Windows 7 Taskforce

Ensign Joe wrote on November 4, 2008, 12:29am

In Media Player it's not that difficult but you still have to at least fully stop playpack (Stop-button NOT pause) and restart playback... Really annoying especially for users of USB headsets which work as additional audio device

envi wrote on November 4, 2008, 12:51am

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Inside-W...ew-audio-capabilities/

liebezeit wrote on November 4, 2008, 5:27am

envi, I see W7 apparently supports dynamically switched output in the form of "StreamSwitch". This is wonderful to hear. I will edit my submission to focus on what would be even more wonderful--multiple outputs.

untermensch wrote on November 4, 2008, 9:30am

I use Vista Media Center, and dont want to run my 1Kw AV reciever to watch
the news (audio over HDMI) so I run the HDMI to the TV (only accepts stereo)
and use another SPDIF output device for the AV reciever to watch movies with
5.1/7.1 sound tracks.

It would be awsome if...

1. I could send audio to 2 audio devices simultaneaously, stereo on 1 device
and multichannel on the other.

or

2. allow applications to choose the output device, for instance I could setup ffdshow
to output on the SPDIF device connected to the AV reciever for movies, and
setup Media Center to downmix to stereo and output on the HDMI audio device
for Law & Order reruns.

hpmoon wrote on November 4, 2008, 5:49pm

I agree that simultaneous audio output (e.g., analog audio out and digital S/PDIF audio out at the same time of the same stream) is long-overdue. Adding to the suggestions here, many applications already allow you to set the audio output in the application preferences, so that each application can stream to different audio outputs (e.g., the popular PowerDVD). StreamSwitch will add nothing to those applications, but will still be useful for a unified/mandatory approach to the same.

What will still be lacking is a highly dynamic StreamSwitch feature which could direct the audio stream to different outputs and/or combinations of outputs. For example, I have a video DVR on my computer called Beyond TV, and in some cases I load the client shell onto my desktop computer screen; other times I load it onto my upstairs big-screen HDTV; and other times I load it onto my workout room monitor. All of these locations receive audio from unique ports on my PC; audio should be distributed based simply on what I want to do: Watch upstairs, watch while jogging on the elliptical, watch while working in front of the PC on the "secondary" monitor.

netarc wrote on November 6, 2008, 6:49am

As with WinXP MCE, future versions of MCE should be able to allow audio streams to multiple audio outputs simultaneously ... at the VERY least, a single sound card should be able to output the the audio stream via both DD/DTS and stereo (downmixed) outputs at the same time.

Webweaver wrote on November 19, 2008, 10:22pm

We, too, want to send audio to multiple places; at least one-on-many.
Many-to-many preferably.
Scenario-1: on our HTPC, we want HDMI to TV via HDMI cable, want S/PDIF to A/V Rcvr, want Bluetooth headset via blue tooth, want standard stereo out(green jack) to "TV Ears". ALL this to facilitate hearing requirements of our family. (one-to-many).
Scenario-2: many-2-many; Laptop in motorhome for GPS, etc. We want to run a Media player and GPS and audio mapping applications simultaineously; and, get their outputs on standard (green jack) into motorhome radio (aux in); and on Blutooth headset for GPS verbals. At least 2-on-2 global; preferably multiple
1-on-1s.

mika wrote on November 23, 2008, 9:25am

This is even more important with bluetooth headsets becoming more mainstream. We should be able to hear on mutiple bluetooth headsets from the same source (ex dvd movie playing)

jcydon wrote on December 10, 2008, 4:14pm

This is one of the many reasons why so many users are frustrated with Vista. Why would microsoft take away functionality that was available in older versions of Windows? Multiple sound output is a very common and desirable use. Vista seems like a dumbed down version of previous Windows. Also, why are there so many different ways (at least three I have found so far) to adjust the volume in Vista? Which one are we suppsed to use!?

Dig.Music wrote on December 22, 2008, 1:35am

This is a critical feature as PCs make their way into living rooms as media centers. Please implement the "many to many" fix. It seems to me that all applications should output to all enabled audio devices simultaneously by default. More advanced users should be able to map individual applications to individual devices on the fly through the Volume Mixer.

