Using multiple audio devices at once in windows 7

T

TurboGLH

Gawd
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Dec 19, 2002
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I currently have a set of 2.0 speakers through an old receiver hooked up to the stereo out on my pc. I also have the tv in my bedroom hook up via hdmi through my 4870. So when I watch tv, i switch audio devices and list the ati hdmi audio as the primary sound device and watch my movies or what have you.

On occasion I would like to be able to game while still allowing my gf to watch movies. I have mpc, so I can full screen while gaming on my regular monitor. But I can't reliably use both the onboard sound AND the ati sound at the same time. I could do it with dragon age, if I stared the game, THEN switched sound devices to the HDMI sound, DA would....stick...for lack of a better word to the originally selected audio device. However, source games, L4D2 specifically, will switch to whatever the current primary audio device is.

I tried manually selecting the audio device in media player classic, but once l4d2 launches the sound cuts out.

Is there a workaround or program that will allow me to assign which audio device each program uses, independent of the programs themselves?
 
Unless there's something new with Windows 7, you are SOL. If you truly want to game while letting her watch movies, just build a cheap HTPC and dedicate that system to the TV.
 
This can definitely be done, but you are going to need to closely look at your audio properties to figure out how to get it working. Personally, I use my Realtek onboard audio for my headset/mic, and my creative XFI card for 5.1 speakers. I like to have the game audio going through my speakers, and skype/teamspeak going through my headset. This works wonderfully for me, as people's voices are not mixed into the game audio.

I would think that you should be able to start a movie, then go into your playback devices, click on the other soundcard, and select 'set as default'. The movie should still come out of WMP, and then when you launch a game, that audio should come out the other device.

If this does not work, maybe try a different movie watching app.
 
Standpoint said:
This can definitely be done, but you are going to need to closely look at your audio properties to figure out how to get it working. Personally, I use my Realtek onboard audio for my headset/mic, and my creative XFI card for 5.1 speakers. I like to have the game audio going through my speakers, and skype/teamspeak going through my headset. This works wonderfully for me, as people's voices are not mixed into the game audio.

I would think that you should be able to start a movie, then go into your playback devices, click on the other soundcard, and select 'set as default'. The movie should still come out of WMP, and then when you launch a game, that audio should come out the other device.

If this does not work, maybe try a different movie watching app.
Click to expand...

It does work....it just seems to depend on the game vs the movie app. I can get media player classic to fix it self to the ati sound device, but as soon as I run l4d2 the sound drops until i either exit or tab out.

Oh well, I guess it will be trial and error until I figure this out.
 
Definitely try something besides media player classic, I bet that'll fix it for ya.
 
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