Simultaneous Audio through SPDIF and analogue?

[Deders]

I have just been given a Blu-ray player with surround speakers that I'm trying to get working at the same time as my analogue speakers whilst plugged into my X-FI Xtreme Gamer. I'm just using it for Audio and I have it connected via fibre optic Toslink (with a spdif minijack converter).

I can get them working one at a time but Windows doesn't seem to want to allow me to play the same source out of both sets of speakers. Does anyone know of a way around this? If it helps I can enable my on board sound to use as the digital interface.

I'm sure this would work fine if I was using XP.

 

[pkscout]

That function was lost with Windows 7. You can thank MS for that "upgrade." Try googling for something called Virtual Audio Cable. I've been able to use it to output stereo to two different outputs, but I don't know how or if it would handle 5.1 (or greater) sound.

 

[Deders]

I've just tried using it, apparently the latest version can output to all speakers even from a stereo source, Just like my soundcard if I set it right but I can't seem to find it. It also doesn't seem to want to play nice with VLC

 

[mikeford]

I liked Win7 a lot when I first started using it for a HTPC, but over time I am getting sick of things not working, or only working the MS way. Its getting very close to the point that figuring out how to get the next thing I want to work exceeds the learning curve to switch to a Linux dist.

 

[Deders]

Yeah but I also want to be able to play games :hmm:

 

[Fallen Kell]

Virtual Machines, they work wonders....

 

[Deders]

no performance drop off? I think my i5-750 should have hardware acceleration for virtualisation but I can't seem to get it working in windows 🙁