Sound from center and rear speakers and other issues when viewing programs in full screen

Discussion of getting WMC to work on Windows 10 (unsupported)
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al.rob

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Sound from center and rear speakers and other issues when viewing programs in full screen

#1

Post by al.rob » Tue Dec 31, 2019 1:16 am

I discovered that there is no sound from the rear and center channel speakers in Windows 10 Media Center unless I start the program playing while still in a window and then expand it to full screen. This is obviously not a huge deal, but if anyone knows of a fix, I'd appreciate it. My Windows 7 Media Center was not like this. I have run all of the other scripts, to correct the "tuners in use" and "thumbnail" issues and it is working fine otherwise, although I have some programs that will not run full screen. The audio plays continuously, but the screen keeps going dark and briefly returns before going dark again. Most are fine, but seemingly randomly some don't work and I have to view them in a window expanded as much as possible to almost be full screen. I have Windows 10 Build 1903.

Thanks,

Al

technodevotee

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#2

Post by technodevotee » Tue Dec 31, 2019 7:24 am

You didn't say which version of WMC you installed and that can make a difference here.

I think that WMC is using the Windows Speaker settings while windowed and retains them when you switch to full screen but I assume it is using the WMC settings when you start full screen.

Depending on which version of WMC you have, you may need to set the Speakers differently. In V13, you should be able to set them both to 5.1 but in other versions, you might need to set Windows to stereo and WMC to 5.1. In that case, installing my app paths might help.

I've not encountered the issue with some programs (Recorded TV programmes?) not playing full screen and going dark so I have no ideas about that other than checking that Windows is using the best driver for your Graphics card, which isn't necessarily the one that Windows thinks is the best.

al.rob

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#3

Post by al.rob » Mon Jan 06, 2020 12:25 am

Sorry for the delay, but I was away. I am using the latest V13. I Windows, I set the audio for "stereo fill", which supplies simulated surround sound to the rear and center speakers when it is a stereo program. Most of the stuff I record is not actually in 5.1, so in most cases that is what I am getting. I also set up WMC for 5.1 and the speakers test fine when doing the WMC audio setup.

I am using the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 drivers, which match that of the graphics card, not a Windows driver.

Thanks,

Al

technodevotee

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#4

Post by technodevotee » Mon Jan 06, 2020 7:36 am

I've never used that feature so don't know how WMC copes with it and can't really comment.

There could well be differences between the two operating systems that WMC doesn't like. After all, WMC was ported from Windows 8 which was likely closer in how elements of it worked in Windows 7 so it is a miracle that it works as well as it does on Windows 10.

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