MPC Selected USB Headset as Audio Renderer device but sound continues through speakers????

Hi all,

I have the latest MPC and K Lite codec pack (x64).

I wanted to play a movie sound through my usb plantronics 780 gaming headset so selected the audio renderer device as such (it is listed fine). However when playing there is no sound through my usb headset. It continues to play through my default sound device (speakers).

I tried this using VLC player and it works fine in their application but I much prefer to use MPC.

Please help me to fix this issue.

Check if uses the selected one during playback:
Menu > Play > Filters

It is possible that it failed to use the selected one (for unknown reason) and used the default device as a fallback. MPC simply enumerates the devices exposed by Windows. So if it doesn't work as expected my guess is that something goes wrong at the driver level. A possible solution could be to make the headset the default device (in Windows control panel). Windows will then probably fall back to speakers automatically when it is not connected.

I was using speakers as default sound device for my game and trying to use headset for movie (through MPC).

For now I'm using vlc player when in that predicament.

I double checked setting the headset as default output in windows sound properties and sound worked fine.

So it is failing somewhere.

If it works fine in VLC player, wouldn't that suggest it is a bug in MPC?

VLC and MPC work very differently, so you can't really compare them. MPC doesn't do anything special with regard to the audio renderer, so the problem is likely outside of MPC.

In the properties of the device in the sound settings, there two exclusive mode options, try disabling those. That might help.

The device should be listed twice in MPC. Have you tried the one with DirectSound in front of the name? That is the best one to use (the other is WaveOut type renderer).

Hi,

I tried the disabling the exclusive settings and that hasn't solved the issue.

Also, the device (plantronics headset is only listed once).

If it's not MPC, then why would VLC have no issues???

For now I'm continuing to use VLC when wanting to hear the sound through my headset.

The audio renderer is just a black box from the perspective of MPC. It simply tries to use the selected one. The renderer is not part of MPC itself, but a component of Windows.

This may be useful:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-change-or-switch-the-default-audio-sound-output-in-windows-vista-and-xp/

If it's a part of Windows components, then why does it work fine in VLC? :/

Totally confused by this lol

VLC doesn't use DirectShow filters like MPC does, so it doesn't use the same renderer.

Instead of using the renderer from Microsoft you could try the internal one of MPC.
options > playback > output > audio renderer > internal audio renderer
options > internal filters > audio renderer > select the desired device

But those tools I linked to for changing the default device is simpler.

Bingo!

Changing the "Options > Playback > Output > Audio Renderer > Internal Audio Renderer" fixed it!

Also, the usb headset is listed twice here

Thanks for that!

I had to restart MPC after changing that setting and it now plays through the headset whilst other sounds through my speakers

Just what I wanted!

Great!

Thanks again