Select Audio Device for playback

[markotomic]

One of the limitations in the Flash Player is the ability to select audio device to playback a sound. More info here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/185397

I find this a little strange because you can select input device (mic) and even capture sound from multiple mics at the same time.

Is it possible to select an audio device using any of the native SWF Studio classes? I quickly went through the documentation and couldn't find anything, so I thought I'd ask.

The use case would be, 2 users plug in their headsets into USB ports and can listen to the same sound. Using adapters and Y splitters is not an option.

Thanks

[northcode]

Larry Osterman has been a developer at Microsoft for over 25 years. He's best known as the guy who makes Windows go "ding". THE audio guy. Over the years he's mentioned this a few times...

First off, to answer the original question: We do not and have never provided APIs that allow an application to change the default devices, just like Microsoft has never provided APIs to pin programs to the start menu. This is functionality that is reserved for the user, because of the potential for abuse.

There has never been a supported mechanism to change the default audio device, and it is highly unlikely that there ever will be a supported mechanism to do this. Someone may have figured out a mechanism that lets them do this, but there are absolutely no guarantees that the mechanism will continue to work in the future. While Microsoft does everything in its power to ensure backwards compatibility with it's documented interfaces, the same cannot be said about internal data structures.

Now I am aware of a couple of these workarounds, everything from automating audio device selection in the Control Panel using AutoHotkey to using undocumented COM interfaces. While they might work today, as Larry points out, they are band-aid solutions and there's no guarantee they'll work tomorrow.

[Jhon]

Originally Posted by markotomic

The use case would be, 2 users plug in their headsets into USB ports and can listen to the same sound. Using adapters and Y splitters is not an option.

I don't know who your software is aimed at, but I think your best bet is using 2 computers on the same network, which both of your project can communicate between each other, to know what to play on both systems. SWF Studio has some cool API codes to send/receive message over the network. Check them out!

Or use a Y split cable using analogue standard headphones, which has the advantage of using, for those who have one, the user dedicated sound card, which provide superior sound to any USB headphone dongle, and onBoard solution.

Those would be, I think, descent compromises to what you trying to do. Else than that, you can play with workaround, and expect compatibility problems with about every newer version of Windows, and even Service Pack, or worse, normal Windows update. And you can't say to your client "Oh just block this update", because that is just silly, and very unprofessional.

Hope this helps a bit.

[markotomic]

Thanks Jhon. The software was aimed at students in a classroom. Pairing students over the network in the same classroom would be a nightmare though.

What you suggested would work if there were only 2 people in the classroom. Good to know you can do that though.

Cheers!