Diverting sound output of MCE to SPDIF

1

I have an ASUS SupremeFX II audio card (which in fact is an onboard audio riser slot) with the default drivers that are pre-installed by Windows 7 x64 for this card.

I am able to manually switch between analog output and SPDIF output by the means of control panel (or external utilities like STADS), a change that affects all applications.

The problem is that by doing that every time I am about to launch Windows Media Center, except that it's not that elegant, also makes all other Windows application's sounds to pass through SPDIF too, bypassing analog output completely, blending with what I am watching at Windows Media Center.

  • Is there a way to make SPDIF as the default playback device for Windows Media Center?

I know other programs that have a setting like that (foobar2000 for example) working like charm, allowing me to even have different outputs working at the same time (tested with my current card successfully).

But when comes to Windows Media Center... it just use what the default playback device is all the time. The only setting that I know of, is under:

  • Settings
    • General
      • Windows Media Center Setup
        • Set Up Your Speakers

and what it does is to just change the default playback device for entire system.

Please help!

Saxtus

Posted 2009-11-29T23:49:38.553

Reputation: 1 254

Answers

1

This is what I have seen as well. It seems like Windows Media Center assumes that the PC:

1. Is a dedicated media center PC
2. Uses only one audio output
3. Both of the above

If there was a per-application setting in your ASUS soundcard control panel, I would recommend using that. Otherwise this seems to be a limitation in Windows for now :(

Joshua

Posted 2009-11-29T23:49:38.553

Reputation: 4 290

No there isn't. You know a soundcard that can do what you suggest in Windows 7? – Saxtus – 2009-12-23T00:40:16.867

I can't without doing some digging / research into specific card's drivers and control panels.

Here's a good place to get some more info on this: http://superuser.com/questions/22996/windows-vista-7-managing-multiple-audio-playback-devices

The answers there are especially useful.

– Joshua – 2009-12-23T01:05:53.340

I am afraid that the mainstream audio cards doesn't seem to provide such feature you're describing. Also about the question you referring me to: It just describe different ways to switch global output, I never had problem to do that in the first place... – Saxtus – 2009-12-23T11:23:36.963

Asked: 2009-11-29T23:49:38.553

Viewed: 1 297 times

Active: 2014-07-11T17:10:58.220