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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: dmm on February 14, 2006, 09:08:30 pm

Title: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: dmm on February 14, 2006, 09:08:30 pm
It sure would be great if MC 11.1 would support windows kernel streaming (KS)directly.  Most of us use various ASIO to Kernel Streaming adapters such as ASIO4ALL.  But even better would be for MC to support KS directly.

Info on KS can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/csa1.mspx

Basically it is a way to bypass windows kmixer and other AC97 audio horrible things to get the most pure most unresampled output audio possible in our PC's.
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: Matt on February 14, 2006, 10:15:02 pm
We believe ASIO is a superior solution for high-end output.

Also, MC includes one of the best resampling engines available so you can simply output at the native clock rate of your card.

If you're really worried about resampling (and analog quality in general), we'd recommend getting a card that can run its clock at any speed.  (M-Audio, AudioTrak, etc.)
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: dmm on February 14, 2006, 10:35:42 pm
If you want to support SPDIF output, you need bit perfect output so that you do not corrupt DD and DTS streams, especially to do CD-DTS (44.1khz DTS).  KS or ASIO is the only way to go.

Some cards, such as the M-Audio Revolution, only really support bit perfect SPDIF output via kernel streaming. 

So if MC supports KS, in addition to ASIO, you can cover more hardware/driver audio card combinations without resorting to kluges like Kernel Streaming to ASIO wrappers like ASIO4ALL.  (Not to say that ASIO4ALL is bad, just that it is only needed since you need to open up KS via ASIO if the application itself cannot.)
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: kingdaddy on June 15, 2006, 03:33:33 pm
I cant get ASIO4ALL driver to work with my M-Audio Delta 2496 card through MC11.1.185, is there another ASIO driver that I might try, the one that ships with the M-Audio card seems to be bad, it pauses and skips and burps.  The Audigy card I have works fine with ASIO4ALL or the Creative ASIO driver but that card resamples to 48K so I cant play my DTS 44.1 music.

Any Ideas where or what driver to try?
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: Matt on June 15, 2006, 05:29:28 pm
I cant get ASIO4ALL driver to work with my M-Audio Delta 2496 card through MC11.1.185, is there another ASIO driver that I might try, the one that ships with the M-Audio card seems to be bad, it pauses and skips and burps.

The M-Audio drivers are actually quite good from my experience.

Try to increase the "DMA Buffer Size" (or similar) for the card in their control panel.  Unless you're doing studio-type work where latency is critical, you may just want to pick the largest value possible. (probably 2048 or 4096 samples)  I'm guessing this will clear up the hiccups.

Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: kingdaddy on June 16, 2006, 03:50:44 pm
Na, didnt work, thanks for the response though, i'll keep searching for another ASIO driver that will work with this card.
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: Alex B on June 16, 2006, 04:04:15 pm
Do you have ASIO4ALL v.2.7 final?

I think the final version broke compatibility with MC11.1 on my system (P4/XP/Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 sound card).

I installed the latest beta version back and now it works again. I have not had time to test the behavior more.

The beta 1-4 versions are still available here: www.asio4all.com
Title: Re: Feature Request: Kernel Streaming Audio Output Support
Post by: kingdaddy on June 17, 2006, 10:55:32 am
I'm using the Beta 2.7 just like the one on the link you posted, but it dont work at all.  This is a compleatly new build on a fresh drive running nothing but music on Win XP Pro SP2.