How to enable EMU-0404 USB S/PDIF out in Vista?

[ajinkya]

I'm helping someone set up an EMU-0404 USB. The device is between his HTPC (connected to USB) and his amplifier. The HTPC has Win Vista on it. All latest drivers (updated from stock firmware) have been installed and foobar is being used for audio. In foobar, both the SPDIF and the analog outputs of the EMU are recognised and can be enabled. The ASIO driver for EMU is also recognised and is being used. So, for music, everything works well.

However, if he wants to watch movies through a media player (VLC, DivX WMP etc.) or through a browser, the player/browser uses the operating system (OS) recognised devices. In the Vista OS, the EMU is recognised only as a device that has analog outputs. So if we connect the SPDIF out of the EMU to the receiver and play via (say) the browser, there is no sound. If we use the analog outputs of the EMU, everything works as before. However, my friend seems to like the SPDIF sound better for movies, so he wants to use it as the primary output. My question, in a nutshell, is:
Has anyone else faced this problem where the OS does not recognise the SPDIF output of the EMU? Is there a workaround/patch/software to fix this?

Thanks,
Jinx.

 

[ajinkya]

Looks like I answered my own question via this EMU weblink:
http://ask.emu.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=creative_emu,U={B8F60310-DA4F-11D3-94F4-00500463020E},Company={39C0DC6D-57B0-4A93-9950-938920B4A34D},d=1211880325312,VARSET=centric:1004,VARSET=m:0,VARSET=c:0,VARSET=pn:0404%20USB%202.0,VARSET=cn:Interfaces,VARSET=catfaq:CATFAQ_25,VARSET=prodfaqRODFAQ_1004

Go to the section link: Setting up S/PDIF output with Windows XP based applications

It's a ridiculous solution. I wish EMU had better driver support for this sort of thing.

-Jinx.