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Author Topic: Zone Switch with Mixed Media Types  (Read 1810 times)

blgentry

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Zone Switch with Mixed Media Types
« on: December 15, 2015, 09:39:39 am »

I'm having some trouble with how this works.  Conceptually, let's say I want to play DSD and PCM files on my system.  But I want to treat them differently in some way.  This is a common requirement right?  Like bitsteaming DSD, but playing PCM files normally using DSP Studio.

So I set up two zones:  PCM Player and DSD Player.  I set up mutually exclusive zone switch rules that stop the other zone.  So when PCM plays, it stops the DSD zone.  And visa versa.  Testing:

1.  Double click a PCM file:  It should go to the PCM zone and start playing.  If DSD Zone was playing, it should stop first.
2.  Double click a DSD file:  Should go to the DSD Zone and start playing.  If PCM Zone was playing, it should stop first.

So far, I'm pretty sure that's right.  Now:

3.  Make a mixed playlist of DSD and PCM files.  Right click on the list and select "Play".  What should happen?  In my limited testing, it seems to send only part of the playlist to which ever zone is currently active.  So if PCM Player is selected when you do this, all the PCM songs go there, but nothing happens to the DSD songs.

Is that what's supposed to happen?  Seems broken.  How could you ever play a mixed list using zone switch?  Maybe I'm missing something fundamental here.

Brian.

I think the Mac version has it's own zone issues and I've started a separate topic about th
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mwillems

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Re: Zone Switch with Mixed Media Types
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2015, 11:12:21 am »

I'm having some trouble with how this works.  Conceptually, let's say I want to play DSD and PCM files on my system.  But I want to treat them differently in some way.  This is a common requirement right?  Like bitsteaming DSD, but playing PCM files normally using DSP Studio.

So I set up two zones:  PCM Player and DSD Player.  I set up mutually exclusive zone switch rules that stop the other zone.  So when PCM plays, it stops the DSD zone.  And visa versa.  Testing:

1.  Double click a PCM file:  It should go to the PCM zone and start playing.  If DSD Zone was playing, it should stop first.
2.  Double click a DSD file:  Should go to the DSD Zone and start playing.  If PCM Zone was playing, it should stop first.

So far, I'm pretty sure that's right.  Now:

3.  Make a mixed playlist of DSD and PCM files.  Right click on the list and select "Play".  What should happen?  In my limited testing, it seems to send only part of the playlist to which ever zone is currently active.  So if PCM Player is selected when you do this, all the PCM songs go there, but nothing happens to the DSD songs.

Is that what's supposed to happen?  Seems broken.  How could you ever play a mixed list using zone switch?  Maybe I'm missing something fundamental here.

Brian.

I think the Mac version has it's own zone issues and I've started a separate topic about th

Zoneswitch does not switch within playlists, and this is a known limitation of the feature.  That limitation is one of the problems that DSP per track was supposed to help solve, but that has it's own limits (which you're familiar with).  This is a cross-platform issue, and Matt has previously expressed that this would be hard to fix with the current playing now model (zoneswitch only "triggers" when things are sent to playing now, it never triggers within the playing now playlist).

So there's no way to use zoneswitch with a mixed content playlist, and you're not seeing anything anomalous. 
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blgentry

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Re: Zone Switch with Mixed Media Types
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2015, 11:51:22 am »

So there's no way to use zoneswitch with a mixed content playlist, and you're not seeing anything anomalous. 

Thank you for the confirmation and information.

I'm having a separate issue with zone switch that I've started another thread on.  Having them both at the same time made me unsure about my logic, setup, and expectations.

To me, this all points to a possible improvement in audio handling like the one suggested this morning.  Of course, once you start adding things like DSD to the DSP Output Format mapping, it begs the question of what you would do with the other bitstreamble formats.  I'd like to see a unified audio configuration that marries all of the PCM formats and all of the bitstreamable formats together.

Brian.
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