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[Vocalpoint]

Bit of a weird one here...within the last week - I installed a fresh copy of Win 7 x64 SP1 on a new office workstation. I am using the Logitech K800 keyboard and of course JRiver Media Center for media playback.

NOTE: I am using the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard and it's onboard Realtek Azalia HD audio chip. I am NOT using the Realtek drivers (more on that in a moment) - I am using the built in Windows 7 HD Audio drivers.

NOTE 2: I have Media Center set to use "Internal Volume" (Is this the best choice?)

Long story short - after building the box - I discovered some conflicts with the internals of the motherboard where the front panel headphone jack of my case (Antec P182) would exhibit static in the phones if moving the mouse on screen. Traced that to some weird issue with the USB ports so I had to install a separate front panel insert into the case and attached JUST the audio cable so I could get static free headphone listening.

Now the issue. When using Media Center (and WASAPI Event Style) and I select "speakers" under Device Output area - I am able to use the Mute, Volume Up and Volume Down hot keys on the K800 to control the audio level that comes from the speakers. But - if I change Device Output to Headphones - using the exact same audio device - suddenly the three audio buttons (upper right of the keyboard by the Calculator button) suddenly do not work. Even more interesting is that audio continues to appear at the speakers - even when I am playing audio thru the phones.

Now - I cannot recall in any previous build whether or not these keyboard buttons were working with phones plugged in OR if I just decided to try them for the first time now. I don't use headphones often with this machine but when I did in the past...volume seemed fine...just can't remember if I ever attempted to control it via keyboard.

Q: Does Media Center's internal pipeline to the audio device completely override what Windows would/should display? Like if Headphones are as the Device Output in MC - shouldn't Windows 7 now show "Headphones" to the "Default Device" when I right click the Volume Icon in the system tray?

I also distinctly remember that Windows used to automatically detect when headphones were being plugged into a front panel jack and and would then switch the Default Device to reflect this change...and I do not see that anymore.

I am beginning to think that MC's "Open Device for Exclusive Access" is creating what I am seeing here. Since the Headphones "output device" is exclusive to MC - Windows has no knowledge of it being in play and I am assuming neither does my Logitech keyboard - which seems to only want to control the "speakers" which is the Windows Default device...

Does this make sense?

VP

[Neco]

I don't know if it was a typo,  but if you were saying even with headphones plugged in, the audio continues to play through the speakers,  you probably want to search around for an option in whatever drivers you are using to "mute speakers when headphones detected"  or something to that effect..

I do believe the realtek drivers had an option like that,  but I haven't used onboard for a really long time now..

[Vocalpoint]

I don't know if it was a typo,  but if you were saying even with headphones plugged in, the audio continues to play through the speakers,  you probably want to search around for an option in whatever drivers you are using to "mute speakers when headphones detected"  or something to that effect..

What I was getting was was that I can have MC playing music thru the phones - while the Windows sounds (notifications etc) continue to be sent thru the speakers.

But I distinctly remember a time - with Windows 7 that if I plugged headphones into the jack - Windows 7 would recognize this and change the Default Audio device to "Headphones" (under the Volume icon). I would like to think that MC did the same but I am probably wrong in this regard.

VP