dburger:

With interest I am reading this thread. I am planning to build my first media center using the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H as motherboard, supporting HDMI and SPDIF Optical out.

The HDMI output connection I want to use for video to my Pioneer plasma panel. The SPDIF optical out should be used for sending digital audio to my AV receiver (not having a HDMI input). Considering all the problems by having digital and analog audio the same time, I am wondering whether sending the video signal over HDMI and the audio over SPDIF at the same time will work with this board. I cannot really find it in the manual of the motherboard.

Dave

The Netherlands

 

Okay, getting sound out of the mobo in two ways is not possible. But my main concern now is (before buying the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H mobo), whether HDMI sends out video and SPDIF sends out audio in 5.1 channel.

What will happen when the BIOS setup of this mobo is defined as follwos Onboard VGA output connect:  D-SUB/HDMI and in the sound properties of Windows XP or Vista the default device is set to SPDIF out?

Will I get video to the plasma via HDMI?

         I guess, I will

Will I get sound to the receiver via SPDIF out? And if yes, 2 channel or 5.1?

         Hopefully the answer is yes, 5.1.          

1.yes video via hdmi

2. yes 5.1 via tos

solidus:

Found a solution to my problem! It's with the help of a tiny program called Virtual Audio Cable that can be used like a virtual Y cable for transferring wave streams. When installed it creates a virtual Line 1 (can do up to 64 of them) that appears in Windblows as a sound device. What I can do is set this as the default Playback device, than run another little program included in the package called Audio Repeater to point to the output(s).

In my case, I have to run two instances of Audio Repeater, both of which having an input from that Line 1, but in one of them I set the output to Realtek HD Audio, in the other I set it to Bluetooh AV Audio and Voila! You can also have delays by setting the buffer sizes to different values to make it sync perfectly.  I had to add 200ms extra buffer to the Realtek HD and now it is synchronized perfectly. I have so far only tested with stereo speakers as I don't yet have my 5.1 system up and running (I just moved), but I saw you can set the number of channels in the Audio Repeater, so I would think it will work for 5.1 and 7.1 just as well. I don't know how good it will work with digital in/out as I haven't tested that either.

Some problems I came across:
- the driver is not digitally singed, so Vista 64 won't like it unless you boot it with driver signature validation disabled (which can be a pain to do... everytime you restart you have to press F8).
- whenever you restart, you will have to set up the Audio Repeaters again, which I can see getting annoying after a while

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/Virtual-Audio-Cable.shtml

Well, I thought I share my findings maybe this could also help some of you guys out too.

UPDATE: I haven't been able to get the multi-channel stream to work through the Audio Repeater yet. I am not sure if that's the limitation of the trial version or what. I sent a message to the author to see if it's me or the program.

This is viable and I have tested, with HDMI through my ATI 2400 XT, as well as the SPDIF out on my motherboard, but I'm only able to get 2 Channel Stereo to work so far.  I've emailed the author to see if I'm missing something, it appears to be the way that the "software driver" interacts with the Audio Stack.  It does not give you the "Supported Formats" tab in order to select Dolby and DTS, and also be able to test.  Let's see what the author has to say. 

This is the best solution I've seen so far in terms of splitting the Audio signal accross multiple devices.

I'm a bit surprised to see that more people aren't jumping on testing this.

Mark

Author advised that the "Audio Repeater" application will not handle 5.1.  So I guess Stereo is the best you would get.  This still may meet some individuals requirements.  You can also test before you buy.  It's not worth it for me, if it can't present the audio as 5.1 to both digital outputs.

M

Hello!
Since there is no possibility at the moment, to have 5.1 digital and simultaneous analog output, I wanted to ask, if there is a possibility, to change the default Audio Device via a shortcut?

Regards

Sopur

Sorry to derail this thread slightly with my first post, but is it possible to have two simultaneous digital audio outputs on Vista?

I have an HDMI cable from my MediaPC (from an ATI Saphire HD2400Pro graphics card) connected directly to the TV for everyday TV watching, and I wanted to pass the analogue sound to my AV reciever to watch movies in surround sound (or stereo for listening to music). From the 13 pages of answers listed here, I see that this isn't possible. But can I split the HDMI signal into two, or use the onboard SPDIF (with a separate cable), to get two simultaneous 5.1 digital audio signals? 

I think I'm ready to buy a new AV receiver anway, but before I do I want to make sure I get the right reciever, and this choice could be swayed by these audio output options. In case it wasn't clear, I'm a bit of a newbie...

I had this setup working; 7600GT with HDMI (with SPDIF coax connected and looped through the 7600GT with a suplied cable) and also using the optical out from the motherboard to send to the AV receiver (getting 5.1 sound).

Yesterday I got a new TV (which has HDMI 1.3) and suddenly this setup stopped working! Still trying to figure out why this is not working anymore.

I would simply use a cheap optical splitter to accomplish this. They can be had for $2~3.

I have been suffering with this problem right beside many of you.  I just what to watch a movie in 5.1 and then start playing mp3s using stereo headphones without having to go and change settings or buy a bunch of other junk, that would convert this to that and back again.  There has got to be a software fix for this coming eventually, wouldn't you think!  A simple switch that detects the audio signal and outputs it accordingly...  I over simplify of course.  It seems like this is a big enough issue for Microsoft to take notice.  If not, who do we complain to, get it to be a "BIG ENOUPH ISSUE!"

In your case it's possible in two ways:

1. The better one:

Using a filter such as ffdshow to decode mp3s only (rather than AC3, DTS) and direct its output to the analog output (i.e. headphones).

In this case it's possible to use just one software such as Vista MCE using a ffdshow plug-in: http://damienbt.free.fr/.

Just follow the instructions on the above site but:

When installing ffdshow you must specify it to decode only the codecs (types of sound files) that you want on the digital output (such as AC3, DTS and other codecs used in movies). Be aware not to choose mp3 for example (you want it on the headphones).

After installing everything, go to ffdshow audio configuration and change the output device to the soundcard's digital output device.

Choose the windows primary sound device as the headphones.

2. Using two applications (Winamp, Vlc, Foobar, vista MCE, windows media player), each directing its output to different card output (i.e. digital, analog, headphones etc).

Thank you so much. I am going to give it a try! 

One correction:

I tried to do the trick using the ffdshow and it doesn't.

The solution is to use two applications:

Winamp and foobar2000 let you choose the playing device.

Just make them the default for playing mp3 and redirect the output to the speakers.