PC surround sound

The home speakers play Windows channels: a movie or game on the computer sounds around the sofa, not from one speaker. Voicemeeter takes the PC sound, and Homer Node sends the channels to the speakers.

What you need

• A Windows computer with Homer Node and Voicemeeter. Voicemeeter can be installed and set up from the node window, the “PC surround sound” section.
• Homer speakers on the plan, as the “Speaker” device.

Where: Settings → Music → PC surround sound in the app, Settings → PC surround sound on the web. The settings are the same in the app and on the web.

If the home has several nodes, surround sound asks the one with Voicemeeter: the outputs, switching them and calibration errors come from it.

Channels by the plan

Each speaker's channel is chosen by its place on the plan relative to a listener in front of the TV: front left is the left front channel, behind you is the rear. Move a speaker on the plan and its channel changes too. Checkboxes mark which speakers play.

Channel by hand

Each home speaker has a list: “by plan: …” or any of the seven channels (front left and right, center, side left and right, rear left and right). This way a speaker that the plan puts at the side can play as the rear. The format (quad, 5.1, 7.1) is recalculated at once. PC speakers get no channel choice: their left and right are decided by the wire on the output — the list marks them “PC output”.

PC speakers play through

The PC speakers play through row lists the real outputs of the computer and the one Voicemeeter plays to now (its A1 output). Pick another one and the node switches A1 itself and checks that sound is flowing (about 8 seconds).

• A TV over HDMI works as an output, but Voicemeeter cannot play to a TV that is off — and all computer sound stalls. The node says so, in red under the choice: “No sound goes through this output — Voicemeeter has stalled and all computer sound is silent. Turn the device on (the TV?) or choose another output.”
• “Windows sound bypasses ‘Homer 3D Audio’ now — surround is not playing” — the computer sound is not routed into Voicemeeter; turn it on in the Homer Node window, PC surround sound section.

A home editor changes the output.

Home speakers volume

The Home speakers volume slider from −20 to +20 dB is added to all home speakers on top of calibration. Use it when the rear sounds quieter than the TV after calibration: per-speaker corrections can only turn down. The node softly limits loud parts, without distortion. PC speakers (the TV) are set with their own remote.

Sound delay

While surround is on, the computer sound lags behind the picture. By how much — the Sound delay number, shown large next to the format: set exactly that as the audio shift in your player, with a minus sign (audio earlier): MPC-HC — “Audio time shift”, VLC — “Audio synchronization”.

What it is made of: the front waits for the home speakers (120 ms), the PC speaker correction after calibration, the Windows → Voicemeeter path (≈70 ms).

Calibration

Stand at the listener's place with a phone or tablet and press Calibrate from phone (on the web, Calibrate with microphone). The node clicks each speaker in turn, the Homer server measures when and how loud the click reached the microphone, and sets the delays and volume itself. The table shows before and after; a speaker the microphone didn't hear is marked “not heard”. The room must be quiet for about 20 seconds.

• Volume is equalized to the middle speaker, and a quiet one is never raised above 0 dB — one far speaker cannot drag everyone down. Corrections are limited: no quieter than −15 dB and no more than 500 ms of delay.
• The app has an “Equalize volume” checkbox: without it only delays are adjusted.
• The node picks up the corrections once a minute. Repeating sooner than 70 seconds answers “the node is still applying the last calibration — retry in N s”.
• Over http the browser gives no microphone on the computer — this is said next to the button: open Homer over https (the home's external address) or calibrate from the phone in the app.
• A calibration error names the real cause. “No sound from Voicemeeter: the PC speaker output (A1) is not playing — it is off or unavailable (TV switched off?)” — turn the device on or change the output in the “PC speakers play through” row.

Calibration is done by a home editor.