Hi,
I was trying out JRiver MC, and specifically the ASIO driver I was interested in. I wanted to route all the computer audio through the MC, so I could have for example crossfeed in Spotify, Youtube and such, and with the help of Hi-Fi Cable/ASIO Bridge it worked very well. Basically I've had very few problems:
1. As mentioned in posts above, some programs (e.g. JACK i was experimenting with) can't connect to JRiver ASIO. I think the problem lays in fact that it doesn't expose any input channels. See the difference between JR ASIO and ASIO4ALL:
Anyways, since ASIO Bridge connects without a problem, I consider it a non-issue, really.
2. The second problem(?) though, could possibly have some negative impact on sound quality. MC's ASIO clock seems to drift quite a lot compared to ASIO4ALL:
http://i.imgur.com/sIvgrUn.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/sxSKY9E.gifI looked it up, and supposedly this sample rate deviation causes some audible cracks. Again, I'm not TOO worried, since I'm getting occasionally pops and cracks caused by heavy computer activities, plus when I was a kid, I had a mono record player with piezo cartrige and a bunch of scratched, worn-out records, so I'm no stranger to cracks
, but it would be good to know what do you have to say about it nonetheless.
3. There was another thing I don't quite understand. I recon the only way to have web browser videos in sync with audio, is to output in WASAPI
non-exclusive (anything else causes video to be out of sync by the amount of the buffer you set). But even then, live playback latency is not compensated for (shouldn't MC just report to Windows a buffer increased by the amount of the latency?). Am I missing something here?
Now the REAL problem: $$$. I believe MC is fairly priced for what it is (a fully featured media center). But for someone like me, who basically is only after a DSP engine, the price is a little hard to swallow. Not to mention the fact that one needs quite a few third party programs to make it work:
You need obviously Hi-Fi Cable/ASIO Bridge (or equivalent)
You need a utility to hide the above (and the MC) in system tray upon Windows start.
In case you have (like me) a laptop with non-configurable media keys, you might need a volume control utility (like the excellent VolumeČ) after you change default audio device to Hi-Fi Cable.
Now, it was mentioned here that you are working on proper WDM driver, which would allow to easily set MC as default sound device in Windows, and still be able to use MC itself without any problems (right now it's associated with a lot of hassle), and maybe slowly migrate from other programs (Foobar and PotPlayer in my case). Off course it would be great if there was something like standalone DSP engine with Windows driver available for purchase for substantially less than $50, but I don't think there is a market for such product, unfortunately. So, the question is:
Any news on WDM Driver?