Print

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

[6233638]

Some of my complex ZoneSwitch rules work absolutely perfectly.
But I have never been able to figure out how to get really basic rules to work correctly.

Zones:
   1. Video
   2. Audio
 
ZoneSwitch Rules:
   1. Media Type is Video.
      Start playback in Video Zone.
      Stop playback in Audio Zone.
 
   2. Media Type is not Video.
      Start playback in Audio Zone.
      Stop playback in Video Zone.
 
As simple as it gets, right?
Well you would think so, but when I start playback in one Zone, it never stops playback in the other.
Both of these Zones play to the same audio device, but with different DSP configurations, and the intent is to keep the audio and video playlists separate.
 
I feel like I must be missing something fundamental here, but I can't figure out what.

[mwillems]

I have a similar rule which works fine for me.  Some diagnostic thoughts:

1) Does it switch and throw an error because playback is already started?  Or does it never switch?
2) Does it matter how are you starting playback?  Does starting playback by clicking play on a file work differently than using the right-click context menus?
3) Are you using ASIO or WASAPI?  I did have one device where attempting to use ASIO for both outputs lead to issues with zoneswitch stop not working; my solution was to use WASAPI in one zone and ASIO in the other (which mysteriously worked fine). 

[6233638]

1. It displays a conflict. "Something went wrong with playback. Playback could not be started …" It does not appear to attempt switching.
2. I am starting playback by selecting the other zone's tab and double-clicking a file.
   Clicking play on a file in the library (not the zone) does seem to work. This defeats the purpose of having separate zones to begin with though, as it replaces the playlist.
3. WASAPI Exclusive.

[mwillems]

2. I am starting playback by selecting the other zone's tab and double-clicking a file.
   Clicking play on a file in the library (not the zone) does seem to work. This defeats the purpose of having separate zones to begin with though, as it replaces the playlist.

Replaces the playlist where?  It only replaces the playlist in the targeted zone for me (not the other zone), or is that what you mean?  When I right-click "add to playing now" things always seem to get routed appropriately.

Zoneswitch only engages when it routes a file, and it never routes from within playing now (is that what you mean by the "zone's tab"?)  I don't used tabbed browsing in MC at all so I'm not sure what you mean.  If you can give me some repro steps, I can try and see if it works or not in my setup, but if you're trying to start playback from within playing now, it won't work.

[6233638]

Replaces the playlist where?  It only replaces the playlist in the targeted zone for me (not the other zone), or is that what you mean?  When I right-click "add to playing now" things always seem to get routed appropriately.

That's what I mean. If I click play on an item it gets routed to the correct Zone, but doing so replaces everything in that zone.
 
The way I use the Video Zone is that I often have several hours of content queued up - which is not simply five episodes from a single series, for example - it may be different files from different sections of the library.
So I switch to the tab and hit play to resume from where I was. Only it won't play due to this conflict, because ZoneSwitch is not being activated.

[…]if you're trying to start playback from within playing now, it won't work.

This is the problem.


The way I typically work is that I use two split views.
The left split is all my zones, and the right split is all my library views.

I normally have music playing in Split 1 Tab 1 (Audio) while queuing up videos from say Split 2, Tabs 3-5.
Then I switch to Split 1 Tab 2 (Video) and hit play once that is done.
 
That way I can spend say 5 minutes building up a playlist of videos while continuing to listen to music.
The issue is that once that is done, I can't just hit play in the Video Zone to play.
 
Or I might have been listening to music all day, queuing up music from Split 2 Tabs 6-9, then switch over to the video playlist I created earlier and just hit play on it.
It may even be that I have music paused in the Audio Zone, so it's not actually obvious that it is "playing" anything until there is a conflict preventing the video from playing.

[mwillems]

That's what I mean. If I click play on an item it gets routed to the correct Zone, but doing so replaces everything in that zone.
 
The way I use the Video Zone is that I often have several hours of content queued up - which is not simply five episodes from a single series, for example - it may be different files from different sections of the library.
So I switch to the tab and hit play to resume from where I was. Only it won't play due to this conflict, because ZoneSwitch is not being activated.

The way I typically work is that I use two split views.
The left split is all my zones, and the right split is all my library views.

I normally have music playing in Split 1 Tab 1 (Audio) while queuing up videos from say Split 2, Tabs 3-5.
Then I switch to Split 1 Tab 2 (Video) and hit play once that is done.
 
That way I can spend say 5 minutes building up a playlist of videos while continuing to listen to music.
The issue is that once that is done, I can't just hit play in the Video Zone to play.
 
Or I might have been listening to music all day, queuing up music from Split 2 Tabs 6-9, then switch over to the video playlist I created earlier and just hit play on it.
It may even be that I have music paused in the Audio Zone, so it's not actually obvious that it is "playing" anything until there is a conflict preventing the video from playing.

Got it; it won't work correctly in your use case unfortunately because zoneswitch only engages on the way to playing now, and never engages when files are already in playing now.  So the stop rules don't engage either.  There was some discussion about trying to change that behavior at one point (to split up the routing part and the stop part), but I don't know that it ever got very far.  You might want to try and find that thread and add your +1 (if you haven't already).

[kstuart]

if you're trying to start playback from within playing now, it won't work.

I find that it also can fail to work, if you start playback from Windows Explorer using "shell integration".

And you get really problematic results if you start playback from Windows Explorer and MC20 is not running, in which case you often get the last Zone showing, but the Video playing invisibly but audibly, in which case you have to scramble to switch to Display View while the first few dialog lines are going on...

[6233638]

It would be nice if ZoneSwitch stop rules were still applied even if playback is started within Playing Now.
I don't expect the files to be routed anywhere else, but the stop rules should still be applied.

[6233638]

Somewhat related, all of the "More Play Options" add commands are still issuing stop commands when they should not be.
 
Only the "Add to Playing Now" command was fixed so that it would not.