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Author Topic: Audio Device: WASAPI Playing 4 or 5 Channel Music  (Read 579 times)

kkloh

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Audio Device: WASAPI Playing 4 or 5 Channel Music
« on: December 24, 2018, 02:59:47 am »

I have set a zone that plays multichannel music file in its original format, i.e. it does not have any MC's DSP applied except that it has HDMI bitstreaming. The Audio Device selected is WASAPI. My Win 10 PC is connected to Yamaha RX-A3070 AVR via HDMI. The Yamaha AVR uses "Straight" sound mode, thereby bypassing any built-in DSP.

6 channel music (DTS, Dolby Digital, MPL etc) plays fine, but I notice that when playing 4 or 5 channel music, the AVR front panel shows only 3 channel, FL+FR+SW and there is no sound coming out from SR+SL+SBR+SBL. However, when I set the zone's Audio Device in MC24 to Directsound, the AVR front panel displays all channels as active and sound does come out from all speakers. Besides, the volume under Directsound seems to be noticeably higher that that under WASAPI.

I always thought WASAPI should perform better than Directsound. Has the latest Windows update enhanced Directsound somehow?

I am puzzled! I truly appreciate the forum's comments and advice. Many thanks.
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Hendrik

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Re: Audio Device: WASAPI Playing 4 or 5 Channel Music
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2018, 04:29:01 am »

Mini-Standard Channel Layouts like 4/5 channel are problematic over HDMI. When you use DirectSound, windows up/downmixes for you. If you use WASAPI and MC isn't doing any mixing, then nothing will, and you run into such issues.

What you could do is set MC to 5.1 but disable mixing, then it'll just add empty channels to reach a "default" 6 channel setup.
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