Vista: Output to analog + SPDIF simultaneously?

R

RedShark

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 8, 2003
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Hello,

Under XP, my crummy SoundMAX integrated sound would send output to the analog PC speakers I have, and to my stereo via SPDIF/optical. Under Vista, I only seem to be able to output to one or the other, by changing the "default playback device" under Control Panel -> Sound. I looked around for some time for a fix, but didn't see it. Is there anyway to output sound to both simultaneously? Thanks!
 
I have a similar setup (SoundMax and Vista), and I believe theres an option called "Digital Output Only". This existed under XP as well.

You might look for new/different drivers as well. Try motherboard manufacturer drivers if you're using the built in Windows ones currently.

No guarentees though, I may have a completely different SoundMax product.
 
I'm using an Asus P5B and just installed Vista this past Saturday. At that time, I installed the drivers provided by Asus. I haven't noticed any "Digital Output Only" option. Hmm, my guess is that it's just a driver issue that will eventually be resolved--has anyone out there successfully output simultaneously to both analog + digital under Vista with _any_ system configuration?
 
mattsaccount said:
Hello,

I only seem to be able to output to one or the other, by changing the "default playback device" under Control Panel -> Sound.
Click to expand...

How did you change it? I dont see it on mine, i'd settle for just SPDIFout....cant stand the stereo deal anymore on vista.

BTW, i have SoundMAX 4 XL with AudioESP audio subsystem* using the Analog Devices AD1985 codec* on an INTEL D865PERL
 
Here are two screenshots that should make it clear. I haven't figured out how to do both simultaneously either, though it's certainly one of my biggest Vista gripes at the moment.

vista_sound_step1.png

vista_sound_step2.png


After making these changes, start the app that makes sound, and it should use the "playback device" that you set as default.

Since the Nvidia drivers don't seem to be that well implemented in Vista 64 yet, it takes me literally a couple minutes to reconfigure my computer to output Video/Sound to my TV/stereo instead of the monitor/computer speakers.
 
I'm having the exact same problem.

In XP it would just output 5.1 sound to my receiver and stereo sound to my TV speakers. But now in Vista I had to set the endpoint device to SPDIF and keep my receiver on.

There must be a lot of people with this problem, yet it's hard to find a solution. Or do they all just output all audio to their receiver?

Any new idea's Matt?
 
Unfortunately, no. ASUS's response was simply:

"Vista has integrated most of the sound drivers in the OS. You should be able to download the updates from VIsta and then enter the control panel and set these options."

Of course, my system is already up-to-date, and I doubt that uninstalling the ASUS-provided 64-bit sound drivers and reverting to those included with Vista would actually improve the situation.

Yesterday, I bitched about this to a friend of mine who had an internship with Microsoft last summer, but he didn't know how to fix it either. He conjectured it was done for reasons of security, but after discussing that for a few minutes, the conversation ended with me unconvinced. It seems like there must be some rational reason for setting it up this way, but I don't understand what it is.

I checked recently for new drivers, thinking they might include a mechanism to work around this problem, but none have been posted. This is really the only hope I see--but the fact that nobody has posted saying this is possible with _any_ configuration under Vista seems suspicious.
 
I'm planning on buying a new MediaCenter with a P5B Plus Vista Edition motherboard. So I was wondering if the stereo (to my TV speakers) and SPDIF (to my receiver) output would work.

Does it work with the 32bit drivers, or isn't it working at all? Maybe a workaround :(?

Thnx for the info.
 
I don't think the default microsoft drivers provide any sort of simultanious Analog + Digital output.

Its up to the manufacturers or driver developer to implement this functionality. The creative X-Fi vista drivers have the option to enable digital output when using analog "speakers" as the default/selected device.
 
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