is set to auto start into Theater View on boot up and hibernates when not in use. The HTPC is connected to a Denon AVR and passes all video and audio through the receiver. The entire theater system is controlled by a Harmony remote. In normal circumstances all is fine with this.

However, occasionally I remote into the HTPC to do some clean up or maintenance when the rest of the theater system is off line. In these circumstances MC defaults to some audio device (normally WASAPI Headphones in my case) since the Denon is not "present".

The problem with this is that MC stays stuck on the Headphone device the next time the HTPC is activated. In this situation, everything seems to be fine to the casual user (my wife) but there is no audio. In this situation, the only fix is to fall out of Theater mode, go into the options screen to Audio Devices and reselect the Denon. Obviously this is not something my wife is going to do.

Would it be possible to alter MC so that a "sticky" default audio device can be set. That way if the device is not present in the list, MC picks whatever is available such as headphones, but IF the device IS in the current list of available devices, MC always sets to that device.

I know that I should normally just fire up the entire system to reset this, but if you get distracted or just forget....

[RD James]

EDIT: Reading over your post again, it sounds like you are selecting the Denon device in Media Center and not using the "Default System Device" option, which was my original suggestion.
I've generally found Media Center to be good at finding the correct device again if it has been removed and restored.
Sorry, I know that isn't much help. I can't find the option to delete posts here any more.

[davelr]

RD, thanks anyway. Yeah, I do select the Denon directly and not the system default device.

In thinking about this some more, I'm beginning to think that the problem is with MC running when the machine wakes up if the set device isn't available, it has to select something else. However, the next time the system wakes up, MC is still running pointing at whatever device it thought it could find, which of course is still there, and there's nothing causing it to go search for the Denon again. So it just sits there pointing at the headphone device. Unless there were some code causing it to detect the system waking up and forcing it to search for the Denon, nothing will happen.

This is just speculation on my part, but would appreciate someone from JR commenting on it.

Thanks again

[MikeO]

Have you tried a Zone Switch

I have 2 streamers one audio , one video. By switching based on Media Type = Audio I set a switch that selects the Audio streamer.

You need the destination device ON . Go to player>zones

It's quite logical

Mike

[BryanC]

I've run into this same issue. Sometimes when I update my HDMI drivers via VNC the default output device in Windows will change from HDMI-0 to HDMI-4. MC will pick up the correct output device (HDMI-4). But after a restart, the default output device goes back to HDMI-0 and MC will stay on HDMI-4. Not sure who's at fault here, but my guess is that it is not MC.

[davelr]

Well, I'm not trying to assign fault here, just wondering if there's a way to avoid the issue. As I said in my previous post I'm beginning to think that it may not be "wrong" but just the way it is when my HTPC comes back from hibernation.

As Mike suggested, I do use Zone Switch to go to different DSP settings between Audio and Video playback. However I've not had a chance to try his suggestion yet. (Not sure I understand his suggestion until I can play around with the system.) I'll post back when I get a chance to experiment, may be a few days.

[Hendrik]

I would think as long as you're not directly opening the device selection, or trying to play something, it shouldn't even bother to try to figure out if your device still exists, but maybe I'm forgetting some logic - or you're doing one of those things.

[Fitzcaraldo215]

Is this an HDMI connection to the Denon?  If so, then there are a lot of possible culprits here, starting with Windows and its assignment of a default device if the original HDMI device is not turned on, i.e., no HDMI handshake.  I do not know that there is much JRiver can do to overcome this problem.

I used to tear my hair out sometimes turning on devices and software in a specific sequence to get audio working using HDMI.  One ingenious solution that solved all my problems was a Gefen HDMI Detective+.  That $80 device provides an "always on" HDMI connection ahead of your AVR/prepro so Windows never, ever has to reassign the default audio device, even if the AVR/prepro behind it is off.  The HDMI handshake to the Gefen is never disrupted, so everything works as it should.  It is called "spoofing".

The best news is that I do everything today into a Mch DAC via USB.  Never a problem.

[davelr]

Hendrik, Fitzcaraldo -

Thanks for the comments. I'm out of town for a few days, but when I get back and have some time, I'll do some experimenting to see if I can pin down the problem better. In the end it's not a crisis, just a little annoyance, but would be nice to have a better idea of what is happening.