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[mattkhan]

One use of zones with zoneswitch is a way to apply different DSP configurations for particular content. This typically means using an exclusive zoneswitch rule and a set of zones that all target the same physical output device. This works just fine.

However in a remote view, these zones appear as playback targets and remote control targets. IME this confuses users and makes those remotes somewhat harder to use and/or more error prone because you can't actually play to a particular zone as the zoneswitch rule will override any user choice.

A bigger request is to refactor zones to separate 2 different uses of zones (for physical outputs, e.g. multi room, and dsp config) so this request is simply to provide a mechanism to hide/group these zones in some way so that they appear as one to a remote. For example, perhaps we could create a named group of zones and have zoneswitch automatically apply an exclusive rule within those zones. The zone group would be the only zone presented to remotes.

This would mean something like

- create zone group
- add 1 or more content rules; each rule adds a child zone + is added to the automatically created zoneswitch rule

[RD James]

I agree.
A lot of DSP needs to be moved out of zones altogether, and controlled by some other rule-based switching.
Zones should describe a location or output device, not a DSP config.
It shouldn't be necessary to have separate zones for multichannel audio, DSD audio, stereo audio etc. That splits this media into separate playlists and they cannot be played together.
It should be possible to apply DSP based on file property tags like genre, sample rate, keywords, or anything else.

[rec head]

I don't think this is the first time that the name "zones" are confusing has come up. What to change it to? My vote is in the previous post: DSP RBS (Rule Based Switching).

Now how to change everyone's current Zones to Locations and DSP RBS without swamping the boards with how everything just got messed up?

[RD James]

I don't think this is the first time that the name "zones" are confusing has come up. What to change it to? My vote is in the previous post: DSP RBS (Rule Based Switching).
Now how to change everyone's current Zones to locations and DSP RBS without swamping the boards with how everything just got messed up?

The issue is not the name, it's the functionality.
If I were to treat zones like it was a rule-based DSP system, I'd have 20+ zones and I'd never have a complete playlist in any of them, since each zone has its own playlist.
The point is to have one zone per room or device, and a subset of DSP rules per-zone.
 
If DSD is played to Zone A, perform DSP 01.
If a Multichannel file is played to Zone A, perform DSP 02.
If a stereo file is played to Zone A, perform DSP 03.
If DSD is played to Zone B, perform DSP 11.
If a file with a sample-rate above 48kHz is played to Zone B, perform DSP 12.
If Multichannel is played to Zone C perform DSP 21.
If any file is played in Zone C and it is after 9PM, enable Night Mode and reduce volume by 6dB.
If an album is tagged with the keyword "binaural" disable the headphone DSP in any zone.
If video height is >1080 play using RoHQ, otherwise use custom-mode video settings - or custom config A and B etc.

Ideally there would be a base DSP config per-zone, and rules would be layered on top of that.
All DSP changes from the zone's default config should be temporary and revert when that rule no longer applies; e.g. playing a binaural track would disable headphone DSP for those tracks, but it would be enabled for any other tracks.

[rec head]

Sorry I didn't mean to say that the name was the problem rather that the term Zones might encompass too much on it's own. Having Zones be a location and DSP Switching be available per zone would be nice.