By following the path Start Button > Start Menu right column > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound, you will arrive at the section of the Control Panel that provides among other things access to sound settings. The Adjust system volume link opens the Volume mixer dialog at which we have already looked. The Manage audio devices and the Change system sounds links open a screen with tabs that correspond to the lower three items on the notification area speaker icon's right click menu. The title on this screen is Sound.
Sound Dialog: Playback Tab
By clicking Manage audio devices in the Control Panel or by clicking the Playback devices item on the speaker icon's right click menu the Sound dialog opens with the Playback tab activated. Default devices are indicated by the green circle with the white check mark as pointed out by arrow 3. Devices with a circled black down arrow indicate disabled devices. Right clicking an item on the Playback dialog that is disabled opens a 3 section context menu. In the top section you can enable the device. The middle section allows you to decide whether or not all devices are shown on the Playback tab view. The bottom section provides for viewing a credit screen similar to those seen on any Help menu's "About" selection.
This context menu changes according to the type of device and whether or not the device is enabled and whether or not the device is set as default. When right clicking the default device, which in this case is speakers, the top and bottom section menu items are all activated. In the top section some items have been replaced. The menu item "Disable" is self explanatory and when clicked toggles to "Enable" the next time you right click the device.
Clicking the "Configure Speakers" menu item opens the Speaker Configuration Wizard shown here. Select your type of sound system in the "Audio channels" list box which is circled in black in this screen shot. The area circled in red changes in accordance with your selection in "Audio channels" and testing individual speakers is done by clicking on them. You can also run a test that checks every speaker automatically by clicking the "Test" button which has been circled in green. When finished with this screen clicking the next button will take you to the next part of the wizard, the pages of which will vary depending on your selection in the "Audio channels" box, and ultimately to a screen with a finish button. At any rate, this is where you need to go when changing your audio system.
The "Properties" item of the context menu provides access to tabbed screen similar to those found via the Device Manager. These dialogs also vary depending on the device type and status. Shown here is the General tab view. The Change Icon button opens a window that provides a selection of icons from which to choose and a Browse button that allows you to select a custom icon located elsewhere on your hard drive. The Properties button on this screen opens yet another properties window, this time for the device which controls this one. Finally, at the bottom, is yet another control that enables/disables the device.
The Custom tab shown here is one of the aspects of the properties dialog that varies. This particular screen has only a check box labeled Digital Output Only. When checked, sound is no longer produced by speakers connected directly to the sound card. With this in mind, one can only guess that this control is for use with an external audio amplifier that handles digital input.
The Levels tab of the Speaker properties dialog provides access to the main volume control which has been arranged vertically as opposed to XP's horizontal arrangement. The slider controls may provide greater accuracy in setting levels due to the fact that the level is numbered from 1 to 100 in contrast to XP's seven setting scale of unnumbered lines. Once again the Mute check box is replaced by a button. The main Playback slider and Line-In are not muted while all others have been muted in this screen shot.
Clicking a Balance button on anything but the Playback Control produces this slider control. This is much improved over the balance control provided in Windows XP. The Balance control for the Playback Control provides for sliders to adjust 7.1 or 5.1 channel systems, also a nice touch.
The Advanced tab appears to be common among the properties dialogs. It's basic purpose is to allow the user to set the quality of sound output to 16 bit or 24 bit. There are also check boxes used for Exclusive mode settings.
Shown here is an example of another tab you can find among the properties dialogs. As you can see this tab allows the user to select/deselect encoded formats and/or test them. The sample rate for Digital Receivers should be a standard and this is testable also.
To wrap up the discussion of the Playback tab, it should be mentioned that the buttons shown here, located toward the bottom of the Sound dialog provide short cuts to items on the context menus that have been discussed. As devices on the list are high lighted, these buttons become activated or deactivated depending on the device selected.
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