Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[angrygnome]

My machine has three sound cards (the onboard audio and two Soundlaster 24-bit cards). All three are active and recognized by the OS and Media Center. I have created a zone for each, but when I play a separate song in each zone all three songs play through a single sound cards and set of speakers. No matter which sound card I choose in the output settings, the output actually comes from the soundcard set as default in the OS (where only one can be selected). What am I doing wrong?

[Matt]

Does it help if you switch between ASIO, DirectSound, WASAPI, etc?

[angrygnome]

Direct (which I was using before) and Wave Out act the same. ASIO errors (because I don't have an ASIO device) and WASAPI does not allow me to choose between my sound cards. My on-board card is a SigmaTel High Definition Audio and the others are SB Live! 24-Bit PCI cards. I am running Windows XP pro on SP3.

[Listener]

Have you checked the configuration for each zone using zone manager?

Your zones may all be configured to use the default audio device.

Bill

[angrygnome]

I can't post screenshots here, but I have selected the specific devices not default device in the Player -> Playback Options -> Zone Manager dialog.

I have named my zones onboard, SB1, and SB2. When I choose to configure each zone I am given the options dialog. Output mode for each is Direct Sound. Output Mode Settings is (for onboard zone):

Device: SigmaTel Audio --- options in drop-down are Primary Sound Drive, SB Live! 24-Bit, SB Live! 24-Bit, SigmaTel Audio
Channels: Default Channels (recommended) --- options in drop-down are Default Channels (recommended), Left Front + Right Front, Center + Low Frequency, Left Rear + Right Rear, All Channels (sound card chooses), Do Not Specify Channels.

The other two zones are likewise set with the specific device chosen rather than Primary Sound Drive.

Is there somewhere else I should be configuring the output?

[Listener]

> Output Mode Settings is (for onboard zone):

Just be sure that the settings the other zones really specify the SB cards.

When you are in the Zon Manager dialog, note the Synchronize button.  That sends output to more than one zone.  It is possible that MC is sending output to the default device in addition to the zone you selected.  If you were not getting sound from the SB cards, you would just hear it from the deault device.

> Is there somewhere else I should be configuring the output?

I don't know of any other place.  You might check the console applications for the onboard sound and the SB cards.

Bill

[angrygnome]

Ok so I am now on new hardware (three Envy24 Family Audio Controller WDM) and a new OS (Windows 7). The effect is exactly the same. All sound comes out of a single speaker despite the fact that the zones are each set to specify a different audio card. I see the synchronize button but choosing to synchronize the zones has no effect on what cards produce sound. Also trying to play music in multiple zones at once (even before synchronizing) results in the song in the second zone stalling after a second or so with not sound coming out (i.e. only one zone --- and it doesn't seem to matter which --- can be playing a song at a time). That leads me to believe that MC is trying to play all the zones through a single card. This is driving me insane. Does anyone actually have this working? If so, what did you do to play song A in zone 1 through speaker X and song B in zone 2 through speaker Y?

[angrygnome]

I've seen discussions of multiple instances pointing to multiple zones. Is that required? How do I run two instances of MC on one machine (say in Windows 7)? Can I not, in a single instance of MC, have two songs playing simultaneously out of two different sound cards (i.e. two zones)?

[WinoOutWest]

Not that it helps you much other than to provide encouragement
but I've had 2 zones working for the years now.  Never had a problem.  
I also have 3 sound cards:  Onboard which is Windows Default device - I don't use this in MC - I use this for all non-music activities (TV/Video/Gaming etc)
I have 2 Higher End Sound cards that use in analog mode only. An AuzenTech X-Plosion and an Asus Sonar D1.
Setup my zones in 1 MC instance, assigned the outputs accordingly and away I went - never had any problems with the setup.

[Listener]

> Does anyone actually have this working?

Yes. I've had it working for several years.  I use three zones for three different audio devices.

I use Win XP  on several PCs and have had no trouble using zones on any of them.

> If so, what did you do to play song A in zone 1 through speaker X and song B in zone 2 through speaker Y?

I configured the zones specifying a different soundcard for each zone.

When I want to switch zones, I use a "zones" menu item on the bottom menu.  It is equivalent to the Player/Playback/ ZoneN command on the top menu.  (I added a "zones" item to the bottom menu.)

One likely explanation of your problem is that you don't have the zones set up the way you think they are.
Once you create a zone in Player/Playback Options/ZoneManager, click on configure to specify the audio device.  Choose the Output device in Output mode settings and then the output mode.

Bill
 

[NaTeDoGG]

Bill, he has the zones configured to different devices (I've seen his screen in person). All the sounds come out of the Windows default soundcard.

OP, do the new cards support ASIO? If not, try installing ASIO4ALL and see if multi-zones work with ASIO.

[angrygnome]

So the problem appears to be having multiple of the same model sound card in the machine. When I use three sound cards of different models (and therefore different drivers) everything works fine. When I have more than one sound card of the same model and I try the OS's sound test I get a blue screen of death in both XP and Win 7. I have tried this repeatedly with two different machines and two different paired identical sound cards with the same result. Has anyone seen anything like this? Is this a Windows limitation? Do two devices using the same driver confuse it?

[Listener]

I'd add the possibility that the driver that comes with your Creative soundcard is at fault.

Bill

[angrygnome]

Very possibly, but my cheap PPA sound cards do the same thing. I blame Bill!