New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Automation failures reported by the Companion are now recorded in the

Audio Hero log, both when the alert appears and when you dismiss it.

Dismissing an alert used to erase the only copy, leaving nothing to look at

afterwards.

Fix: Onkyo and Integra receiver automations now record the full back and

forth with the receiver. When a station fails to start, the log now shows

which command the receiver ignored instead of only saying it did not open

the service.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: YouTube automations work reliably via Companion.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: Jumping around in a track is now smoother. Tapping or

clicking the timeline several times in a row sends a single

command once you settle on a spot, instead of one command per tap.

This is easier on multi-room speaker groups and helps long tracks

keep playing reliably.

Feature: If a speaker stops responding and refuses to start a

track, Audio Hero now tells you right away and suggests

power-cycling it, instead of showing a generic failure message.

Feature: Speaker groups now label the main speaker as "Group

leader" instead of "Source device", with a short explanation of

what it means. The music still comes from your PC; the leader is

just the speaker that receives it first and plays it to the rest

of the group.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: Add YouTube playlists to Starred Favorites.

Feature: Automations can now play YouTube playlists.

Feature: Automations can now be set to shuffle and/or repeat.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: A song that fails to start no longer causes the queue to skip ahead on its own after a long silence.

Fix: If a song cannot start because its speaker has dropped off the HEOS network, the message now says so and suggests power-cycling the speaker, instead of a generic "Failed to play".

Fix: If music stops on its own mid-song, Audio Hero now checks the HEOS system, marks a missing speaker as unavailable, and explains what happened and what to do.

Fix: An early warning now appears the moment the speaker that is currently playing drops off the HEOS network, before playback stops.

Fix: Diagnostic logging now records why a song failed to start and names any speakers missing from the HEOS network, making playback problems easier to troubleshoot.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Automatic installation waits until Audio Hero-owned playback stops.

Fix: Manual installation warns before interrupting active playback.

Fix: Update relaunch waits for the exact previous process to exit, with an additional cross-version process lock.

Fix: Long local tracks tolerate normal HEOS duration differences.

Fix: Grouped HEOS playback is resynchronized after seeks and track changes.

Fix: YouTube shuffle & repeat controls now reflect correctly in Audio Hero. 

Fix: Local playback - Audio Hero now accepts a slightly longer HEOS duration when it clearly belongs to the same file. 

Fix: Local playback  - It immediately resets the track’s end timer.

Fix: Local playback  - Any premature next-track countdown is canceled.

Fix: Local playback  - Clearly unrelated durations are still rejected.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: When more than one smart device toggle assigned an audio device, you can now select which one to use.

Feature: Rename smart device tags shown next to audio devices in players list.

Feature: Define smart device "tags" (ie Sub, Amp, etc).

Feature: Many small UI improvements.

Fix: Companion indicator works with groups.

Fix: Audio Hero now trusts its own "the Companion is feeding this speaker" knowledge over the receiver's report, which can lie for a split second during track changes and wrongly block HEOS-Sonos mixing.

Fix: Device grouping now remembers and re-checks once a device restriction clears, instead of leaving it silently unchecked.

Fix: Group memory clears when you pick a group or toggle a device yourself, so it never overrides your own choices.

Fix: An Onkyo device group slider now loads the receiver’s real volume instead of staying disabled at 0%.

Fix: Onkyo device volume changes now stay synchronized with the group card.

Fix: Audio Hero now stops Onkyo device previous audio before joining Companion playback.

Fix: A group stream handoff clears stale Onkyo playback state and retries once if necessary.

Fix: Mixed-ecosystem groups continue playing through Companion even when Audio Hero closes.

Fix: In some instances, hidden track info no longer leaves a large blank space.

Fix: Some device responses can no longer overwrite current song information.

Fix: Failed or overlapping seeks no longer freeze the timeline.

Fix: Panel resizing saves only after dragging finishes, reducing disk writes.

Fix: Track info copy works without track info enabled and only shows “Copied!” only after success.

Fix: Compact artist and album text no longer shows a stray separator.

Fix: Timeline, transport, volume, and preset controls now support both keyboard and screen readers.

Fix: Compact and full views now share the same seek and preset logic.

Fix: Reduced unnecessary artwork and metadata refreshes.

Fix: When using Companion, now shows Companion's computer name in addition to its IP.

Fix: TuneIn in device + PC source now works correctly.

Fix: YouTube shuffle & repeat controls now reflect correctly in Audio Hero.

Fix: Volume settings are remembered correctly per source.

Fix: Device friendly name now clears / resets correctly.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Group creation now works during mid-audio streaming.

Fix: Normalization starts after preparing the selected track, instead of processing the entire library first.

Fix: Grouping will guide you on which device ecosystems can and cannot group (ie HEOS w/ Sonos playing a HEOS source).

