How to enumerate audio out devices in c#

Question

I would like to know how to get a list of the installed audio out devices (waveOut) on a machine

OS: Windows (XP, Vista, 7) Framework: .Net 3.5 Language: c#

When iterating through this list I would like to get information like Identifier, Manufacturer, ... per device.

Any hints?

Answer 1

Here is code to enumerate audio devices in C#, using WMI (reference System.Management).

    ManagementObjectSearcher objSearcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(
           "SELECT * FROM Win32_SoundDevice");

    ManagementObjectCollection objCollection = objSearcher.Get();

    foreach (ManagementObject obj in objCollection)
    {
        foreach (PropertyData property in obj.Properties)
        {
            Console.Out.WriteLine(String.Format("{0}:{1}", property.Name, property.Value));
        }
    }

Which results in output something like:

Availability:
Caption:USB Audio Device
ConfigManagerErrorCode:0
ConfigManagerUserConfig:False
CreationClassName:Win32_SoundDevice
Description:USB Audio Device
DeviceID:USB\VID_047F&PID_0CA1&MI_00\6&2C037688&0&0000
DMABufferSize:
ErrorCleared:
ErrorDescription:
InstallDate:
LastErrorCode:
Manufacturer:(Generic USB Audio)
MPU401Address:
Name:USB Audio Device
PNPDeviceID:USB\VID_047F&PID_0CA1&MI_00\6&2C037688&0&0000
PowerManagementCapabilities:
PowerManagementSupported:False
ProductName:USB Audio Device
Status:OK
StatusInfo:3
SystemCreationClassName:Win32_ComputerSystem
SystemName:
Availability:

Caption:Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
ConfigManagerErrorCode:0
ConfigManagerUserConfig:False
CreationClassName:Win32_SoundDevice
Description:Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
DeviceID:PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3059&SUBSYS_09011558&REV_60\3&61AAA01&1&8D
DMABufferSize:
ErrorCleared:
ErrorDescription:
InstallDate:
LastErrorCode:
Manufacturer:Realtek
MPU401Address:
Name:Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
PNPDeviceID:PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3059&SUBSYS_09011558&REV_60\3&61AAA01&1&8D
PowerManagementCapabilities:
PowerManagementSupported:False
ProductName:Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
Status:OK
StatusInfo:3
SystemCreationClassName:Win32_ComputerSystem
SystemName:
Availability:

WMI annoyingly does not appear to distinguish simply between input and output devices for audio. However, using the managed interface to DirectSound, and the DevicesCollection class, as below (reference Microsoft.DirectX.DirectSound), we can get a lot more sound-oriented information.

        DevicesCollection devColl = new DevicesCollection();
        foreach (DeviceInformation devInfo in devColl)
        {
            Device dev = new Device(devInfo.DriverGuid);   

            //use dev.Caps, devInfo to access a fair bit of info about the sound device
        }

Answer 2

In Windows Vista and above you can use IMMDeviceEnumerator which is wrapped for you by NAudio in order to enumerate audio endpoint devices. For example:

var enumerator = new MMDeviceEnumerator();
foreach (var endpoint in 
         enumerator.EnumerateAudioEndPoints(DataFlow.Render, DeviceState.Active))
{
    Console.WriteLine(endpoint.FriendlyName);
}

Answer 3

here is an example

Add a reference to System.Management

ManagementObjectSearcher mo = new ManagementObjectSearcher("select * from Win32_SoundDevice");

foreach (ManagementObject soundDevice in mo.Get())
{
     Console.WriteLine(soundDevice.GetPropertyValue("DeviceId"));
     Console.WriteLine(soundDevice.GetPropertyValue("Manufacturer"));
     // etc                       
}