SBZ Switcher - Double click Speakers/Headphones mode switching available

sorry, at first I forgot to include the following fix:
- fixed assigned hotkeys enabled at startup eventhough unchecked/disabled in settings.

now reuploaded same version (1.4.4) with it included. If you need this fix, please redownload 1.4.4.

 

This program isn't working for me, it just hangs explorer when I try to open it.

 

it was written in Autohotkey, which some antivirus software might not like.
make sure to exclude it if this is the case, although I wouldn't really expect it to just "hang explorer". I'll try to look into it even though you are the only one to report such issue.

edit: I see you were the first to post in this thread. are you suggesting earlier version worked for you while latest doesn't ? also what version of windows are you using ?

 

I had a high suspicion Avast was causing the issue. Still though, the second time I ran it under administrator mode it crashed my whole system. And by that I mean, explorer stopped responding, and when I tried to restart it using task manager, that crashed too. Even though I could still send messages on Steam and listen to music. Avast usually notifies me if it's analyzing something, so the whole thing is odd. This is under 8.1 Pro.

Also, I posted first just to congratulate you on taking the effort to do something Creative should have done. Haven't tried it myself until just recently.

 

Pretty frikken sween Applejack. Nicely done... I wish there were more features in the SBZ SBX control panel. Your application seems to be what Creative should have done in the first place. I love my soundblaster z soundcard and now i think i have found a matchingly awesome piece of software to use with it! thanks for this!! ill be trying it out in the next week or so when i reinstall my soundcard.

 

@Damage_Plan, thanks for the kind words. hope you have fun with it

@IcE, I recompiled 1.4.4 with some admin privileges related line of code, and reuploaded it. can you please see if this is of any help ?
also because this issue might be related to UAC in 8.1 you can try and disable it just to verify and let me know, as I do not have win8.1 currently installed.
FYI when I had 8.1 installed I tested SBZSwitcher and it worked fine, but I did not test it with UAC as this is the first feature I turn off on every installation of windows.

 

This time it actually gave me an error message.



That's when I try to run it normally. It still crashes explorer if I try to run it in administrator mode. I'm one of the weird people who actually like UAC so I'd rather not disable it.

 

sorry mate, this is a syntax related error. a result of a rushed untested line of code, which is only relevant for standard users. I missed that since i'm already admin, silly me.

so instead of fixing syntax I actually replaced that stupid line with some decent "RunAsAdmin" function borrowed from the web, which seems to handle stuff appropriately

please redownload 1.4.4 and try again.

 

Went back to the old behavior of just hanging. I can't even find the process it starts in task manager to kill it.

 

It may be that autohotkey has some compatibility issues with win8 + uac (I've seen others complain online). unfortunately it'll have to wait at least 'til I'm able to reproduce the issue (install a second OS and debug under similar conditions).

then again, I'm just assuming its uac related. you could easily help by verifying this (disable uac / lower its level for a quick test. re-enable afterwards).

 

Yeah I'll check for you, I'll let you know in a sec

 

Yeah it still doesn't work even with UAC off. And yes, I restarted. Wtf lol. Same thing every time, i get that spinning loading circle like it's trying to run, then nothing happens. I just have to close the window. And I can't delete the files until after I've restarted, so it's just trying to run forever. My installation isn't corrupt or anything either. sfc /scannow and the online image restore health tool both report no issues.

 

Running win 8.1 64 bit here and your app is working fantastic...just installed it but i can't find any bugs...thank you for the switcher!!! I have uac turned off by default in case it matters

 

Found it, it was a problem on my end. Turned out to be a bug with Avast. Disabled it and have had no more issues.

 

love this

than you


quick question, I'm little confused on what "force stereo headphone" does

 

that's great news! spared me the win8.1 installation + debug time rogram:

switching to headphones automatically set speakers to 5.1 in windows (so sbx surround can do its thing).
I've been asked to have SBZ Switcher set speakers back to 2.0 after switching to headphones, but this feature probably makes more sense to those having some channel issues while in headphones mode.
I didn't have an issue myself and I guess you should not use this feature unless you know you need it.


ok, so next target is to try and make SBZSwitcher compatible with Sound Blaster Recon3D series, now that I have some registry samples from a R3D user.

 

A better questions would be as to why the creative console changes the windows sound scheme to 5.1 for headphones
And really if its better or supposed to do it, why does it change it back to stereo for non headphones? stereo speakers, stereo headphones...whats the difference? That's whet I am curious about....makes me wonder if its a bug in the drivers/software (not the switcher, which this thread is about)

And would it be different as to what action is taken place? like playing bf4 vs watching a movie encoded in 5.1 surround vs music....was playing a movie thru my M-Audio's AV40s and seemed like it sounded the same if i manually changed it from stereo to 5.1 like the headphone defaults to

 

I think it was covered in previous posts, but to make it clear - on switch to headphones creative make use of the "5.1 speakers" audio device by design, so a game/movie detects 5.1 and is able to send all channels, which then can be processed with virtual surround filters (emulating the surround source in stereo headphones). for many gamers this feature is top priority (being able to recognize where sounds are coming from even though they only use stereo headphones).
the X-FI series used a similar feature called CMSS-3D, which is now replaced with SBX Surround in the Z Series.

it could make sense to only trigger the 5.1 headphones mode when enabling SBX Surround as its not really needed without it,
but it shouldn't hurt as without SBX Surround all channels are just converted to plain stereo without these special filters.
besides, having the device switch between 2.0 and 5.1 every time you toggle SBX Surround might not work well when the device is already in use by some application.

so if you use 2.0 speakers and 2.0 headphones, it makes perfect sense for creative to automatically set headphones mode to 5.1 - this is the only way one can benefit the virtual surround feature, aka SBX Surround.
using the SBZSwitcher feature "Force Stereo Headphones" will render that virtual surround feature useless! I would only suggest using it if you both don't use SBX Surround AND experience channel issues in headphones mode.

 

Thank you for the detailed explanation Applejack

 

im getting a problem where sometimes when i restart the program will not start on startup and sometiems it will