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[audunth]

Hi!

In my 2 zone system, I have my living room zone connected to zone 2 on my receiver (which only supports analog connections) through the speaker jack of my onboard soundcard, and my HT zone connected through the HDMI port of my ATI HD4550 video card.

Every single time I switch between the zones, I have to configure the sound to work properly. When zone 1 is working, the center channel disappears in the living room, cause I only have 2 speakers there. If I configure AC3filter or ffdshow to mix into 2 channels to get proper sound in zone 2, I only get stereo in Zone 1 too. Therefore I tried activating Output Format under DSP for zone 2 and selected 2 channels stereo. Still no sound from the center channel (which means the center channel doesn't get mixed into my stereo speakers like if I configure AC3filter/ffdshow to output stereo). I tried adding ffdshow audio processor and activated the mixer there and set it to 2 channel stereo, still the center channel is silent. How come? Isn't that the whole function of the Output Format plugin?

I'm using WASAPI exclusive as output, maybe that's the problem? Doesn't the output format plugin work with WASAPI exclusive? I've selected the right output option for both zones in the WASAPI options, ATI HDMI for zone 1 and Speakers (High Definition Audio Device) for zone 2. If I use directsound it works even without activating output format or using the mixer in AC3filter/ffdshow, but I don't want lesser sound quality in my living room. If I select WASAPI non-exclusive, it gives me an error upon playback stating that the mixer hardware doesn't support the output format. After clicking okay twice (the error reappers the first time) the video plays correctly in stereo.

Another thing is under Video, when I select connection type, the setting is global, which means it transfers to the other zone. Although it doesn't make any difference what I set it to in my case, shouldn't it be zone specific?

I'm using Windows 7 and MC 15.0.56.

[Matt]

My advice is to disable all mixing in AC3Filter / FFDShow, including 'Mixer' in FFDShow.

The use DSP Studio (which is zone specific) to perform all mixing.  Specifically, configure 'Output Format' and 'Room Correction'.

I have a similar setup as yours at home, and this configuration works well for me.

[audunth]

Well, the point is, when using WASAPI exclusive mode, the settings in output format doesn't work. If I uncheck exclusive mode, it works, but then I get the error message unless the output matches the bitrate and sample frequency set in the sound card properties. It seems to me the DSP plugins get bypassed when using WASAPI exclusive.

AC3filter output is set to AS IS and the ffdshow mixer is unchecked and also set to same as input.

[Matt]

Well, the point is, when using WASAPI exclusive mode, the settings in output format doesn't work.

Could you explain why you think that?

WASAPI, WASAPI exclusive, ASIO, etc. have no impact on the DSP system -- they all get passed the same data.  With that said, if you don't get expected results, it's possible the soundcard driver is interfering differently depending on how you talk to it.

[audunth]

Because when I choose exclusive mode, even if I set output format to 2 channels and choose JRSS to downmix 5.1 into 2 channels, only the left and right channels of the source are passed to my living room stereo speakers. The center channel, which is mixed into the left and right speakers in any other mode, is silent, e.g. I hear no dialogue in movies.

[Matt]

Because when I choose exclusive mode, even if I set output format to 2 channels and choose JRSS to downmix 5.1 into 2 channels, only the left and right channels of the source are passed to my living room stereo speakers. The center channel, which is mixed into the left and right speakers in any other mode, is silent, e.g. I hear no dialogue in movies.

I'm stumped by this, because 5.1 to 2.0 mixing with WASAPI exclusive is working here.  I just tried with two different soundcards.

Does it say 'Enabled and processing data (2 channels, xxxxx Hz)' in DSP Studio > Output Format during playback? (it reports the number of channels _after_ conversion)

Perhaps it's failing to use the JRiver audio engine for some reason?

[audunth]

I'm even more stumped than you...after playing some music, reactivating exclusive mode because the music wouldn't play cause of the sampling/bitrate mismatch, I tried a video file again, still in exclusive mode, and now it works again. I didn't restart, I didn't change any other settings, just played some music files in between.

I had an almost similar case on my laptop, where suddenly WASAPI wouldn't work at all. When I copied the graph to Notepad, it showed that the JR audio renderer only had an input, so apparently it didn't connect to the sound card. After switching to Wave out (Direct sound didn't work either, and still doesn't) and playing a few audio tracks, I switched back to WASAPI exclusive, and it worked again. Strange!

So now the sound in both my zones work like it should, with analog stereo in the living room and multichannel PCM to my receiver in the home theater upon switching zones. I don't get sound in both rooms at the same time, but that I've never needed so far, since I'm only in one room at a time

I did a library backup so I can revert the settings if somehow it stops working in the future.

Anyway thanks for your help!