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    #1

    splitting a soundcard to use in 2 zones

    I have been using 2 sound cards for a while to play two playlist through my house, and now im starting to get greedy and i want more. I have been looking around trying to find a way to split a sound card to be used for 2 different zones. From what i have found, there is no way in the OS to take one sound card and have the system see it as two separate sound cards. But i think i have a solution. I would like to use a 5.1 plugin and in one instance of winamp, push all the audio to the front speakers (mute the rear) and in another instance push all the audio to the back (mute the front). I have already had two instances of winamp playing through the same sound card at once so i know its almost possible, but i cant seem to find a good winamp plugin that will allow me to reach my end goal.

    So to the question, is there another media player out there that can split a 5.1 output to just the front and just the rear?

    Thanks for any help!

    Drabbies
    Tags: None
    #2
    This doesn't exactly answer your question but it may help you achieve your goal. If at least one of your sound cards is a Creative Labs sound blaster you could install an aftermarket 3rd party driver that makes the OS see each individual connection as a separate sound device.

    I did this for a while then used JRMC to drive the multizone part of it.

    Here is a link to the drivers

    http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/

    here is a link to an old thread about this

    http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...077#post823077

    Ian
    Plugins:
    BLLogMonitor, BLGarbage, BLBackup, BLOutGoingCalls, BLUps, BLRfid, JvEss, DooMotion, Applied Digital Ocelot, AC RF Processor, UltraMon, PJC AVR 430, UPB, Rain8net, DSC Panel, JRiver Media center, Windows Media Player, SageMediaCenter, SnevlCID, MCSTemperature.

    Comment

      #3
      I have a 9 zone whole house system I designed...

      I use USB sound cards...why not just get some of those? They only cost about $3-10 each (depends on if you can get a good deal or not).

      I think my total cost for my whole house system was $300ish, that includes wire, speakers, sound cards, and the X10 and UPB stuff I use to control the power / play/pause, etc.

      --Dan
      Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

      Comment

        #4
        downloaded the driver and it does exactly what i was looking for. Thanks for the link.

        As far as the usb goes, when i was first getting this setup, all my internet research was telling me that i need to have different sound cards so that the system wouldnt get confused. I guess if you are able to use a bunch of USB sound cards, that kinda blows that out of the water. What media player are you using for playback?

        Thanks for the quick help on this!

        Drabbies

        Comment

          #5
          Winamp. 1 per Zone.

          There are only 2 issues you have to overcome, which I just solved the second one about a week ago.

          Issues:
          1) each boot, Windows will probably re-order the cards. Why, well, it has to deal with HOW windows sees the USB string and the order in which they register to the OS. Essentially, it has 10 USB Soundcards that are all trying to get the name "C-MEDIA USB Soundcard". So, in the order they are seen, they are called "C-MEDIA USB Soundcard", then "C-MEDIA USB Soundcard 2", "C-MEDIA USB Soundcard 3", etc.

          2) even after correcting #1, Winamp...specifically can still get out of order.

          Fixes:
          1) You need to change the .inf to give a unique "device" name per soundcard (I call one USB Kitchen, one USB Main, USB Garage, etc.). Then, this forces Windows to associate the 1st card with "USB Main", the second card with " USB Kitchen", etc. So then, multiple speaker clients will always talk to the proper "channel/zone".

          2) Winamp does NOT use names, but device numbers. This is actually the order that Windows sees the USB sound cards. I was trying to get Jon Ort to extend a program he had to output the names / device number, but instead I recently found a program that does JUST that. So, as soon as I finish up my parsing script (to be run each time HS starts up), I will be able to read out of the OS the # / name order for the sound cards, then using that information, change each Zone's WINAMP's .ini configuration to reflect the proper sound card. I have prototyped this, and it works great!

          So, I think I'll move that functionality into my dwr_winamp.vb script, so that upon boot, all the Zoned audio will be setup and ready to go.

          The last thing that I want to do...which I've slowly been looking into, is finishing up my audio MUX. Once I do that, I should be able to MUX at a minimal, my "Main" speaker to any or all of the zones in the house (so I can play the same audio to all at once). I have not liked the software solutions, but my understanding is that virtual wire (I think that's what it is called) can do this quite well. So, I teeter between a hardware solution, or a software solution.

          My long term goal, is to have ANY zone connect to ANY zone(s) for audio.

          --Dan
          Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

          Comment

            #6
            I ended up using audio hardware for my solution. I found an extron mav plus 12X8 audio matrix that is the heart and soul of my distributed audio. I picked it up on ebay, and it allows any of the 12 inputs to be routed to the 8 outputs. Best of all, it does gain control so i can increase the volume to each zone on it. Then i picked up a speakercraft 12 channel amplifier for 6 zones and the other 2 have local stereo recievers. Im using an old crestron system for control with some of the 12 button keypads in each room. My only problem that i have had to date was the lack of audio tracks going to the 12 inputs that i had available, but now with your usb trick, i should be set.

            I have a question on Fix #1. The .inf that you are talking about changing, is that something in the soundcard driver? or are you talking about in the winamp application? I have been using a unique .ini file in winamp to choose the soundcard during startup, but when i get a couple of usb drives, i can see myself running into the same issue you had where the computer adds them randomly to the computer and that would mess up my programming.

            Drabbies

            Comment

              #7
              It's the .inF that is part of the driver package. You only need to do this if you use more then one of the SAME USB soundcard (I have 9 of the same card + onboard).

              There's a how to that Gogs or I wrote about going through the motion of doing this.

              --Dan
              Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

              Comment

                #8
                which USB sound card did you go with? I tried to search for it on here, but im searching skills are failing me

                Comment

                  #9
                  http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HE-280B&cat=SND

                  Looks like this is the EXACT same one.

