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[Lunatique]

Is there a way to setup an automatic zone switch so that when I'm playing a video from the web browser or an external video player app, it'll use a zone I have setup specifically for that purpose (I named it JRiver ASIO zone)? For example, I have other zones setup for different playlists, and often I might have been using one of those zones and forget to manually switch to the JRiver ASIO zone, and when I play a web video, it'll clear the entire cue of the zone I was using previously, which is very annoying. If I can have all the external audio (meaning not played from within Media Center) automatically routed to the JRiver ASIO zone, then I won't have to worry about the songs cued up in my other zones get cleared by accident.

[mattkhan]

see https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WDM_Driver#Problems_With_Streaming_Video_Using_Media_Center.27s_Internal_Browser_and.2For_Erasing_Playing_Now

[Lunatique]

Thank you. I did as instructed but it's not working properly. I'm not sure if the audio driver chosen for each zone has anything to do with it. (I've tried using WASAPI, kernel streaming, and Direct Sound.)

Here's a screenshot of what I setup (see attached image).

Audio from web video could end up being played through "General" or "IPC" zones. I can't get it to only play through IPC zone (and I'm assuming I had setup the zone switch correctly as instructed). And when I try to play music from within MC, it would play through IPC zone even if I tried to force it to play through general zone (by stopping playback the IPC zone and selecting general zone, then go to playlist and play a track). And finally, when a track does play in the general zone and I play a web video, it does not get routed to IPC zone and the general zone's playback does not get stopped as it should.

[mattkhan]

the linked instructions say to create 2 zoneswitch rules, one that acts on [Name]="IPC" (i.e. to handle when the wdm driver is playing) and that is directed to your IPC zone (and stops the other zone) and another one that acts on -[Name]="IPC" (i.e. to handle when the wdm driver is NOT playing, note the - at the start) and that is directed to your General zone (and stops the IPC zone).

[Lunatique]

Thank you. I managed to get the zone switching to work halfway. I was able to route the web video to my "Live IPC" zone, and I also created other zones specifically for certain types of playlists (such as songs imported with a certain timeframe, or highly rated), and I was able to play tracks from those playlists and automatically switch to designated zones.

However, when it comes to automatically stopping other zones that are playing, I'm only able to get it to work for the zones that are assigned to specific playlists, and only if I actually play a track while inside those playlists. If I play tracks from within the zones' cues, it will not work--I play a track in A zone and then play a track in B zone and they'll both be playing. It also doesn't work for the Live IPC zone. This is both good and bad, because sometimes if I have music playing in one zone, I wouldn't want any Windows notification sounds to just stop my music as it plays through the Live IPC zone. But sometimes if I have music playing and then see a web video I want to watch, it'll be quite convenient to just play that web video and the music I was playing will automatically stop and allow me to hear the video's audio clearly.

Here are some screenshots to show what I have--I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[mattkhan]

side question .... why do you need so many different zones?

I'm sorry but I don't understand exactly how you want it to work. Do you want to be able to play in multiple zones simultaneously or not? It would help if you just boil it down to the set of actions you expect to happen in each case. You probably don't need to provide an exhaustive list, just the basic workflow you expect to work is sufficient.

For example

start playback in browser
MC should route WDM input to IPC zone

start playing playlist 1
MC should send to Playlist1 zone
if WDM is active, stop playback

and so on

[mwillems]

I'm also a little confused about exactly what OP's goals are, but he
may be running into one of the little "quirks" of using zoneswitch
with the IPC, which is that the IPC input zone will *never* actually
stop playback in the other zones when IPC input starts.  This is (as I
recall) by design, because if the opposite were true, every system
sound, autoplay ad, or other background PC noise would be interrupting
normal playback constantly (because the IPC zone can't distinguish
between intentional and unintentional activity on the system soundcard)

[Lunatique]

side question .... why do you need so many different zones?

I'm sorry but I don't understand exactly how you want it to work. Do you want to be able to play in multiple zones simultaneously or not? It would help if you just boil it down to the set of actions you expect to happen in each case. You probably don't need to provide an exhaustive list, just the basic workflow you expect to work is sufficient.

For example

start playback in browser
MC should route WDM input to IPC zone

start playing playlist 1
MC should send to Playlist1 zone
if WDM is active, stop playback

and so on

Having more than just the "IPC" and "General" zones is for the sake of efficiency/convenience. So for example, IPC is strictly for streaming Windows audio (web videos, external media player, OS notification sounds, etc.). Then I might have a zone specifically for smartlists of songs I haven't rated/edited meta tags yet. Another zone might be specifically for smartlists of songs within a certain time period of import, and I'm going through them to build specific playlists for specific purposes (for driving, writing, sleeping, etc.). There could be also zones dedicated to specific playlists. Having these zones means whatever I'm working on at the moment (editing meta tags, ratings, creating playlists) in that zone won't just get cleared out and replaced whenever I play a track from another list/location or whatever. I could switch between zones and resume exactly where I left off, instead of having to go and hunt down the specific smartlists or playlists and then try to find where in the cue I was before. I can have multiple zones all contain work-in-progress stuff that will keep exactly where I was.

As for what I'd like to be able to do, I'm actually okay with the zones that start playing to not stop other zones that are already playing, as it's not that big of a deal to manually stop a zone that's playing so they don't overlap each other's audio. It's also good to have IPC zone to never be silenced because some notification sounds could be very important. Originally I wanted to be able to have any zone that starts playing to automatically stop other zones that are already playing, just so I don't have to do it manually (such as I'm listening to music, but see a web video I'm interested in and I click on it to play, and it just overlaps the music I'm already playing), but honestly that's really not important so as long as I can automatically route IPC and specific lists to separate zones, I'm good. Which means I'm fine with what I'm able to accomplish with zone switching as is--not need for more (unless I think of something else I'd like to be able to do in the future).

I'm also a little confused about exactly what OP's goals are, but he
may be running into one of the little "quirks" of using zoneswitch
with the IPC, which is that the IPC input zone will *never* actually
stop playback in the other zones when IPC input starts.  This is (as I
recall) by design, because if the opposite were true, every system
sound, autoplay ad, or other background PC noise would be interrupting
normal playback constantly (because the IPC zone can't distinguish
between intentional and unintentional activity on the system soundcard)

Yes, I agree, as I stated above. Some notification sounds are important and shouldn't be silenced, and they also shouldn't constantly stopping other zones that are playing as that would get annoying.