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[zeltak]

Hi

although i mainly use mac as my main machine thesedays i also have MC on windows and Linux so this isnt necessary mac specific but its the most annoying on a mac...

I have a mac book where at home, its connected to a USB DAC, at the office i use the Macbook speaker and while mobile bluetooth.

the only way i found when using MC to get things working to switch Audio (and get it to work..) is to go to

Tools> options>Audio> Audio device

and manually choose and output.

i do this 6-8 times a day and its REALLY tiresome..

1. is there anyway at all to bind a key to this or a quicker GUI way to switch outputs?

2. is there a better way on a mac using mc (im a neewb on a mac) to get the usb DAC to work via core audio? currently this dosent work at all and i cant get output via DAC that way

thx alot

Z

[mattkhan]

You could set up a zone for each device - https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Zones - and then it is a case of sending playback at one zone or the other

[RoderickGI]

The use Ctrl+T to cycle through the Zones quickly, or use one the several other ways to change Zones. ZoneSwitch, top menu Player > Zone items, the Overview item in Playing Now, for example.

You could even set up a specifc Hot Key for each Zones if you wished, using a Custom Resource.xml file.

[blgentry]

Zones is probably the way to go.  But do understand that zones do NOT duplicate what is playing in one zone to another.  So if you are playing to the DAC and then switch to the internal speaker zone with Player > Zone , what you are playing will not change over to the other zone.  It will just become the default zone for anything you click on or add to Playing Now.

As for making it play via "core audio" I think you must mean using the "default (core audio)" item in the audio device list. That is not recommended, but it should work.  As long as you are getting audio out of your DAC via MC, and there's no quality problem with it, I think you probably have it set up correctly for your DAC.

Brian.

[zeltak]

thx guys for the answers. I did play with zones a bit and as blgentry said the fact that it doesn't duplicate what is playing in one zone to another is problematic for me. all i want is a simple way to toggle the output, ie from core audio to DAC (both entries are in the MC menu).

any other options other than zones?

thx again

Z

[RoderickGI]

Try linking the Zones so that MC output always goes to all linked Zones. It may work as you wish.

But it would be a pretty unusual way to use the capability. The idea is, Stop playback on one Zone, switch Zones, then start playing something again, understanding that each Zone has its own Playing Now list.

[blgentry]

Linked zones can work, but they are weird too.

Your question is rather unusual;  MC wasn't exactly designed to work this way.  But it can be worked around.  One way would be to duplicate playing now manually between zones.  Go to one zone, select all, copy.  Go to the other zone, select all, paste.  Now your playing nows are the same.  Press play in the zone you want.  Voila'.  Not exactly super easy, but not very hard either.

If you could get the "default (core audio)" selection to work as MC's audio device, then MC's output would follow whatever MacOS has selected as it's audio output.  But that gets weird too.  Because your DAC probably plays a lot of different sample rates (like 44.1, 48, 96, etc).  While the internal speakers (which have their own sound card) may or may not support all of these rates.  Worse, bluetooth typically only supports 48kHz (and nothing else) so it might act really weird with MC using "default (core audio)".  You would have to test it and see.

It's probably worth just doing some experiments with zones and seeing what you like best:  Linked zones, manually copying Playing Now, starting fresh each time you switch zones, using playlists, or something else entirely.  Experimentation is the key probably since this isn't something that a lot of people do often.

Good luck!

Brian.

[unfrostedpoptart]

This is great!  I'm constantly having to switch several setting to go from stereo Bluetooth headphones to Audeze Mobius 5.1 USB headphones to 7.1 HDMI to my receiver at home.

[zeltak]

thx all

i agree that using zoned kinda works towards an easy way to switch from headphone to DAC to office but to me it seems so much more trivial to just allow a quick keybind to change audio outputs..Can the developers weigh in?
Should i open a feature request?

honestly when i was mainly using linux i never had these issues since all went via pulse audio and was transparent. the biggest thing i hate since moving to mac is the audio..just cant get around it..

best

Z

[RoderickGI]

to me it seems so much more trivial to just allow a quick keybind to change audio outputs..

You could even set up a specifc Hot Key for each Zones if you wished, using a Custom Resource.xml file.

[zeltak]

Thx again RoderickGI

thats helpful but i still prefer to keep 1 playlist and change outputs instead of the above suggested ways to copy/re-add the playlist each zone switch

appreciate your help

Z

[RoderickGI]

Fair enough.

Read up about Recent Playing Now playlists that are automatically created by MC under "Playlists > Recent Playing Now's". That may assist in the process for you, since you don't need to copy the Playing Now. Just stop playback, a Recent Playing Now will be created when you do. Then switch Zones, select the Recent Playing Now and start playback again.

Still not perfect, but an option.