Simplepast Presentperfect
Well-known Member
Solved !!!
While experimenting with the optical sound card settings I realized that when using FB2K and VLC the output was defaulting to shared mode although I had the exclusive mode allowed. The shared mode defaults in these cards to stereo. The exclusive mode would allow an application to talk directly to the sound card. From there it was straightforward.
For FB2K there is a WASAPI component that should be able to force exclusive mode, but somehow I cannot get it to work.
However in VLC it works as I expected. In VLC you MUST enable HDMI / SPDIF audio passthrough if you choose the output module automatically. Alternatively, if you choose a specific module (Windows Media Interface for instance) make sure you check "S/PDIF when available".
It seems to me that VLC allows for a much better management of multichannel audio streams within the tools already available in the program (as opposed to FB2K relying heavily on external components) as it was designed with streaming in mind.
I like the simplicity and customability of FB2K, but it seems that if I would want to manage my library though an optical output there is no way around VLC.
Having said that, digital output through VLC also behaves "sluggishly" playing multichannel files, defeating the purpose...
Thanks for the many answers that with the sparring of ideas somehow put me on the right track!
While experimenting with the optical sound card settings I realized that when using FB2K and VLC the output was defaulting to shared mode although I had the exclusive mode allowed. The shared mode defaults in these cards to stereo. The exclusive mode would allow an application to talk directly to the sound card. From there it was straightforward.
For FB2K there is a WASAPI component that should be able to force exclusive mode, but somehow I cannot get it to work.
However in VLC it works as I expected. In VLC you MUST enable HDMI / SPDIF audio passthrough if you choose the output module automatically. Alternatively, if you choose a specific module (Windows Media Interface for instance) make sure you check "S/PDIF when available".
It seems to me that VLC allows for a much better management of multichannel audio streams within the tools already available in the program (as opposed to FB2K relying heavily on external components) as it was designed with streaming in mind.
I like the simplicity and customability of FB2K, but it seems that if I would want to manage my library though an optical output there is no way around VLC.
Having said that, digital output through VLC also behaves "sluggishly" playing multichannel files, defeating the purpose...
Thanks for the many answers that with the sparring of ideas somehow put me on the right track!