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SwitchCast v1.4.0

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@jczamora-git jczamora-git released this 20 Oct 10:35
· 19 commits to main since this release
v1.4.0
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SwitchCast v1.4.0 — Release Notes

Release Date: October 18, 2026
Target Platform: Windows 10 (version 1809+) & Windows 11 (x64)
Binary Package: SwitchCast-v1.4.0-win-x64.zip
Creator: John Christopher King Zamora
Website: https://switchcast.wasmer.app/
Repository: https://github.com/jczamora-git/SwitchCast

🚀 Overview

SwitchCast v1.4.0 introduces a comprehensive Background Music Subsystem, dedicated Playlists Management, and direct SwitchDeck Audio Controls, transforming SwitchCast into an all-in-one broadcast companion for live presentations and webinars. Presenters can now stream calming background audio or walk-in music independently of live presentation media.

Additionally, v1.4.0 delivers a Responsive Sources Experience with queued-only filtering, moves incident diagnostics into Settings, and resolves critical audio concurrency and startup crash conditions.

✨ What's New & Enhanced in v1.4.0

🎵 Background Music Library & Dedicated Playlists

  • Independent Audio Engine (IBackgroundMusicService): Built a fully decoupled background music player powered by WinRT Windows.Media.Playback.MediaPlayer, isolated from video presentation playback.
  • Dedicated Playlists Navigation: Manage custom music playlists directly from the SwitchCast sidebar. Create, rename, delete playlists, and organize audio files effortlessly.
  • Broad Audio Format Support: Import and play .mp3, .wav, .flac, .aac, .m4a, and .wma files directly into playlists.
  • Immediate UI Refresh & Sync: Newly imported audio files instantly appear in playlist views without requiring page reloads or navigation cycling, complemented by a quick-refresh control.
  • Persistent Playlists: Saved automatically to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SwitchCast\music_playlists.json with safe atomic writes and corrupt file recovery.

🎛️ SwitchDeck Music Transport & Track Picker

  • Presenter Dock Audio Controls: Control background music playback directly from the lightweight Floating Presenter Dock (SwitchDeck) while presenting full-screen.
  • Live Track Indicator & Marquee: Displays the currently playing track title, artist metadata, and playback status.
  • Direct Track Selection: Pick and switch directly to any song in the active playlist via the dock track selector.
  • Dual-Player Audio Isolation: Hardened audio isolation ensures presentation video audio and background music streams maintain independent volume, muting, and lifecycle states without cross-talk.

📋 Responsive Sources & Queue Management

  • Application Windows Default: The Sources page now defaults to "Application Windows" and intelligently preserves your active category filter across sessions.
  • Queued-Only Filter Toggle: Filter your sources view to show only assets currently staged in the presentation queue, making dense asset collections easy to manage.
  • Live Queue Summary: Visual status counter shows total queued items across all categories at a glance.
  • Polite Import Feedback: Added smooth auto-scroll to newly imported assets and non-blocking in-app notification toasts.

🛠️ Diagnostics Architecture Refinement

  • Diagnostics in Settings: Relocated Incident History and local diagnostics reporting from the Control Dashboard to Settings > Diagnostics, keeping the primary presenter dashboard clean and focused.
  • Startup Exception Hardening: Resolved intermittent WinRT COMException (0x80004005) during window initialization and hardened synchronous local crash logging.

📥 Download & Installation

Windows x64 Standalone Package

  • Package Archive: SwitchCast-v1.4.0-win-x64.zip
  • SHA-256 Checksum: SwitchCast-v1.4.0-win-x64.sha256

How to Run:

  1. Download SwitchCast-v1.4.0-win-x64.zip.
  2. Extract the archive to any folder on your computer.
  3. Launch SwitchCast.exe.
  4. Zero external .NET runtimes or Visual Studio installations required (Self-Contained Windows App SDK package).

🧪 Quality & Verification Summary

  • Target Platform Alignment: .NET 8 (net8.0-windows10.0.19041.0) on Windows App SDK 1.5.
  • Dual-Player Regression Suite: 100% test coverage over concurrent video audio and background music state transitions.
  • Compiler Health: 0 compiler errors, 0 compiler warnings on both Debug and Release configurations.
  • Privacy & Telemetry: 100% offline, zero network telemetry, zero data egress.
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