Optimal Sound - New Software Chioces for Audio in Vista

Software Choices for Audio in Vista

Of all the things about audio that have changed in Windows Vista , the software and signal routing is by far the biggest change. FIrst and foremost, if you stick with a simple baseline configuration such as those outlined in Microsoft's pin configuration guidelines or in the book High Definition Audio for the Digital Home, you can create a fully functional Media PC using the audio driver and Audio System built into Windows Vista. This could result in a significant savings in development and support costs, at the expense of differentiation from competing systems using the in-box audio.

Baseline Audio

A system running baseline audio in Windows Vista will have a feature set which in some ways meets or exceeds the feature set available in most audio offerings for Windows XP. It's also certainly more integrated into the OS than any audio system for XP. If you choose the baseline approach for your system, you won't have to make many decisions about audio software once your pin configurations are tested and added to the system BIOS.

The feature set possible with baseline audio includes

Vista Audio Value-Add Features

To maintain parity with previous offerings using Windows XP, each system vendor will need to decide which XP audio functionality must be retained in Windows Vista. XP audio solutions using a WavePCI, WaveCyclic, or upper filter driver to process audio in the kernel will still continue to run on Windows Vista and can qualify for the Standard logo, but will not qualify for the Premium logo. In some cases they will not be able to play protected content.

To qualify for the Premium logo level, audio processing software Included with 3rd party driver packages may include a WaveRT HD Audio Driver and any custom Audio System Effects Processing Objects (sAPO, LFX, GFX) to implement functionality that is not contained in the baseline offerings. Custom Audio System Effects can be used to replace or augment the built-in effects, though Vista makes only a single control standardized control panel available to set these properties. If you add features that cannot be supported in this standard panel, then you may need to add a special control panel for these features, and use the standard control panel to control the built-in Audio System Effects.

Audio software applications should migrate from older DirectX and DirectShow technologies and use Media Foundation and the Media Foundation Transform for any services the current version of Media Foundation is capable of supporting.

Rather than starting with your pre-existing XP feature set, which may be at odds with Vista, analyze your audio needs by starting with the baseline Vista feature set and then determining what additional features will be useful to your customers.

Optimal Sound can help you in choosing the right software for your system with design services, training, and testing services.

Use Optimal Sound services to add an audio expert to your team, and ensure that your systems sound great, are easy to understand, and function properly with Windows Vista. Contact us for more info.

News about HD Audio and Windows* Vista*

Microsoft Releases Updated Guide to Array Microphone Implementation A major update to this white paper from Microsoft provides previously-unavailable details on how the Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Microphone-Array Beamforming processing built into Windows Vista is implemented, as well as how to test it and use it. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Releases New Microphone Array Verification Tool Microsoft has released a command-line tool which can verify whether an audio driver accurately reports microphone-array geometry information and whether the Voice Capture DMO operating in microphone-array mode processes the captured data accurately. For more info, click here.

Microsoft includes built-in Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Microphone Array Processing in Vista As part of DirectShow 9, Microsoft has included Vista-only source code with the new Windows SDK. This source code can be compiled to create a test app which demonstrates the Acoustic Echo Cancellation DMO. While initially intended for use with USB-based array microphones, guidelines are provided for HD Audio implementation as well. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Documents Limit on DTM Test Storage, outlines possible solutions Driver Test Manager (DTM) is the new logo testing infrastructure used for both Windows Vista and Windows XP logo submissions. The default installation is limited to 2 GB of storage, which is enough to get started, but probably not enough for serious DTM users. To find out more options, click here.

Microsoft includes Audio System Effects in Vista Microsoft has released an updated white paper on how to use the Audio System Effects that are included at no charge in Windows Vista. In-box built-in effects include
    Loudness Equalization DSP (LFX)
    Forward Bass Management (LFX)
    Reverse Bass Management (LFX)
    Low Frequency Protection (LFX)
    Speaker Fill (LFX)
    Room Correction (GFX)
    Virtual Surround (LFX)
    Speaker Phantoming (LFX)
    Virtualized Surround Sound over Headphones (LFX)
    Bass Boost (LFX)
For more details, click here.

Microsoft WHQL postpones date that systems must pass audio fidelity tests On Thursday, August 30, Microsoft's Hardware newsletter announced that systems will not be required to pass the audio fidelity portion of the logo tests until June 1st, 2007. However, all submissions must include complete logs from the audio fidelity tests, which requires an Audio Precision System 2 test set to be connected to the DTM test environment. For more info, click here.

Audio Fidelity Testing Now Required for Vista Audio Device Logo Microsoft has released Windows Logo Program (WLP) specification 3.07, which has significant impact on the audio development and logo submission process for Windows Vista. Audio devices and drivers are now required to included passing audio fidelity test logs in order to qualify for device logo. For more info, click here.

Windows Vista RC2 to be released October 6, 2006 Recently disclosed details of Windows Vista RC2 release indicate that Vista build 5743 will be released Friday, October 56, 2006, and will be designated as Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2). For more info, click here.

Audio Design Line Publishes excerpt from HD Audio Book EE Times affiliate Audio Design Line, has reprinted Chapter 9 of the new book from Intel Press, High Definition Audio for the Digital Home: Proven Techniques for Getting It Right the First Time by David Roach, Scott Janus, and Wayne Jones. This chapter of the book describes the complete signal audio signal path of a modern PC, including both hardware and software audio components. For more info, click here.

Microsoft publishes sample code for 3 different Audio System Effects Microsoft has released sample code for three different sample Audio System Effects along with a retitled document describing how to use them. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Multimedia VP Amir Majidimehr writes about Audio System Effects included in Windows Vista Read first-hand the thinking behind the new Audio System Effects included in Windows Vista. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Channel 9 Video on audio hardware for Windows Vista features Hakon Strande and David Roach Check out the 38-minute Channel 9 video featuring Hakon Strande of Microsoft and David Roach of Optimal Sound discussing the audio hardware in Vista. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Releases HD Audio Pin Configuration Test Guidelines Microsoft has released a paper entitled Microsoft HD Audio Pin Configuration Implementation Test Procedure Guidelines. The paper describes how to use a Microsoft-supplied pin configuration utility to generate and validate a set of verb tables which is embedded in the system BIOS. The verb table describes the audio configuration of the system. If the verb table is configured incorrectly, the UAA HD Audio class driver will not function properly and the Windows Vista logo tests will fail. For more info, click here.

News about HD Audio & Vista

Software Choices for Audio in Vista

News about HD Audio and Windows* Vista*