| ECS-L Home Automation and Security Archives |
| Subject: From: Date: | RE: [ECS] Re: [HOMEVIS] Dual Audio Broadcasting Bruce and Laurie Winter Thu, 24 Dec 1998 10:42:16 -0600 |
Hi guys, I haven't posted for quit a while, but I still try to follow the threads here ... that can be quite a challange some days :) I am now using Sound Blaster Live card in my house system. It supports multiple 'channels', meaning it will allow simultanous use by multiple sources. At least it does under Windows 98 and Windows NT. I'm pretty sure it will under Win95 as well, but I don't think I had that installed when I got the card. There is a slider control in the Device Controls menu that lets you change "maximum number of simultaneous wave playback". The default is 4, maximum is 32, but the help text says going beyond 5 is typically impractical. It used to be when we played games on the house computer, all the announcements the house would want to say for the past few hours would be qued up and announced only after the game was exited. Now we get them real time, although it can be a little wierd having the house tell you the sun is setting, just as the neighboring Romans are trumpeting their victory over your wasted city :) It also does a much better job of simultaneous voice recognition and TTS. With my previous card (phone blaster), it would often not say something if it was busy listening for the activation keyword. It can even respond to a command while it is speaking. Now if only the voice recognition were just a little more reliable ... the software I use in setup (some home grow software using Microsofts VR) is not quite consistant enough to do open air VR. Sound Blaster Live Value Edition sells for $100. I have the original $200 version, which has a few more digital IO jacks and comes with a bit more software, but otherwise I think is the same. Bruce http://www.isl.net/~winter > -----Original Message----- > From: Ingo Dean [mailto:ingo_dean@mentorg.com] > Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 1998 9:22 PM > To: homevision-users@warren.MENTORG.COM; ecs-list@netbloc.com > Subject: [ECS] Re: [HOMEVIS] Dual Audio Broadcasting > > > richard wrote: > > > > Have you considered using direct sound as a solution for this?? > it supports > > multiple strams of sound from different applications. Winamp > supports this, > > and each app can have independent control of the volume. > > This works on my PC with onboard audio circuitry, but it doesn't work on > my ECS/Homevision PC with an AWE64 board. Both run Win95B. It also > doesn't work on my HP Kayak NT4.0 box at work. > > I even upgraded my ECS/HV PC to DirectX6 just to see if that made a > difference - no dice, I still get "MMSYSTEM320 All wave devices are in > use..." when I try to use Mediaplayer to play a wave file while WinAmp > is playing (this works fine on the other PC). > > Any ideas? If someone can tell me that it's the AWE64 card, I'm willing > to replace it. I just don't want to buy&try. > > > > > Winamp supports it - you can play multiple MP3's that way if > you desire. The > > quality is crappy at low volumes because it > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Dan Hoehnen <dhoehnen@infinet.com> > > To: homevision-users@warren.MENTORG.COM > > <homevision-users@warren.MENTORG.COM> > > Date: Tuesday, December 22, 1998 1500 PM > > Subject: Re: [HOMEVIS] Dual Audio Broadcasting > > > > >I, too, was hoping to see a solution to this problem. As the develpoer > > >of ACE, I am currently faced with this problem since ace can control > > >WinAMP to play mp3 files and it can also be making > announcements via text > > >to speech or wav files. My current solution, although not complete (it > > >only works to allow wav and tts to share the same device, winamp will > > >come soon) is to buffer wav and tts requests and if the sound device is > > >busy, the announcement is just delayed until the device is free again. > > >For mp3 files and I am going to take a different approach. I > am going to > > >make mp3's, via winamp, the low priority sound. Then, when a > wav or tts > > >request comes in, ace will tell winamp to pause (or stop) so > that teh wav > > >and/or tts announcements can be played. When done, winamp will be > > >commanded to resume. > > > > > >This approach seems like it would work, especially since you probably > > >wnat to mute the mp3 music anyway so you can hear the wav/tts > > >announcement. > > > > > >Would this work for the original poster of this question? How about > > >others? I know the 2 sound card solution would be better (if > possible), > > >but not everyone is going to have room for 2 sound cards. > > > > > >On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Ingo Dean wrote: > > > > > >> I was also hoping someone could answer this question. I've also been > > >> trying to setup a single machine to play MP3s and do text-to-speech > > >> announcements, but they won't share the sound device. > > >> > > >> Anyone, any ideas short of buying a new machine? > > >> > > >> Can a single machine support multiple sound cards, and how would you > > >> direct software to use a certain one? > > >> > > >> Linctech wrote: > > >> > > > >> > Some of you are broadcasting mp3 and wav audio files to your sound > > systems, > > >> > is there a way to split audio output into two outputs? > That is, use > > the HV > > >> > to control firing of sound files, and have a speech > synthesis program, > > even > > >> > via ECS on a separate audio channel so it does not play > over the sound > > file. > > >> > > > >> > Can you put two sound cards in a PC and split wav files > into one card > > and > > >> > speech or some other audio format onto another? > > >> > > > >> > James > > >> - > > >> Please turn off HTML (fancy colors, fonts, etc) when posting to list. > > >> To unsubscribe send mail to majordomo@Warren.MentorG.com with > > >> "unsubscribe homevision-users" in the body of the message. > > >> > > > > > >Dan Hoehnen > > >dhoehnen@infinet.com > > >He who dies with the most toys, wins! > > > >************************************************************************* > > >* Home Automation Index: > http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html > * > > >* > * > > >* ACE Home Automation Software - Supports HomeVision, ECS and > most * > > >* other automation systems - Caller ID, Text-to-Speech, > Internet * > > >* and intranet support, Touchscreen support, much more... > * > > >* > * > > >* Port16.ocx & Port32.ocx - Give Visual Basic access to I/O > ports * > > >* > * > > >* http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/software/ > * > > > >************************************************************************* > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >- > > >Please turn off HTML (fancy colors, fonts, etc) when posting to list. > > >To unsubscribe send mail to majordomo@Warren.MentorG.com with > > >"unsubscribe homevision-users" in the body of the message. > > > > > > > - > > Please turn off HTML (fancy colors, fonts, etc) when posting to list. > > To unsubscribe send mail to majordomo@Warren.MentorG.com with > > "unsubscribe homevision-users" in the body of the message. >