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More => Old Versions => Media Center 16 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: mArnell on May 24, 2011, 08:03:52 am

Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: mArnell on May 24, 2011, 08:03:52 am
The only two remaining issues are ASIO and not being able to watch movies on MC due to the audio not working.

In the End ASIO might be a non-issue if WASAPI is as good soundwise? (As long as I can escape windows messing the audio up and get bit-correct data at the optical output I'm happy.)

I would like to be able to watch movies as well of course but I can always opt for a different player for the movies if it doesn't work out?
Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: Lasse_Lus on May 24, 2011, 08:09:59 am
I would like to be able to watch movies as well of course but I can always opt for a different player for the movies if it doesn't work out?

you have correct filters installed ?
Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: Vincent Kars on May 24, 2011, 09:56:34 am
ASIO: it is a proprietary protocol.
Either your hardware supports it or not.
Obvious if your hardware is not ASIO compliant, you can’t use ASIO in MC.

WASAPI is more or less Microsoft’s own ASIO.
It talks straight to the sound card bypassing the Win audio engine (in exclusive mode)

Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: BryanC on May 24, 2011, 10:31:42 am
I don't know how you expect to use ASIO when your soundcard drivers obviously don't support it and you also don't want to install ASIO4ALL.
Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: glynor on May 24, 2011, 11:40:04 am
For essentially every reason that likely matters to you WASAPI is just as good, and less troublesome.
Title: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: dcyel on May 24, 2011, 01:34:37 pm
Hm...Do not agree. Asio sounds much better on my Terratec DMX Fire than Wasapi does.

Compared the two modes and even compared the sound with my Musical Fidelity dac on wasapi and Asio still wins it ?
Title: Re: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: Frobozz on May 24, 2011, 02:30:56 pm
Hm...Do not agree. Asio sounds much better on my Terratec DMX Fire than Wasapi does.

Compared the two modes and even compared the sound with my Musical Fidelity dac on wasapi and Asio still wins it ?

The general advice for choosing WASAPI over ASIO is for folks using DACs and audio interfaces that don't have a proper ASIO driver.  Your standard audiophile style USB DAC does not have an ASIO driver from the manufacturer.  In those cases folks have to use something like ASIO4ALL and that's just a kludge.  WASAPI is a better choice for those folks.

Your Terratec has a proper ASIO driver from the manufacturer.  It is designed to work properly with ASIO.  The ASIO driver is designed to work with the device and support the features of the device.  With the Terratec ASIO is still a reasonable choice.

If you have a DAC or sound card that doesn't have ASIO drivers from the manufacturer then WASAPI is likely a better supported option than trying to do ASIO4ALL.

Title: Re: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: Matt on May 24, 2011, 02:44:25 pm
This has some good information:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Audio_Output_Modes
Title: Re: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: glynor on May 24, 2011, 02:48:31 pm
If you have a DAC or sound card that doesn't have ASIO drivers from the manufacturer then WASAPI is likely a better supported option than trying to do ASIO4ALL.

That's what I meant.  It was not meant as a catch-all statement.
Title: Re: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: audioqueso on May 24, 2011, 07:33:07 pm
Whether one prefers the sound of ASIO over WASAPI is all a matter of personal taste.  I like ASIO.

The bigger difference is in the ease of use.  WASAPI is available with Windows 7 by default.  So the audio device driver will be able to support WASAPI because Windows allows it to.So if the program   can make use of it, it's already there.

This is not the case with ASIO.  A program may be able to make use of ASIO, but the sound device driver still needs to be able to support ASIO as well.  So let's say you have a sound device from company A, and company A's drivers also support ASIO... the Media Center + Company A sound device & driver is good to go.
But let's say you have a sound device from company B, and company B's driver do not support ASIO.  In this case, you could use something like ASIO4ALL (which is an ASIO driver) to allow your sound device from Company B to support ASIO.  So now you can use Media Center + Company B sound device + ASIO4ALL and get ASIO to work.
Does this make sense?

Also, in your last thread you mentioned about the master volume not working.  Windows master volume control is not suppose to do anything with ASIO and WASAPI.
Title: Re: ASIO or WASAPI
Post by: Matt on May 24, 2011, 08:01:10 pm
Also, in your last thread you mentioned about the master volume not working.  Windows master volume control is not suppose to do anything with ASIO and WASAPI.

This is often the case, but not always.  About half of devices still allow controlling the gain on the analog outputs with ASIO or WASAPI.