Roon not recognizing my HD621 HDMI device

I have hit a brick wall immediately upon trying Roon. Your system recognizes every device on my W7 computer except the one that matters: my Meridian HD621 HDMI interface.

JRiver recognizes it as HD621 (Intel (R) Display Audio) [WASPI].

The HD621 is not really an endpoint, it’s a switch.

What is feeding the HD621? What options does this show for audio?

What is the HD621 connected to downstream? Have you set up the HD621 to receive on the Roon feed and how have you set up the processor to accept the Roon audio from the HD621 output.

I don’t understand your questions. I have successfully connected a variety of TIVOs and other cable boxes, CD/SACD/DVD players, and JRiver operating on a W7 computer to the HD621 via HDMI for years. JRiver recognizes the HD621 and the audio connection is from the same computer, but Roon doesn’t even offer the device for connection. What the HD621 is connected to downstream is irrelevant, although it happens to be a Meridian 861V8 surround processor.

Under Settings, does Roon expose your PC’s HDMI output? If I recall correctly while I am away from my Roon, the Audio tab shows all currently available outputs. An available HDMI output option should be all that you need for the HD621.

AJ

Audio does indeed show one Intel® Display Audio WASPI among its many devices. I am now presuming that refers to the HDMI output. I clicked on ENABLE for that device (and named it “HD621”). No sound. I also have a USB connection that plugs directly into the 861V8 and have tried that. No sound. (Both work fine in JRiver, same machine.) I am utterly frustrated by what should be a simple setup procedure, and the Roon manual, which in many sections is clearly written, has been no help. I became gleeful when I discovered a special section on Meridian products, but alas, they only refer to Sooloos. No help there.

Dennis, have you set up and selected the “HD621” zone? In Roon, you need to enable the zone, and you have done that. But you also need to configure that zone. Lastly, you need to select that zone for playback.

AJ

I really think that some screenshots of the relevant set up screens in Roon would be helpful to allow people to help more quickly.

A picture paints a thousand words…

“Lastly, you need to select that zone for playback.”

That tip was the key. Makes perfect sense - in hindsight, although the icon wasn’t exactly self-evident. I now have sound. Hurray! But . . .

It also opened up a whole different set of issues starting with the fact that Roon is only sending two channels of data to the HD621 even for multi-channel sources. I have the “HD621 zone” in Roon configured with a channel layout of 5.1 (tried 7.1; made no difference), “send stereo/mono as 5.1” set to NO, and “channel mapping only” turned on (I also tried “downmix as needed”; no difference). I seem to be doing everything the user guide says to do, but I can only get two channels regardless of the source.

I also am experiencing extreme volume variations between albums which I presume an audio analysis will correct. Thankfully, I see that it can be done by album. Hopefully, I will also be able to manually adjust those levels that still aren’t quite right.

Last - and this may be the biggest issue of all in making a decision to go with Roon - can I import my library from JRiver? I spent hundreds of hours organizing that library, and I sure don’t want to have to do that work all over again. The few hundred albums I downloaded into Roon are but a small sample, yet that process created a library that is a disorganized mess. In JRiver, I accessed everything by genre/album artist/album where the album artist is composer (classical) or performer (other genres) - last name first - and the name of the work (classical - appended with conductor last name ) or album name (other genres) in the album field, e.g., “classical/Beethoven, Ludwig van/Symphony #5: Ormandy” or “jazz/Terry, Clark/The Chicago Sessions.” I also broke many classical albums with works by multiple composers into multiple virtual albums by composer. Roon may do it differently, but keep in mind that composer, not the album name, is number one in a classical music lover’s organizational thinking, and the name of work is number two. (I don’t yet see a way to sort the Roon library that way.)

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