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General discussionLike dual monitors except for sound?(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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Posted December 19, 2015
Is it possible to have the computer output two separate sound signals for two separate applications. Like, I play a game on one monitor with earphones on, and the kids watch Sesame Street on the other monitor with external speakers?
This question / problem has been solved by Geralt_of_Riviaimage
Posted December 19, 2015
If you're using Windows, you set a soundcard/output device as the primary for audio that it uses by default.

however if the program has an option for audio output. Example say VLC, you can override what audio device you want to use.
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Posted December 19, 2015
Short answer is; no.

You can configure some applications to use different audio devices. Not all programs will do this though.

If you set default audio to speakers for your media player then you will have to find the audio options in game and see if you are able to change them to pick up your headset. You can do this the other way around as well if the option exists in your media player.
Posted December 19, 2015
The short answer is actually: yes. :-)

I just tried and it is working just fine. You need to have two sound devices though. I don't think any chipset has the ability to send different sounds to the headphone and speaker exits. These usually have the same signal just with different amplification.

On my system there are actually three sound devices. Two are from the Realtek chipset (digital out and speaker) and the third is the NVidia sound driver (audio over HDMI). I don't use the speaker since I have a 5.1 system connected to the digital out so actually only two are ready to use. In other words, nothing is connected to the speaker output.

As rtcvb32 already said at least one of the two programs needs the ability to select the audio output device. Hardly any games have this ability. They just use whatever is marked as the default output. So you need to change the output device on the media player. Any decent media player has a setting for that.

So for testing I simply had the digital out as default and started Terraria while setting my media player to output sound over HDMI (my second 'monitor' is actually a TV so it does have speakers) and it works just as expected with Terraria playing over my 5.1 system while the TV plays the audio of the movie.
Posted December 19, 2015
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Geralt_of_Rivia: The short answer is actually: yes. :-)

I just tried and it is working just fine. You need to have two sound devices though. I don't think any chipset has the ability to send different sounds to the headphone and speaker exits. These usually have the same signal just with different amplification.

On my system there are actually three sound devices. Two are from the Realtek chipset (digital out and speaker) and the third is the NVidia sound driver (audio over HDMI). I don't use the speaker since I have a 5.1 system connected to the digital out so actually only two are ready to use. In other words, nothing is connected to the speaker output.

As rtcvb32 already said at least one of the two programs needs the ability to select the audio output device. Hardly any games have this ability. They just use whatever is marked as the default output. So you need to change the output device on the media player. Any decent media player has a setting for that.

So for testing I simply had the digital out as default and started Terraria while setting my media player to output sound over HDMI (my second 'monitor' is actually a TV so it does have speakers) and it works just as expected with Terraria playing over my 5.1 system while the TV plays the audio of the movie.
Cool, always thought it's possible as long as 1 have 2 soundcards & @ least 1 of the prog can select audio output but as i only have 1 soundcard i didn't get to test it. Thks for confirming it. :)
Posted December 19, 2015
I have tried again and again to do this exact thing. As far as I know you either need 2 sound cards, a program with settings to separate the streams Like WinAmp or you can use a multiseat configuration like Aster and assign different speakers to different monitors. With Aster, you can also run 2 COMPUTERS IN ONE ESSENTIALLY. ALL YOU NEED TO 2 KEYBOARDS, 2 MONITORS AND 2 MICE.

I've been able to play Serious Sam 1 LAN Co-op with my brother with ONE COPY and ONE COMPUTER WHILE BOTH OF US USED 2 HEADPHONE SETS.

Questions are welcomed if you need assistance setting it up. :)
Post edited December 19, 2015 by BruceLeeForever
Posted December 19, 2015
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Geralt_of_Rivia: snip
You know...while I often switch between my headphones and monitor speakers and recognize the graphics card as a dedicated sound device, I never realized that I have 2 different sound cards that could be used simultaneously with the proper settings. :P

Thank you for that. It opens up many possibilities. :D
Posted December 19, 2015
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MaximumBunny: You know...while I often switch between my headphones and monitor speakers and recognize the graphics card as a dedicated sound device, I never realized that I have 2 different sound cards that could be used simultaneously with the proper settings. :P
Hmmm this suddenly reminds me of playing a few games, like FF13-2 and FF13-3, where there's the same music remixed in different ways (identical timing) depending on if you're in danger, normal, if you're in battle, etc. Makes me wonder how it would be to have two song segments going at the same time, and how it feels when i take the headphones off and then after i stand up and half walk out of the room that i realize the song changed and wasn't what i was listening to with the headphones... :)
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BruceLeeForever: or you can use a multiseat configuration like Aster and assign different speakers to different monitors. With Aster, you can also run 2 COMPUTERS IN ONE ESSENTIALLY. ALL YOU NEED TO 2 KEYBOARDS, 2 MONITORS AND 2 MICE.
Do you think we'll move back towards a mainframe approach? I mean, a quad core computer could effectively run 3-4 virtual boxes at the same time going to different monitors and make full use of the ram, hardware, networking, etc.
Post edited December 19, 2015 by rtcvb32
Posted December 19, 2015
Actually, I kind of did this accidentally one time, because a program used the HDMI audio out instead of the normal one.

I really like the mainframe idea. It cuts down energy consumption and makes maintenance easier.

With todays multi-core systems with SSD, tons of RAM, mutliple video outputs etc... using one system for a house shouldn't be a problem.
Posted December 19, 2015
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Klumpen0815: using one system for a house shouldn't be a problem.
Hmmm... I just have to wonder what you'd use for terminals. Considering you'd need a monitor/TV, keyboard and mouse each, and probably some minimal system like a Rasberry Pi with a remote display. That assumes you're playing them all throughout the house, if they are on the same table/area then having multiple video cards might work, but they could be powerhouses and use a lot more energy that way vs some type of capturing and forwarding to another system via a stream. Maybe something similar to NVidia Shield...

Of course, games would be some of the hardest things to use while if everyone's using it to do email, internet, spreadsheets, etc, then you don't need a powerhouse video card...
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General discussionLike dual monitors except for sound?(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
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