TechPlayer wrote on January 2, 2009, 9:31am

My requirement is for simultaneous digital surround sound and analog stereo sound for a HTPC. We have an AV receiver for the main viewing area, but also view from an adjacent area where the sound doesn't reach well. For that we have an extension stereo amplifier and speakers.

snord wrote on January 10, 2009, 12:28am

I also think simultaneous digital / analog sounds should be a requirement. It is very inconvenient to have to go into the MCE speaker(audio) setups each time you wish to toggle between the two. For instance my wife and kids don't like to mess with the AV receiver and the analog just goes to the TV. I like to route to to my receiver when I watch movies. It seems a pity not to have them both "hot". A $50 dvd player has been able to do this for ages but not an expensive media center PC?

liebezeit wrote on January 10, 2009, 2:41am

My use case: I have a bluetooth audio receiver that I would like to use occasionally. I would use it a lot more often if it could stay "hot"...then I could just turn the receiver on. As it is now, it's quit playback, shutdown the app, connect bluetooth, set default output device, restart application, figure out where I was, resume playback....and that REPEAT the entire process to switch back to internal output.....WHAT A USABILITY NIGHTMARE!

johnren wrote on January 27, 2009, 10:22pm

As this pertains to this issue as well as the one located here: http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/1068, I decided to post this to both.

The ability to output the same stream to multiple audio devices and different streams to different devices is much needed.

In Windows XP, we were able to use the Windows Media Player 9-11 SDK to play sound to whatever soundcard device was set as the default playback device when the application was loaded. This was done using the SoundMapper registry key, see http://andocs.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/choosing...playback-device-in-xp/ for an example. This allowed us to start multiple instances of the same application and have them output different or the same audio to different audio devices.

In Vista, we switched the default audio device using "macros" to bring up the audio control panel and set the default audio device. In this case, the audio was forced to the default audio device that was set when the audio started playing in the WMP SDK instance rather than when the application was loaded. This allowed multiple instances to output to multiple audio sources at the same time.

This was not officially supported by Windows XP. The issue for us is that in this age of digitial media and connected homes/businesses, with what we were given in XP (semi-programmatic) and Vista (macros), workarounds were created to provide this functionality for applications and customers that needed it, in our case, 10,000+ customers.


If Windows 7 continues with adding support for "Stream Switching" without giving the ability for a program to opt out, a general case, or in our specific situation, have the WMP SDK allow us to set the output audio device for the WMP SDK instance (this is if your statement that Stream Switching won't switch audio for applications that have specified a specific output device) then there will be a bunch of unhappy customers. This also applies to other audio SDKs and applications that do not support specifying an output device and instead always use the default audio device.

This feature was not removed in Vista. Vista just needed a different method for setting the default audio device than XP did. But in the case of Windows 7, this non-intentional, though necessary feature has finally been killed/removed.

Our Connect Feedback for this issue is located at: https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeed...=399755&SiteID=647

I hope my postings to different places aren't bothersome. I'm just trying to make sure the people that need to see this information see it before it is too late and our company and other companies have a lot of unhappy customers.

Thank you,

John

jinskip wrote on January 31, 2009, 4:58pm

I cannot understand why Microsoft has taken away the ability to output analog & digital audio simultaneously in Vista. Why have that done that? This worked so well in WinXP. I'm also sick to death of having to close down whatever application I am using every time I wish to switch to a different sound playback device (ie headphones, digital out to TV, analog out to speakers, digital out to amp). I have been waiting since the launch of Vista for a resolution to this to no avail. Microsoft have told me that they are working on the issue, but how long do we have to wait? I've got so fed up of it all, I've diched Vista and gone back to XP. Shame on Microsoft that old software can do things better than their latest OS.

pippz wrote on March 1, 2009, 5:24pm

Dear GOD IN HEAVEN can you please implement this? My setup is based on two USB-connected speakers behind me and the in-built speakers of my monitor so if I could only get those two to play at the same time, I have kind of surround sound, which is the only thing missing from my otherwise perfect setup!

nikost4 wrote on March 16, 2009, 4:18am

Hi I just watched the "Inside Windows 7: Larry Osterman on new audio capabilities" interview on channel 9 ( http://news.softpedia.com/news/Audio-Enhancements-in-Windows-7-97649.shtml ) and am verry happy with all the changes your making to the windows7 audio subsystem, especialy the live streeming. But I think this is a major feature that is still missing.

