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[blgentry]

I'm playing with some virtual zones.  These are zones that use one or more channels on an interface that other zones use too.  For example Left Zone, Right Zone, and LR Zone.

I'd like Left to stop LR.  I'd like Right to stop LR.  Finally, I'd like LR to stop Left and Right.  Seems straightforward.  But I'm stumped because I can't figure out what to trigger these zone switch rules with.  I want to select a zone, add some files to play and when they start playing, stop the appropriate zone.  So when I play in Left zone, I want LR zone to stop.

I've tried making ZoneSwitch rules without any "Engage" rule.  They don't work and actually act very strangely.  Am I missing something?

Brian.

[mwillems]

I've tried making ZoneSwitch rules without any "Engage" rule.  They don't work and actually act very strangely.  Am I missing something?

Could you explain a little more what "act very strangely" means?  The misbehavior could help diagnose the issue.

[blgentry]

When I select (for example) Left zone and double click a file (in the albums view) to play, it doesn't play.  Instead, it plays whatever was listed first in the Left zone.  But it's really weird because Right zone does work.  It's tied to the ordering of the Zone Switch rules.  If I change their order, Left zone works as expected, but then Right zone doesn't.

Again, I feel like I'm missing something with Engage.  Because I'm ONLY using Zone Switch to stop zones I don't want to play.  I'm not actually auto-assigning a zone based on any criteria.  I'm *Manually* choosing a zone, then clicking on files to play.  I only want Zone Switch to stop the zones that should not be playing.  I hope that all makes sense.

Brian.

[mwillems]

When I select (for example) Left zone and double click a file (in the albums view) to play, it doesn't play.  Instead, it plays whatever was listed first in the Left zone.  But it's really weird because Right zone does work.  It's tied to the ordering of the Zone Switch rules.  If I change their order, Left zone works as expected, but then Right zone doesn't.

Again, I feel like I'm missing something with Engage.  Because I'm ONLY using Zone Switch to stop zones I don't want to play.  I'm not actually auto-assigning a zone based on any criteria.  I'm *Manually* choosing a zone, then clicking on files to play.  I only want Zone Switch to stop the zones that should not be playing.  I hope that all makes sense.

Brian.

That's odd, I'm positive that Zoneswitch worked for stopping playback without engagement rules at one point, but in testing right now I'm seeing the same behavior you are.  Maybe I'm missing something too and someone can weigh in on the secret sauce.  I hope I didn't lead you down a dead end on that one.

The good news is that you can probably reproduce the exact same behavior by using exclusive access modes for audio output.  When you attempt to start playback in JRiver in an exclusive access mode when playback is already ongoing on the same device, JRiver will stop playback on the device and start playback fresh. So if the zones need to be mutually exclusive you can have them all use WASAPI exclusive or something, and they'll automatically shut each other off.

[blgentry]

The good news is that you can probably reproduce the exact same behavior by using exclusive access modes for audio output.  When you attempt to start playback in JRiver in an exclusive access mode when playback is already ongoing on the same device, JRiver will stop playback on the device and start playback fresh. So if the zones need to be mutually exclusive you can have them all use WASAPI exclusive or something, and they'll automatically shut each other off.

I was doing my initial testing on my Mac system.  Then, much later, I remoted in to my friend's Windows 10 system and talked to him on the phone while setting up zones.

I inadvertently set up all zones as WASAPI "open with exclusive access".  Neither of my new "Left" or "Right" zones would play.  I kept getting "playback could not be started..." messages.  I unchecked exclusive on all three zones.  No dice; same behavior.  I changed them all to Direct Access and then all 3 zones would play.

I didn't have time to diagnose all of this, as we had a LOT of ground to cover otherwise.  I'm not sure what this means, as I'm new to windows audio modes.  I had thought WASAPI would be the best I could do, in terms of sound quality, so that's what I wanted to use.  I only switched as a troubleshooting measure.  This is all for demo purposes anyway:  I'll be switching it all back to just a single left-right zone soon.  This was proof of concept for what might be done with a 7.1 channel USB DAC.

Thanks,

Brian.

