8KDA3+ - mixing Line-In into SPDIF output?

[owagner]

Hi,

I've got a 8KDA3+ board with an SPDIF connection (coaxial) to a Yamaha A/V receiver. This basically works fine, normal wave output arrives at the amp, so does AC3 passthrough data.

I've got two issues, however, which may be related:

a) the SPDIF output only ever outputs internally generated digital data. I seem to be unable to mix in stuff from the AC97 codec's analog inputs into the signal, regardless of the mixer settings. I can record .WAV files from the analog inputs fine, but real-time mixing simply doesn't work. This is a problem for me because I have a DVB TV card with an on-board decoder which requires audio to be looped back into a line-in port.

b) the master volume control (including mute) of the system mixer has no effect whatsoever on the volume of the SPDIF output. This is slightly annoying because I have a Logitech Elite keyboard with volume and mute control which I'd like to see working.

The realtek driver section of the manual of the EPOX board suggests that there ought to be a setting which might solve the issue, namely setting the SPDIF output from "Output digital only" to "Output digital and analog". However, this setting is not available on my system. I've tried a variety of realtek drivers (including the ones from the CD-ROM which shipped with the board), to no avail -- SPDIF in options are available, SPDIF out options aren't. I finally contacted Realtek support about why the option page is not available on my system, and they responded (very swiftly so!):

I'm sorry !!
We didn't support SPDIF-Out function for nVidia Chipset .
Because the SPDIF-Out signal was sent by nVidia Chipset .
But the SPDIF-In signal was received by Our AC'97 Audio Codec .

Now, I wonder whether there is a solution for this problem, or whether I should just stuff an el-cheapo CMI8738 card into the box and forget about the ALC850 alltogether...

Olli