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More => Old Versions => Media Center 13 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: fehguy on May 06, 2009, 09:51:03 am

Title: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: fehguy on May 06, 2009, 09:51:03 am

Hi all, I'm using MC13 as a centralized media server to multiple zones.  This is done with a PC with two video cards which are sending audio and video into my Russound CAV6.6 amplifier.  The MC link software generously donated by hyslopc controls it all, and it works great!

The issue I'm having is regarding video on my 2nd zone.  I'm encoding video into MP4 format, which MC apparently uses some portion of quicktime for playing back.  But when playing video back, the audio only goes out the primary sound card, which happens to be on zone 1.  I can play audio back through zone 2 no problem.  It's just video (and probably just video through the quicktime components).

Any tips on getting around this issue?  Perhaps a better format to encode into?  Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: JimH on May 06, 2009, 10:23:15 am

You could read about these subjects:

DirectShow
CCCP
Video Formats

in our wiki:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Category:Frequently_Asked_Questions

MC can use the QT engine or it can use DirectShow filters to play video (set in Options/FileType in MC13).  DirectShow might solve your problem.

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: fehguy on May 06, 2009, 11:22:20 am

worked like a charm.  Thanks so much for the quick reply!

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: JimH on May 06, 2009, 11:47:00 am

I'm glad it's working.  Thanks for reporting back.

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: fehguy on May 07, 2009, 12:35:21 am

I may have spoken too soon.  Looks like i'm not understanding how the zone manager is configuring the directShow playback settings.

If i go to Player/playback options/zone manager and configure zone 1, I set the Video/DirectShow playback options so that the "audio renderer" is using audio card 1.  If i then go to configure zone 2 and set the same setting so that it's using audio card 2, the change affects zone 1.  So this means i can never have the two audio cards in use on two different zones.

I thought it was working correctly because i finally had it working on zone 2.  But I didn't realize that zone 1 was affected as well.

I just grabbed the latest version of jrmc, version 13.0.166.  Still does it.

Any ideas on this?

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: Yaobing on May 07, 2009, 08:16:07 am

Quote from: fehguy on May 07, 2009, 12:35:21 am

I may have spoken too soon.  Looks like i'm not understanding how the zone manager is configuring the directShow playback settings.

If i go to Player/playback options/zone manager and configure zone 1, I set the Video/DirectShow playback options so that the "audio renderer" is using audio card 1.  If i then go to configure zone 2 and set the same setting so that it's using audio card 2, the change affects zone 1.  So this means i can never have the two audio cards in use on two different zones.

I thought it was working correctly because i finally had it working on zone 2.  But I didn't realize that zone 1 was affected as well.

I just grabbed the latest version of jrmc, version 13.0.166.  Still does it.

Any ideas on this?

Make sure you actually switch to zone 2 (Player > Playback Options > Zone 2) before going to Tools > Options > Playback > Video > DirectShow video playback settings... to select audio renderer for the zone.

Title: Re: Playing video on multiple zones
Post by: fehguy on May 07, 2009, 09:33:15 am

fantastic!  that did it.

Might want to make that more clear in the UI.  Previously I did go to the zone manager and select the zone to change before setting the directshow audio output device.  But i don't mind the extra step of actually switching zones before configuring.

thank you much