Detecting Headphones

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Mugunth - 21 Mar 2008 07:11 GMT

Is there anyway to detect whether the user has plugged in his
headphones using C#?
How?

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Michael A. Covington - 21 Mar 2008 14:34 GMT

> Is there anyway to detect whether the user has plugged in his
> headphones using C#?
> How?

Even the soundcard probably doesn't know. I know that laptops mute their
speakers when the headphones are plugged in, but do they do it under CPU
control, or do they just have switch contacts built into the headphone jack
the way radios do?

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Andy - 21 Mar 2008 14:58 GMT

On Mar 21, 9:34 am, "Michael A. Covington"
<l...@ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote:

> Even the soundcard probably doesn't know. I know that laptops mute their
> speakers when the headphones are plugged in, but do they do it under CPU
> control, or do they just have switch contacts built into the headphone jack
> the way radios do?

FWIW, if I plug headphones into my computer I get a volume control
dialog opening automatically. So some soundcards do in fact know if
something has been plugged in or not. How this is done, I'm not sure,
and I don't even know if it's a feature on all soundcards.

The "card" in question is an intel one integrated onto the motherboard.

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ignacio machin - 21 Mar 2008 15:50 GMT

> On Mar 21, 9:34 am, "Michael A. Covington"
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> The "card" in question is an intel one integrated onto the motherboard.

Hi,

I bet it's something implemented on that particular soundcard. Do a
search by that card in Intel website

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Ben Voigt [C++ MVP] - 21 Mar 2008 17:18 GMT

> On Mar 21, 9:34 am, "Michael A. Covington"
> <l...@ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> The "card" in question is an intel one integrated onto the
> motherboard.

You could look at new Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound.Device().SpeakerConfig
and see if the driver changes it.

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Peter Duniho - 21 Mar 2008 17:57 GMT

>> Is there anyway to detect whether the user has plugged in his
>> headphones using C#?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> jack
> the way radios do?

Actually, the "newer" sound hardware specification does in fact include
support for detection of connection changes. I don't recall the name of
the specification off the top of my head, but I know it's pretty much
standard now and has been for at least a few years, probably longer.

Now, whether Windows provides an API to get at the information, never mind
whether this is exposed in .NET, I have no idea. But the hardware's been
supporting it, and specialized drivers have been taking advantage of it,
for some time.

Pete

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Detecting Headphones

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