Switching between stereo and surround sound

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hooraah

Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:43 pm
Location: West Palm, FL

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Switching between stereo and surround sound

#1

Post by hooraah » Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:56 pm

Hey all,

First post here, been using media center for some time. Next item on my list of things to do is, if possible, come up with a better way of switching between playback sources.

I have an old reciever thats capable of dolby digital 5.1 and supposedly DTS (although I can never get the DTS to work). Also, it obviously has the individual channels in (thats the way I usually use it), with windows set to use the mini-jacks in 5.1 configuration. I also have FFDshow setup this way (3/0/0 with LFE).

This setup confuses and angers some people in the house that don't understand the reciever has to be turned on and off for audio, and to be honest, most of the time we're just watching something where 2.0 channel stereo through HDMI to the TV would be fine.

If I want to change it to use stereo over HDMI, I can change the default playback device in windows, but it messes with the FFDshow output pretty bad and all the mixers have to be set back to 2/0 audio.

This doesn't even touch switching to digital for the few movies I have encoded in DD, or watching a movie on digital cable thats broadcast in DD. Then I have to switch the audio output to optical, but anything NOT in DD only comes through as stereo.

So, any pearls of wisdom for quick and easy switching of audio output sources with corresponding configuration? Or is this the nature of the beast?

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WarrenH

Posts: 135
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:37 am
Location: Kent, UK

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#2

Post by WarrenH » Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:57 pm

Yes, it's the nature of the beast, go over to hack7mc.com and search for MCE audio renderer. It's a small utility that plugs in to MC and will give you fast switching from your remote.

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cw-kid

Posts: 707
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:53 pm
Location: United Kingdom

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#3

Post by cw-kid » Sun Oct 16, 2011 12:24 pm

Stuart

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