Squeezeplay choose audio device?

[ralphy]

How hard would it be to give SP the ability to choose it's audio output device on the host computer it is executing on?

What would it take to add it to SP?

The easiest way would be to use an environment variable to override the default device selection loop at line 425 in decode_portaudio.c with the output device index you want SP to use.

Getting the override index value is the tricky part. The device list provided from squeezeslave -L might work to get the right number.

I could hack it to together quickly, if you haven't already got something working.

[Phil Leigh]

The easiest way would be to use an environment variable to override the default device selection loop at line 425 in decode_portaudio.c with the output device index you want SP to use.

Getting the override index value is the tricky part. The device list provided from squeezeslave -L might work to get the right number.

I could hack it to together quickly, if you haven't already got something working.

That would be exceptionally kind of you - I could probably hack the C code but I don't have the bits and pieces to turn that into a Windows executable!
regards
Phil

[ralphy]

That would be exceptionally kind of you - I could probably hack the C code but I don't have the bits and pieces to turn that into a Windows executable!
regards
Phil

Unfortunately, I don't have an MSVC build environment either, squeezeslave for windows is built with gcc/cygwin.

I'll make the changes and test it on linux first.

[ralphy]

Turns out squeezeplay on linux uses decode_alsa.c and not decode_portaudio.c.

Good news is I have been able to play music on non default audio devices.

I'm investigating if it's easy to save and restore the output and sound effect devices using the settings files created by squeezeplay and have all OS versions use those settings.

[ralphy]

That would be exceptionally kind of you - I could probably hack the C code but I don't have the bits and pieces to turn that into a Windows executable!
regards
Phil

Installed VC2008 Express on my dev system.

I've got a build for you to try. Saving the audio device in the settings files proved problematic so I opted for a User Environment Variable: USEPADEVICE

You need to set the USEPADEVICE user variable with the text name of the device as returned from squeezeslave -L. The match is case insensitive but if you happen to add an extra space anywhere in the name the match will fail and no audio device will be used. I grabbed a screen shot of setting this up on XP.

Once you've set USEPADEVICE, you'll need to set it to the default device name to get squeezeplay to output again to the default device.

I've attached a patch of the change and I've sent you a PM.

I'm planning to do a similiar change for alsa as well, the current changes only work for Windows and OSX.

Hopefully one of the developers will consider adding both changes to the source once I'm done.

[ralphy]

and here's the patch to enable changing the output device for linux ALSA.

Usage:

Get the alsa device.

squeezeslave -L

Output devices:
  0: (ALSA) HDA Intel: ALC883 Analog (hw:0,0) (11/46)
  1: (ALSA) HDA Intel: ALC883 Digital (hw:0,1) (11/46)
  3: (ALSA) Logitech USB Headset: USB Audio (hw:1,0) (11/46)
  4: (ALSA) front (11/46)
  5: (ALSA) surround40 (11/46)
  6: (ALSA) surround41 (11/46)
  7: (ALSA) surround50 (11/46)
  8: (ALSA) surround51 (11/46)
  9: (ALSA) surround71 (11/46)
 10: (ALSA) iec958 (11/46)
 11: (ALSA) spdif (11/46)
*12: (ALSA) default (42/46)
 13: (ALSA) dmix (42/42)

For devices in the list that have a (hw) number beside the device name you must use that.

If I wanted to use the Logitech USB headset I'd set USEALSADEVICE like this.

export USEALSADEVICE="hw:1,0"

Then run squeezeplay.

squeezeplay

If I want to use the "front" speakers device I'd use

export USEALSADEVICE="front"
squeezeplay

since there is no (hw) number listed beside it.

To change back to the default ALSA device remove the environment variable.

unset USEALSADEVICE

Squeezeplay only checks the environment variable at startup. So to use a new audio device, you must quit squeezeplay, export USEALSADEVICE with the new device and start squeezeplay again.

[snottmonster]

Hello Ralphy

Would it be possible for me to try this update? I'm OSX based with an external USB DAC attached that I'd like to use with Squeeezeplay.

I have Squeezeslave working just fine with the DAC so should be able to follow your instructions

Thanks

[ralphy]

You should be able to use the usepadevice-portaudio.patch.txt file from post #15 above.

You'll need to set USEPADEVICE to the alternate device from a terminal window.

$ squeezeslave -L
Output devices:
* 1: (Core Audio) Built-in Output (0/4)
  2: (Core Audio) Logitech USB Headset (2/29)

$ export USEPADEVICE="Logitech USB Headset"
$ squeezeplay

[bakker_be]

Hi there,
any pointers to how I apply this patch on a Windows system? Do I use SVN to check out the code and then apply the patch, after which I build, or am I on the wrong track completely?

[andynormancx]

Hi there,
any pointers to how I apply this patch on a Windows system? Do I use SVN to check out the code and then apply the patch, after which I build, or am I on the wrong track completely?

That is pretty much it, yes.