                  Price went up. I've bought 10 or so from this site. Anywhere from $3.99 to $10.99. Last price I paid was $5.99. My 10th card was a spare...who knows if I can get these 5-10 years from now.

                  Were you able to find the How-To?

                  --Dan
                  Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Dan,

                    I was wondering how your USB Audio Cards are holding up. I've been waiting for them to come back in stock from the geeks site and they've been out of stock for a few months which makes me wonder if they will ever get them back. I saw one on Amazon that looked similar but the reviews showed they seem to die quickly and seem to heat up whatever they are attached to.

                    I haven't been able to find any other USB Audio cards that have drivers that would let me rename them upon install to use them for zoned audio like you suggest. I finally get around to doing it and now I can't get the cards!

                    1) Have any of them have died?
                    2) Any other ideas?

                    Thanks!

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Originally posted by GatorEye View Post
                      Dan,

                      I was wondering how your USB Audio Cards are holding up. I've been waiting for them to come back in stock from the geeks site and they've been out of stock for a few months which makes me wonder if they will ever get them back. I saw one on Amazon that looked similar but the reviews showed they seem to die quickly and seem to heat up whatever they are attached to.
                      They are perfect. What the review probably left out, they are USB 2.0 ONLY. If you hook them into a USB 1.1 hub, cable, port, etc., they heat up...a LOT, as in I almost burned myself. However, putting them on their OWN USB 2.0 hub, they are perfectly fine.

                      Originally posted by GatorEye View Post
                      I haven't been able to find any other USB Audio cards that have drivers that would let me rename them upon install to use them for zoned audio like you suggest.
                      You should be able to hack just about ANY .inf file. Just find the Name field and edit/save/re-install driver. Just make sure you install the driver for the correct Sound Card. That is, DON'T plug in the card until you have hacked the driver and are ready to tell it what you want. Otherwise you'll have to play games in the Devices listing...plugging in and unplugging the sound cards to determine WHICH one is WHICH.

                      Originally posted by GatorEye View Post


                      I finally get around to doing it and now I can't get the cards!

                      1) Have any of them have died?
                      2) Any other ideas?

                      Thanks!

                      1) as I said above, none have died...although I have 1 spare, just in case.

                      2) you can get just about any USB sound card.
                      http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=USB-SOUND7-BP
                      http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=ZM-RSSC-PB-R
                      http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFIQ8wIwAQ
                      http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-to-...ound-card-9723

                      Heck, if you pick from the above list, you can probably get away with having 3-4 zones WITHOUT hacking ANY inf file!

                      The .inf should be on the install disc. For Win7, I had to force it to use the older driver, since it had built in drivers. It was the only way I could get it to use the NAMES I wanted.

                      I also had to use another tool + script (not done with it yet), to allow me to hook the proper Winamp to the proper Zone.

                      Doing the name change, you will allow the Speaker clients to connect to the speaker you want. However, I found Winamp uses sound card NUMBERS...which can change every reboot. So, I have been playing with a tool that lists ALL sound cards, in OS order. Then I just have the script take that information and correct the Winamp .ini files to point to the proper sound card.

                      Kind of a PITA, but it seems Win7 does this more than Win2k and Win2k3 server did (what I originally started with).

                      HTH,

                      --Dan
                      Last edited by drozwood90; August 18, 2011, 09:53 AM. Reason: More information
                      Tasker, to a person who does Homeautomation...is like walking up to a Crack Treatment facility with a truck full of 3lb bags of crack. Then for each person that walks in and out smack them in the face with an open bag.

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Originally posted by drozwood90 View Post
                        They are perfect. What the review probably left out, they are USB 2.0 ONLY. If you hook them into a USB 1.1 hub, cable, port, etc., they heat up...a LOT, as in I almost burned myself. However, putting them on their OWN USB 2.0 hub, they are perfectly fine.



                        You should be able to hack just about ANY .inf file. Just find the Name field and edit/save/re-install driver. Just make sure you install the driver for the correct Sound Card. That is, DON'T plug in the card until you have hacked the driver and are ready to tell it what you want. Otherwise you'll have to play games in the Devices listing...plugging in and unplugging the sound cards to determine WHICH one is WHICH.




                        1) as I said above, none have died...although I have 1 spare, just in case.

                        2) you can get just about any USB sound card.
                        http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=USB-SOUND7-BP
                        http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=ZM-RSSC-PB-R
                        http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFIQ8wIwAQ
                        http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-to-...ound-card-9723

                        Heck, if you pick from the above list, you can probably get away with having 3-4 zones WITHOUT hacking ANY inf file!

                        The .inf should be on the install disc. For Win7, I had to force it to use the older driver, since it had built in drivers. It was the only way I could get it to use the NAMES I wanted.

                        I also had to use another tool + script (not done with it yet), to allow me to hook the proper Winamp to the proper Zone.

                        --Dan
                        Dan, thanks for the feedback. I do have a USB 2.0 hub ready for them. Where I'm running into the problem is with cards like the ones you mentioned. None of them say they come with a driver CD so my guess is they all use some generic built in windows driver. I had already bought 2 of the same USB devices like the ones you mentioned (they came with no driver CD). As soon as I popped the first one in my server running Win XP, it installed itself as Generic USB Audio device without even prompting for a driver.

                        So my question is, if I install 5 of the same USB devices (or 5 different ones from the list above), they all are going to install without drivers. How do I change the .inf if it doesn't ask for a driver CD when it's plugged in?

                        I'm not sure I want to mess with the original windows USB driver, which it must be using because it installed without a driver CD.

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