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Author Topic: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound  (Read 2511 times)

shAf

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MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« on: May 18, 2012, 09:43:32 am »

I have no sound for my other programs ... for example, no sound when I go to Youtube ... yet MC17 is playing fine.

MC is configured for bitstreaming out the HDMI to my AVR's HDMI input -- is there a similar setting for Windows 7 Pro?

TIA  :)
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cheerios from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

Scolex

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2012, 10:04:56 am »

IF you have Open device for exclusive access enabled in options/audio/output settings and MC is open and has played sound since being opened the sound device is not available to other programs.
Windows has a similar setting right click the volume icon in the system tray choose playback devices, select your respective device, and go to the advanced tab "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" Some output formats bypass the Windows audio stack so this setting may or may not be valid when using one of those modes.
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Sean

shAf

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2012, 01:14:05 pm »

Thanx Scolex ... but I still couldn't get other apps to work, even if I closed MC and the MC media server.

My MC17 Audio 'Output mode settings" are enabled for 'Open device for exclusive access', 'Flush device buffers on startup', 'Flush device buffers on pause', and 'Present 24bit data as 32bit package'.  I tried disabling these, but got into trouble with tracks not playing and getting a MC prompt to alter "DSP output mixer settings" or I got no sound at all.

My Windows advanced audio settings for the HDMI device (accessed by right-clicking the volume, choosing playback devices, HDI, advanced tab ) are both enabled for "Exclusive Mode" ... and the "Default format" selected is '16bit, 48000Hz (DVD quality)'.  Also, the "Test" would not work ... but I presume that if I can find the right combination the Test would work(?)

So ... right now, if I were to re-boot my computer, kill MS Media Server (configured for running at startup), I would not be able to hear audio from any other application than MC17 ... including Audio tests, iTunes, browser audio like Youtube.  What am I missing??

TIA  :)
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cheerios from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2012, 02:59:49 pm »

Have you checked the settings in Win7 Control Panel>Sound? Do you show your "HDMI output" as the default device?
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shAf

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2012, 12:36:37 pm »

Have you checked the settings in Win7 Control Panel>Sound? Do you show your "HDMI output" as the default device?

The "HDMI Device" is the one with the green checkmark ...
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cheerios from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

Scolex

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2012, 06:39:05 pm »

Have you gone into the HDMI device properties "Supported Formats" tab and selected all supported formats?
Have you tried setting Bitstreaming to None (recommended) not sure why it would effect other programs but stranger things have happened.
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Sean

shAf

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2012, 09:05:12 pm »

Have you gone into the HDMI device properties "Supported Formats" tab and selected all supported formats?
Have you tried setting Bitstreaming to None (recommended) ...

I'll check ... But my preference is to bitstream ... why is not reccommended?
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cheerios from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

Scolex

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2012, 12:12:37 pm »

I am not sure that is a question for Matt maybe he will stop in and give us the reason.
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Sean

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2012, 12:14:31 pm »

I think this thread is tracking a Windows or driver problem, since sound doesn't work in Windows.

As for why we recommend to not bitstream, it's because bitstreaming bypasses all audio features including VideoClock.

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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

shAf

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2012, 01:23:27 pm »

I think this thread is tracking a Windows or driver problem, since sound doesn't work in Windows.

I don't believe I ever stated that Windows sounds do not wok -- they do indeed -- just other apps like browser audio
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cheerios from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

glynor

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2012, 01:39:56 pm »

Thanx Scolex ... but I still couldn't get other apps to work, even if I closed MC and the MC media server.

This doesn't make sense, but it seems like the Exclusive lock on your sound device isn't being released.

First though, REBOOT (do NOT skip this).  That will get everything unlocked and set to a normal state.

My MC17 Audio 'Output mode settings" are enabled for 'Open device for exclusive access', 'Flush device buffers on startup', 'Flush device buffers on pause', and 'Present 24bit data as 32bit package'.  I tried disabling these, but got into trouble with tracks not playing and getting a MC prompt to alter "DSP output mixer settings" or I got no sound at all.

Sounds like you tried to disable too much.

