I'm having a variety of issues with my AC'97 audio in Vista. Past issues I've given up on included the inability to record raw audio that was being played back on my pc, and not being able to use audio line in. I've got the most current drivers from Realtek.

My current issue is that I'm trying to get reliable playback on my home theater surround system through the coaxial digital audio output. Sometimes I can get the -*test*-('") tone to play through the properties panel, and sometimes I can't. Previous to installing the current driver I was at least able to get stereo playback, now I get nothing from standard audio. I was also able to get audio playback from a Dolby Digital encoded DVD. I was using a surround optimizer from it to -*test*-('") the channels on my stereo (it was blending my center channel with my fronts, and blending my left and right rear channels together). Now I get nothing from DVDs.

Any ideas as to why all of this is so difficult? Anyone else encounter these issues? Anybody got a solution?

There are not a lot of Vista users here, most of us are waiting for the patch releases to dive in. However, if you will PM Crisao23, I think you might find he can help.

UPDATE: Here is the la-*test*-('") drivers FOR Vista 09/03/07 :

ftp://202.65.194.212/pc/audio/6251_Vista_APO.zip
ftp://202.65.194.211/pc/audio/6251_Vista_APO.zip
ftp://152.104.238.19/pc/audio/6251_Vista_APO.zip

In order to record raw audio or what is "playing" on the pc I think that you should set up Stereo Mix as your recording source. Enable it.



I never used the coaxial audio output on the Realtek onboard audio.

All the sources are correctly set ?

Like SPDIF Out:



(I know that these basic config images may sound dumb)

How's the supported formats options ?



What kind of sound system you have ? A receiver connected to the computer ? Or a set of digital speakers ?

I never tried it, but google found something on this issue:

http://ac3filter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=377

Reply updated with new Realtek drivers.

Thanks a lot for all of the info. I'm currently downloading the new drivers. I've got the digital out going to a Pioneer home theater receiver. It seems to be giving me output through the receiver today, although I think it's just stereo. Haven't done a lot of switching between the speaker output and the digital out though.

As far as recording goes, I only have Mic and Line In (which it says is currently unavailable) in my list of devices.

The driver update fixed my surround issues. My receiver was playing back Dolby 5.1 from Media Player. Thanks for the driver links. Any idea why I don't get an option to record from a stereo mix?

Right click the recording devices window and select show disabled devices: