[Bug] Audio preview and volume control on Vista

[Dirhael]

As requested by Donald in this thread, I'm starting a separate topic for this issue. As I already described the problem there, I'm just going to quote my own post:

...Now for the audio problems with Xyplorer on Vista. I guess I could begin with the part that I haven't managed to work around; volume control on the preview panel. This just doesn't work on Vista as you probably know (it doesn't do anything). Any chance of getting it fixed?

The more serious problem I am having with Xyplorer, Vista and audio isn't directly related to the audio, but more to the parsing of MP3 files. I am assuming you are just using DirectShow to do this? If so, the mp3 preview should play all files that works in WMP using said interface, correct? Well, it really doesn't.

Some files works just fine, but most of my music collection will not play at all. Xyplorer will just complain that it can't render the file. This doesn't surprise me all that much, as the default parser in XP and Vista isn't all that advanced when it comes to handling VBR files with ID3v2.3+ tags.

The way to get it working in WMP (and other DS based players) have usually been to install the DS-MP3 source filter, and it does work very well everywhere outside of Xyplorer. The problem is that after installing that, you get one step further in that XY will now try to render the file but locks up while doing so. No error messages is displayed, and the only way to get it working again is to kill it with the task manager.

I did mention earlier in this post that I had been able to work around this, and I did so by installing this MP3 Parser DS filter. The problem with installing this is that you can no longer stream MP3's from the web. Well, I solved that as well by installing the DC-Bass Source filter *and* the MP3 Parser DS filter, then making sure to drop the filter merit of the MP3 parser down to 00400000, while keeping DC-Bass above that (I'm using 00600000).

Why this works? Because it would seem that Xyplorer never even tries to use DC-Bass, but does work with the MP3 Parser filter. DC-Bass does take care of every other DirectShow player though, so now I can enjoy *both* streaming audio and Xyplorer audio previews.

What makes me metion this here, seeing as I've worked around it? Well, I'm mostly wondering why Xyplorer doesn't handle DirectShow the way others do. It clearly sees the DS-MP3 Source Filter, even if it crashes while trying to load the MP3 files, so something must be wrong somewhere in the chain.

[admin]

...Now for the audio problems with Xyplorer on Vista. I guess I could begin with the part that I haven't managed to work around; volume control on the preview panel. This just doesn't work on Vista as you probably know (it doesn't do anything). Any chance of getting it fixed?

Let's start with this one. I hear this the first time! Is this really true?

[Dirhael]

...Now for the audio problems with Xyplorer on Vista. I guess I could begin with the part that I haven't managed to work around; volume control on the preview panel. This just doesn't work on Vista as you probably know (it doesn't do anything). Any chance of getting it fixed?

Let's start with this one. I hear this the first time! Is this really true?

Yeah, the problem only occurs on Vista and I suspect that it is related to the new way it controls the volume. I know this change broke several other programs as well, until they were update to support Vista.

The thing is, you can use the volume slider all you want but it does not change anything.

[Sakis]

Hmm, XY previewer volume control works here. I've tested on four different machines, all using Vista (Enterprise edition). Also tested and had no issues on my laptop (Vista Business).

[Dirhael]

Hmm, XY previewer volume control works here. I've tested on four different machines, all using Vista (Enterprise edition). Also tested and had no issues on my laptop (Vista Business).

Strange, as it does not work at all using two different sound cards. The only thing they got in common is...hey wait a minute, let me try something.

Yep, as I suspected. What breaks the audio volume controls in Xyplorer on Vista is setting your speakers to 5.1 surround. If I configure my system to just use 2.0 stereo, the volume controls works as expected.

Well, at least this narrows the issue down, and should hopefully make it easier for Donald to sort out

[admin]

Yep, as I suspected. What breaks the audio volume controls in Xyplorer on Vista is setting your speakers to 5.1 surround. If I configure my system to just use 2.0 stereo, the volume controls works as expected.

Well, at least this narrows the issue down, and should hopefully make it easier for Donald to sort out

Interesting bit of information.

The other bug stuff has to wait a bit --- some things have priority now as I'm approaching release of 6.40.

[Sakis]

Donald, previewer vol slider probably controls the master volume of default playback device.
I did some further testing here using the digital output of my computer. As Dirhael said, XY cannot control its output. It works just fine if digital output was configured as default playback device though.

[Dirhael]

Yep, as I suspected. What breaks the audio volume controls in Xyplorer on Vista is setting your speakers to 5.1 surround. If I configure my system to just use 2.0 stereo, the volume controls works as expected.

Well, at least this narrows the issue down, and should hopefully make it easier for Donald to sort out

Interesting bit of information.

The other bug stuff has to wait a bit --- some things have priority now as I'm approaching release of 6.40.

As I said in my original post, I managed to make it work so there's no rush (for me at least)

Donald, previewer vol slider probably controls the master volume of default playback device.
I did some further testing here using the digital output of my computer. As Dirhael said, XY cannot control its output. It works just fine if digital output was configured as default playback device though.

I'm not using digital output on my system, and the surround output is configured as the default device. It [Xyplorer] doesn't touch the master volume at all, or any channel at all for that matter.

[Sakis]

That's weird
Unfortunately none of my systems is equipped with a 5.1 audio to test this.

[Dirhael]

That's weird
Unfortunately none of my systems is equipped with a 5.1 audio to test this.

Yeah I know, I just don't get why it works when configured to 2.0 but not 5.1. At first I thought that perhaps it was simply adjusting the volume of the rear channel instead of the front, but I checked and that's not the issue either...