So that you understand: The Open device for exclusive access checkbox does exactly that.  While MC is playing something (even paused) the sound card will be locked to MC and no other applications, even Windows system sounds, will work at all.  Windows 7 sometimes gets annoying when you try to play something externally (maybe browser video) while the sound device is still locked to MC (forgot you had something paused in the background).  On my systems, it switches and uses another available sound device for this audio.  But, since the device it picks is probably not connected to anywhere, it probably doesn't actually work.  So, on my HTPC, it'll switch from my video card's HDMI sound device to the motherboard's SPDIF connection.  That's not plugged into anything, so I don't hear any sound.  But, if you go down and click on the Volume icon in the System Tray, you'll see a second volume control and meter, and you can see the sound is playing on this second device from the green bouncing up and down.  Once you do this, it can be difficult to get Windows to "switch back".*

Most of the time, when you don't "screw up" first, if you just stop playback in MC completely (again, not just paused), your system will regain access to the Sound card and everything is fine.  But once you mess up, you usually need to close any impacted applications out completely to get them to switch back to the proper default device (so, you must stop playback in MC and then close your browser and re-open it).  But, sometimes Flash crashes and doesn't unload or other stupid things, so occasionally, it is just easiest to reboot (and double-check the default sound device in Windows too, because I've seen that change "permanently" too).

So, all of this is annoying, right?  If you don't want MC use your sound device "exclusively" in this way, then you must disable the Open device for exclusive access box in Options -> Audio.  But don't disable the other stuff in there as that could break compatibility with your sound device!

However, be aware that exclusive access is what allows MC to bypass the Windows mixer and ensure bitperfect delivery to your sound device directly.  So, if you disable that option, then your sound card drivers and Windows will be "able to" mess with your sound (whether they do or not depends on the device you have and the settings in Windows at the time).

If you want to keep exclusive access enabled, you have to understand how it works and be aware of the limitations.  You will also want to be careful not to use any other Windows application that opens your sound device (maybe in the background) and then try to use MC.  You want to be especially careful of anything that might do this on boot in the background.  Maybe a sharing application or something doing audio analysis or generating thumbnails (not MC, which does it right, but some other dumb program)?  This would be terrible behavior for an application, and anything that does it is probably not worth using (and could even be malware trying to "listen in" on you via a mic input), but be careful of that.  If something else has your sound device open, and then you try to play something in MC, I can see the sound card driver getting angry (it probably shouldn't, but it might).

* You can probably solve this problem (the Windows switching to another device that isn't used and isn't plugged into anything problem) by simply disabling the other sound outputs in the Windows Sounds Control Panel.  If they aren't plugged in anyway, and you're not using them, there is no reason to keep them enabled.  Hit the start button and type "sound" (without the quotes) and open the Sound control panel to disable them.

The problem is when you want to keep one enabled for some reason (maybe for Skype use or something similar) and then you mess up and forget MC is paused and then open your web browser and try to play something.
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glynor

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2012, 02:00:48 pm »

Matt et all:  It would be nice if MC would release the sound device lock while paused when it is in Exclusive mode.  Maybe if Playback is paused for more than 5-6 seconds or something, you should drop the lock.

That would make using Exclusive mode in MC more convenient.  I screw this up fairly often.  I pause the music and minimize MC, and then I forget, and then two hours later I try to play something online (or maybe just a dumb website has sound), and then it gets all angry.

I imagine you don't want to release the lock immediately for a variety of reasons, but if playback is paused for 25 minutes, it doesn't seem like you need to keep holding it all that time.
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JimH

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2012, 02:04:12 pm »

You could just uncheck exclusive.
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glynor

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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2012, 02:08:09 pm »

You could just uncheck exclusive.

I'm not sure if that was for me, but yeah, I know.

But that trusts the mixer and volume control in Windows and everything.  I prefer to allow MC to have exclusive access when I'm using it.  I don't mind that I can't use MC and another application at the same time for sound.  I just hit the problem when I forget that MC is sitting there paused and minimized.

But, yes, this is an easier way to "solve" the problem.  If you disable Exclusive access, you don't need to worry about any of this stuff.
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Re: MC17 sounds excellent, ... other apps, no sound
« Reply #14 on: June 02, 2012, 02:20:08 pm »

I think somewhere I too requested a release on the lock after some user-defined timeout.  This may also solve the problem that occurs when playback is paused overnight, and can't be resumed the next morning (Stop has be be issued).
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