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[MusicHawk]

MC 14.0.159 is running on my HTPC. It was primarily a music playback PC, but recently I  changed the PC's graphic card. Now it has HDMI output, which is connected to my TV.  The PC and TV work just fine via HDMI, such as to watch something on hulu.com on the TV.

The PC is still also my main MC playback system. But -- MC and the TV don't get along. Not at all.

MC happily plays songs, UNTIL the TV is powered on. The second the TV screen flickers on, MC stops playing. Clicking MC's Play/Pause/Stop/whatever does nothing -- it refuses to play. (It acts like it's playing in that the play button changes to the pause button; I can toggle this all day but the play action never actually happens. MC is not frozen in any other way, it just won't go into Play mode. The song doesn't start, the song play progress bar/timer doesn't move, nothing.

Even if the TV is then powered off, MC refuses to Play.

However, if the TV is powered off AND MC is closed and restarted (not a reboot), MC plays normally. But the instant the TV is powered on again, MC stops and remains stopped.

The only obvious thing happening outside of MC is the PC receiving an HDMI-channel signal from the TV, "I'm here".

Is MC somehow monitoring the video mode of the graphic card, and reacting when when it senses the HDMI/TV is alive? Why would MC then freeze? Waiting for something? (There are no messages on-screen.)

More testing: If I disconnect the HDMI cable from the TV (leave it connected to the PC), MC doesn't have this problem. If I reconnect the cable to the TV, MC stops, and remains stopped even if I then disconnect the cable. Once it stops, MC always refuses to Play until I restart it.

[jmone]

OK - my info is a bit old on this but, its a problem with how HDMI works on the PC - and to do with "EDID".  Your TV/Receiver actually talks to your PC's HDMI graphics card and lets it know what Video and Audio formats it will accept.  Problem is most (all?) of the HDMI cards in the PC don't retain these settings and go to a default when there is no (or an off) connection that happens when you turn off your TV/Receiver or even just switch your Receiver for another input.  Audio will stop working with MC as the Audio Renderer "disappears" during this change and it normally hangs the PC if you are in the middle of playing anything.  I uses a box called DVI Detective Plus that sits between the PC and the TV/Receiver constantly broadcasting the EDID info no matter what.  So you choices are:
1) Don't change the TV/Receiver when you are playing media
2) Get a 3rd Party HW Device like DVI Detective +
3) Check out some other forums like "avsfourm" for any EDID hacks you may be able to apply.
4) Try chaning to other Audio Renderers to see if that helps

Good Luck
Nathan

[Daydream]

I've read the first message twice and still I don't see a piece of information. The OP never mentions a receiver, says the HDMI on the graphic card goes to the TV...! So I have a problem understanding when the TV is off, on what is MC playing music?? Pumps stuff out silently on HDMI?

Because otherwise I would imagine you turn the TV on first and then start playing music. So, is there another piece of equipment in the middle of this or not?

[MusicHawk]

Sorry, didn't think it mattered, but here's the entire setup:

PC audio goes to stereo amp for MC music playback
PC VGA/DVI video goes to local monitor for working with MC
PC HDMI (audio and video) goes to TV for watching PC-based/streaming video

Re the EDID tip, that clues me to sort of workaround the problem. I have three TV HDMI inputs, one from the PC to TV. By selecting any input TV HDMI other than the PC, I think I avoid the problem. But lots of TVs don't have multiple HDMI inputs, and/or perhaps don't fully disconnect them.

It seems like a more robust solution is needed. Especially as MC 15 focuses on video, I don't think it will be unusual to use one PC for audio and video via separate connections as I do. I wonder if there's any way that MC 15 can evolve to recognize and re-grab the audio when this happens?

[jmone]

What Audio Connection are you using for your Receiver and do you have HDMI capabilities on it?

One option may be to use Zones in MC: eg you would in MC select what Zone you would use (each have it's own selectable Audio Renderer) such as:
- Zone 1 for Music would use ???Connection??? to your Stereo
- Zone 2 for Video would use HDMI for Video Playback
etc

I do something similar described here --> http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=56343.0

[MusicHawk]

Another good tip, thanks.

The PC to amp connection is from the PC's audio output. The amp doesn't have video/HDMI. It's an audio power amp that feeds a house-wide speaker system. MC is using a couple of DSPs for audio processing, then to the PC's internal audio, then out to the power amp.

On this PC I'm not actually using MC for video (at least, not yet, haven't found any reason to use it). To watch video on the TV I either use a browser to visit a video site, or in rare cases Windows Media to open a local or networked video file (some home movies transferred from tape to file). So MC hasn't been configured with any video awareness and is using the default zone.

I'll look into zones as a way to isolate MC for music from (future) MC for video. You suggest using zone 1 for HDMI video, and setting up zone 2 for audio. Assuming zone 1 is the default, does putting music playback on zone 2 help isolate it from the PC's video shifts?