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Topic: Weird issues with output devices (Read 772 times) previous topic - next topic
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Weird issues with output devices

Ive been having weird issues with my output device settings. Here is a little screenshot of my available devices.
Lets go down the list one by one.
Null Output = doesnt play audio
Primary Sound Driver = doesnt play audio
Speakers (3- Realtek High Definition Audio) = doesnt play audio
XB273U (NVIDIA High Definition Audio = does play audio, but not through the monitor speakers. this device is my primary monitor, so playing through the speakers would be expected, but it plays through my headphones. The reason for that is that i have the audio from this monitor feeding through the line-out jack into my PC, and my PC listening in on the line-in port at the back of the PC. this is intentional, so the speakers not playing audio is to be expected.
Realtek Digital Output (3- Realtek High Definition Audio) = doesnt play audio
Acer XF270H B (NVIDIA High Definition Audio) = does play audio, but through the monitor speakers, this is my secondary monitor, this behavior is the only one so far that seems normal, at least to me.
Primary Sound Driver [exclusive] = does play audio, but because of the [exclusive] no other audio on my PC gets played
Speakers (3- Realtek High Definition Audio) [exclusive] = same as above
XB273U (NVIDIA High Definition Audio [exclusive] = not only doesnt play audio, but this time i get a playback error stating "Unrecoverable playback error: Audio device could not be initialized"
Realtek Digital Output (3- Realtek High Definition Audio) [exclusive] = doesnt play audio
Acer XF270H B (NVIDIA High Definition Audio) [exclusive] = same as the other monitor, doesnt play audio, and returns the same error

So in total, this boils down the list of working audio devices to these four. The first one is my cobbled together audio solution, which does technically work the best, but it shouldnt be the only one working. The audio signal is basically taking a huge detour, from my PC to my monitor and back to my PC and out my headphones. i can tell the audio being noticeably worse when compared to "Primary Sound Driver [exclusive]".
the second one plays through the secondary monitors speakers which i dont want, so its not an option, and the other two are exclusive, so no other audio while listening to music, which is also not an option to me.

the way it *should* work is by playing through "Primary Sound Driver" or "Speakers (3- Realtek High Definition Audio)". the Realtek Speakers are simply my motherboard sound drivers, which should be ok. and the Primary Sound Driver should be whatever i define as, well, my primary sound driver in windows.
i would appreciate any help for troubleshooting this issue.

no idea if this helps, but the only other application i have where i can select the audio devices is MPC-HC, and here i have mostly similar options to choose from, and all work fine.

Re: Weird issues with output devices

Reply #1 –
Null Output is a debug/test device, it obviously doesn't output any audio. Digital outputs most likely work fine but you don't have anything connected to the actual digital output connector (S/PDIF?).

You don't mention what foobar2000 version this is and what OS you are using. You also don't clarify what "doesn't play audio" means in relation to for example Primary Sound Driver. Does it mean that you get an error, or that you don't hear anything?

Assuming it means that everything appears to work but you don't hear anything, you should open the volume mixer featured also in your last image and verify that foobar2000 isn't muted in the OS mixer. If it isn't, you should still touch its slider just to make sure nothing is bugged.
If that doesn't help I'd like to know what kind of settings the default device is configured to: sampling rate, channel count, bit depth.
And you should report what foobar2000 console prints when you start playing.
And if nothing still makes sense, can you please try https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_wasapis.

Re: Weird issues with output devices

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Case on
you should still touch its slider just to make sure nothing is bugged.
well damn, good to know, manually moving the volume slider for foobar specifically fixed it. im suddenly getting audio no matter what output device im choosing. never had an issue like this. I would usually not change the audio for foobar through the windows volume mixer but through foobar itself or the master system volume.
thanks, ive been putting off trying to deal with this issue for ages

Re: Weird issues with output devices

Reply #3 –
thanks, solved with volume slider on foobar. Had no idea when I adjusted, and it's a small icon at the bottom which can be easily missed. Any way to increase icons of foobar?
 

Re: Weird issues with output devices

Reply #4 –
Glad to hear touching the mixer worked. foobar2000 v1.1.2 introduced a feature where foobar2000 volume was synchronized to the OS mixer, but as it caused various problems the feature was finally nuked in v1.6. Your issue could be a leftover from that period, or it could be something else. But at least this mixer touching was an often needed fix during those days.