Simultaneous 5.1 and 2ch stereo output?

[sbiddle]

Just a quick question I'm wonder if somebody can answer for me. I'm guessing it's not possible but there is obviously no harm in asking!

Is it possible under Vista to playback a recording and have a 5.1 feed via SPDIF as as well as a stereo output at the same time using a single soundcard?

The only reason I'm asking is that I have my PVR hooked up to my amp but am more than happy to use my TV's speakers when I'm viewing TV shows that are only in stereo anyway and save the world by not using as much electricity! When I want to watch a movie however I want full 5.1 via my amp. Is there any easy way to have the system send the 5.1 audio direct via SPDIF and decode the 5.1 back to stereo and send via the line output?


Cheers.

[stustunz]

depends on the sound card my creative card i know does it
you just have to use both spdif and analog out at the same time
each sound card will be different and i dont know if the onboard type sound cards would allow it or not (lack of external connections may be the limiting factor)

[sbiddle]

I'd forgotten I'd posted and just found my post again now! :-)

After doing some Googling it appears that under Vista this isn't possible. With my Realtek onboard audio (with a patch I found online) I can get stereo via SPDIF and analogue simultaneously but can't get 5.1 via SPDIF and stereo via analogue. This appears to be a restriction in Vista as it's possible under XP to send 5.1 via SPDIF and stereo via analogue.

Has anybody else come across this or found any hacks to get around it? The only obviously solution is a SPDIF->analogue converter but I haven't seen any of those online going cheap.

[stustunz]

i guess the other option is to buy a cheap usb sound card
although vista still might get in the way