Here is how I would go about solving the problem atleast from a UI perspective
First is being able to assign a default audio device on a per ablication bases. I think this could be realy nicely done in the "Volume Mixer" by adding a drop down menu under the mute icon, to choose/display the default audio out curently being used for that program.
The second feature I would like to see added is realy just an extension of the first idea. It consists of a configeration button under the drop down menu. Inside the configeration window you would be able to choose the 1st, 2nd........... default audio out for that program incase the first isn't present. This could be done again using drop down menus, the first would have what ever the default audio device is. The second would say "none" until the user selected thier secondery default device. If one was selected a third drop downe menu would apear saying "none" until the user selected thier tershiry default device and this could repeat until all the audio devices are selected.

The part that I would realy realy realy like to see implemented is outputting the audio to multiple devices symotaniusly. This could be done in a simelar way. So Inside the configeration window you would be able
to choose the 1st, 2nd........... audio output device for that program. This could be done again using drop down menus, the first would have what ever the default audio
device is. The second would say "none" until the user selected thier secondery audio output device. If one was selected a third drop downe menu would apear saying "none" until the user selected their tershiry audio output device and this could repeat until all the audio devices are selected. In addition to this there would need to be a small configeration button beside each of these devices.
This is needed to take into acount the small delays through the different audio pathes. In this configuration window syncrenisation slyders could be introduced to add delay to the particular audio path.
This would allow the user to fine tune the setup to get the best experiance.
I suppose the same could be done for adio input devices this would be useful in letting programs like skype use multiple mics at the same time.

Obviously these additions would be very useful for media PCs in particular when they have to play audio throughout the household. That said I would realy like to see this added to windows7 or its sp1.
Hopefully sooner rather than later

spplutchok wrote on March 19, 2009, 9:28am

Please add this back into Win7. I wear hearing aids that are Bluetooth enabled. I purchased an AZIO Bluetooth USB device that will broadcast stereo sound directly to my hearing aids. The problem is that Vista and Win7 only allow audio output to one device/stream. I have a ATI video card where I use the HDMI video/audio output to my Sony Bravia. The ATI card supports 7.1 sound and is great. I NEED to have my AZIO working concurrently so I can appreciate the great Blue-ray audio as well.

Concurrent audio is a NEEDED feature. Please get it in WIN7!!!

egfx wrote on April 5, 2009, 12:16pm

Yep, I agree. I didnt realize this was a missing feature. I thought I was doing something wrong and just couldnt figure out how to do it. I want to be able to output audio through my HDMI cable connected to my TV and at the same time have audio play through my 5.1 speakers connected to my computer.

xpclient wrote on April 13, 2009, 2:40pm

Looks like this a high-impact very high-demand feature. This has been acknowledged by an Microsoft MCE team member here (http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/183405.aspx) and is mentioned in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_removed_from_Windows_Vista#Multimedia : "In Windows XP, essentially, audio would be "broadcast" to all the audio endpoints at once. However, the new audio engine in Windows Vista changes this behaviour. Basically, audio can be sent only to the specific endpoint that the system has set by default, or which the user has configured via the Control Panel setting. Although this new audio behavior provides more flexibility and separate Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities, it is limiting in cases where audio has to be streamed locally or across the network to multiple devices (analog to one and digital to another). "

There are 2 workaround IMO for the issue. One is to use a third-party utility like Virtual Audio Cable. Other is to use apps which directly access the sound hardware (using ASIO or other APIs) and let you specify which output device to use ignoring the default Windows setting.

bheav wrote on June 6, 2009, 11:59pm

Please, please, Please!

bheav wrote on June 7, 2009, 12:02am

tempted to back to XP