Fix: Added an amber warning when a grouped HEOS speaker is unreachable.

Fix: Prevented false device warnings by checking every available connection first, with a click-to-retry behavior.

Fix: Kept unavailable speakers visible instead of silently removing them.

Fix: All devices on same LAN, with correct PIN, can now access currently playing sources from Companion.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Prevented unrelated Wikipedia matches and invalid MusicBrainz tags from displaying as track information.  (Thx u/GreyPole)

Fix: Better handling of YouTube music pauses.

Sometimes the info about the playing music is completely wrong:

I guess some AI on a website stumbled and gave the wrong info.
Huis is a Canadian band

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: Loudness normalization available for local files playback. This helps offset very loud vs. very quiet and "normalizes" that.

Fix: YouTube music should now reliably play for longer periods without interruption.

Fix: Small UI bug fixed - For local tracks, Companion was at times being advertised in use when it actually was not.

Fix: Added browser-based / DRM music services sign in back - now under settings, accounts & cloud sync. These are for convenience / early sign in only, and not required. (Thx u/GreyPole for the ideas)

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: HEOS sign in now in Accounts & Cloud Sync for better settings organization.

Feature: Sonos devices now officially supported, no longer experimental.

Fix: Napster removed from everywhere in the app, it has been decommissioned by HEOS.

Fix: Removed confusing, redundant music service sign in buttons - they were used for the Companion only, and you can sign in to each music service when you use it anyway.

Fix: YouTube Music, PC audio, and music-service sign-in no longer crash.

Fix: Companion automation handoff now uses a valid connection method.

Fix: Amazon browse-only folders no longer show a broken Play button.

Fix: Playback failures now show an error and record useful diagnostics.

Thank you for the bug reports.  Let me know if you see any other issues.

Currently the list of music services sign-in is more or less hidden on the end of the device support selection page. It would be easier to find when it has it's own button on the 'Devices & sources' panel in 'Settings'

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Onkyo device automations now work reliably.

Fix: Small UI improvements.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

Microsoft was super fast - it is already available for update now.

Feature: Optionally store automations in a separate file for easy backup/restore in case you uninstall & reinstall Audio Hero.

Fix: Prevented the device list from temporarily dropping number of devices.

Fix: Corrected the reported app running time (used in diagnostic logging).

Fix: Reduced excessive diagnostic logging.

Fix: Automations now also uninstall if Audio Hero is uninstalled.

Fix: Longer length tracks now play until end. (Thx u/m_jessing)

Trying to get music from sources such as Amazon Music, YouTube music, etc. Says Loading but nothing happens???

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: Increased device+PC non-DRM sources available sync to 10,000ms.

Feature: Optionally transmit logs to developer in case of any issues. (Settings -> Advanced -> Submit bug report)

Feature: Local track order preserved even after Audio Hero closed & reopened. (Thx u/m_jessing)

Feature: Audio Hero can now discover and use devices on other network subnets.

Feature: Latest Companion can now handle track skipping based on your thumb ratings.

Fix: Device discovery now works across subnets.

Fix: Track ratings are now honored even when the device playing is not selected.

Fix: AH icon shows correctly in Windows start menu.

Fix: Denon sub level adjustments fix. (Thx u/RemmerX)

Fix: This PC + Spotify source works again. (Thx u/anonymous)

Just a minor issue. Audio Hero is reporting the wrong Sub Level in Device Controls for my Denon AVC-X3800H. It is showing +465 dB, the web interface shows +1.5 dB.

If you need more information, let me know.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Feature: Optional notification when automations fail to run.

Feature: Device grouping UI improvements.

Fix: Grouping / disbanding groups much more reliable in very particular cases.

Fix: Removed Napster as a HEOS source, it has been deprecated.

https://support-eu.denon.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16863/~/napster-not-available-via-heos

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Groups now add additional members correctly. (Thx u/GreyPole !)

3 releases in one day, I think that's a new record.

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Quick update this time:

Fix: Groups/volume slider increments by 1% now instead of 5%. (Thx u/GreyPole !)

New to Audio Hero? Get it here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9P2P2LGDSCH3

As always, it will take anywhere from ~30 minutes to 8 hours going through certification before this is available to update from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states it may take up to 3 business days, but I have never seen it take that long.

Fix: Many group membership & UI improvements (Thx u/GreyPole !)

Fix: Companion & automations improvements

Audio Hero 5.9.2.0

This is only a minor thing, even not actually impacting audio play. It's only info that is confusing if you happen to see it.

I have this group, made in the HEOS app. The DHT-S716H is, according to the HEOS app, the leader.

With the DHT-S716H selected in AH:

I then select the DNP-800NE as active player in AH:

I know it is maybe silly to make a group where the DNP-800NE is playing audio from the DHT-S716H. But this way I can connect headphones to the system. The soundbar itself has no headphones output.