[mwillems]

I was doing my initial testing on my Mac system.  Then, much later, I remoted in to my friend's Windows 10 system and talked to him on the phone while setting up zones.

I inadvertently set up all zones as WASAPI "open with exclusive access".  Neither of my new "Left" or "Right" zones would play.  I kept getting "playback could not be started..." messages.  I unchecked exclusive on all three zones.  No dice; same behavior.  I changed them all to Direct Access and then all 3 zones would play.

I didn't have time to diagnose all of this, as we had a LOT of ground to cover otherwise.  I'm not sure what this means, as I'm new to windows audio modes.  I had thought WASAPI would be the best I could do, in terms of sound quality, so that's what I wanted to use.  I only switched as a troubleshooting measure.  This is all for demo purposes anyway:  I'll be switching it all back to just a single left-right zone soon.  This was proof of concept for what might be done with a 7.1 channel USB DAC.

Thanks,

Brian.

That's all odd; when I try to playback to a device using wasapi exclusive when JRiver is already playing back in another zone it just stops the first zone and starts playing back in the second.  Maybe it's device dependent?  That's all pretty odd.

[blgentry]

This was on a pretty basic system with a (dreaded) Realtek Audio card (I think built in, but I've never seen the computer so I'm not sure).  I've read of lots of weirdness with RealTek so maybe it's just that:  driver weirdness?

Doing this remote makes it more difficult to be precise.

Brian.

[mwillems]

This was on a pretty basic system with a (dreaded) Realtek Audio card (I think built in, but I've never seen the computer so I'm not sure).  I've read of lots of weirdness with RealTek so maybe it's just that:  driver weirdness?

Doing this remote makes it more difficult to be precise.

Brian.

Remoting makes things weird for sure; will you get a chance to try it hands on and do additional diagnosis?  Meanwhile it sounds like direct sound works in a basic way?

[pschelbert]

Hi

I experience the same problem.
What I want to do:
1) Play on Zone "Player1" flac files from Harddisk, out of the library in JRiver
2) Play form Spotify or Qobuz etc. from a Webplayer. Here I configured zone "JRiver Audio Input"
For this to work, I use the WDM-Driver, in Windows System Sound Playback: JRiver MC21 Driver

Output goes to the same ASIO-device (a RME Fireface UFX), ASIO Driver used

Player1: I configured 12 channels
JRiver Audio Input: I configured 2 channels stereo

If I let both in 12 channel, then playback refuses and an error message says it can't play-back


Now I want the Zone-Switch to toggle from flac streaming to Webplayer. Therefore I configured ZoneRules: either zone stops if the other plays.

However doing this, it still does not work. After playing one Zone, I can wait and try several times the other zone playing sometimes it works after some trials.
Sometimes I just need to shut down JRiver and restart. Then it works.


Looks like the ASIO-device is not released by Zone-switching. How can I enforce that?

Peter

I'm playing with some virtual zones.  These are zones that use one or more channels on an interface that other zones use too.  For example Left Zone, Right Zone, and LR Zone.

I'd like Left to stop LR.  I'd like Right to stop LR.  Finally, I'd like LR to stop Left and Right.  Seems straightforward.  But I'm stumped because I can't figure out what to trigger these zone switch rules with.  I want to select a zone, add some files to play and when they start playing, stop the appropriate zone.  So when I play in Left zone, I want LR zone to stop.

I've tried making ZoneSwitch rules without any "Engage" rule.  They don't work and actually act very strangely.  Am I missing something?

Brian.

[blgentry]

Remoting makes things weird for sure; will you get a chance to try it hands on and do additional diagnosis?  Meanwhile it sounds like direct sound works in a basic way?

Sorry I missed this when it was posted.  I won't be able to see this system in person for several weeks as it is several hundred miles from me.  Direct Sound is working "in a basic way" as you describe. 

I've since been playing with EOS remote for zone linking and unlinking and I think this is probably the model we will use for his multi-zone playback.  So the reason for my initial experiments mostly doesn't exist any more.  I was going to make hybrid zones as you (mwilliems) suggested.  I don't think there's any need now that EOS is involved.

Thanks,

Brian.