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[lokee]

Is it possible to play web content such as online radio station in zones I created, instead of the default zone that has the same playback device as defined in Windows?

I have Media Center 14 (trial) installed on Vista Ultimate, to see how it works for my whole house audio system. So far it's almost perfect and I really love the zone support in MC.
I really wish to be able to play online radio stations (windows media streaming) in zones I created for other rooms.

I'm using a Delta Audio 10-channel PCI sound card to provide sources to my multi-channel amplifier. In Windows and Media Center, I can see these playback devices:

• Speaker (the default one, which is the onboard speaker out, hooked up to a 2.1 desktop speaker) - zone 1
• Line out 1/2 of the PCI card - zone 2
• Line out 3/4 of the PCI card - zone 3
• Line out 5/6 of the PCI card - zone 4
• Line out 7/8 of the PCI card - zone 5
• SPDIF out of the PCI card

I have created 4 new zones in MC, each mapped to a stereo channel of the above line out x/y device. (I'm not using the SPDIF out for now)

For mp3's imported into the MC library, there's no problem playing them back in any of my customized zones (2~5). But after I added a site in the Web Content, and start playing the online radio stream, it only plays back from the PC speaker, no matter which zone I set as active. If I change the defaut playback device in Vista, from PC speaker to say Line Out 1/2 of the PCI card, it actually can play the web content to that channel.

Maybe I'm missing something? I'd imagine that playing back online content would be a really useful feature especially for multi-zone usage.

[JimH]

What format is the stream?  Could it be a format for which MC uses the Quicktime playback engine or the Windows Media Player engine?

Check your settings for File Types in MC's options.

[lokee]

It's a mms stream, so I guess it's using Windows Media Player for playing back? I don't have access to my desktop now, so can't check the setting for you right now.

Assuming it's played back by WMP, is it possible to control in which zone(s) it should play? If MC can't control WMP on this, is there an option that I can use some other engine to play mms:// streams back which MC have better control?

[Matt]

Some mms:// streams may play through the Directshow engine (used for video) instead of the audio engine.

If this is the case, pick the correct audio device in Options > Playback > Video > Directshow playback settings... for each zone.

[lokee]

I ended up adding the mms:// stream directly as the url of a web site in the Web Content section under Audio. Now I can play the audio just like local mp3 in any zone(s) I want.

I was having the web page that has the embedded player for the stream added as a web site, that way it only plays to the primary PC playback device. I tried to set the direct show playback device to my line 5/6 for example, and it didn't work.

Anyways, I think I've found the best solution to play online streams in any zones. Thanks for the great product!