Digital Sound via SP/DIF disappears

I have Vista Ultimate set-up to run my TV. There's a digital coax SP/DIF
connected to my home theater amp.
I use DNTV Scheduler Pro 2 to record TV programs in MD-DVR format for later
playback (I have 4 tuners, 3 configured for recording, 1 for live TV).

Every so often (sometimes several times a night, other times it can be
several days) when starting a recorded TV program, or even a DVD, the sound
drops out. To bring it back I have to reboot (the simplest), or disable the
SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio device in device manager and then
re-enable it (the quickest but can't be done via remote control)

I've had the same issue with 2 different motherboards: an ASUS M2N-SLI
Deluxe (AMD CPU, Nvidia chipset) and currently an ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel CPU,
Intel chipset) which leads me to believe it's definately a software problem.
I also definately didn't have the problem with XP MCE, so it seems to be
Vista's doing.

Incidently, when the sound 'disappears' for TV, system sounds may or may not
disappear too. On the M2N mobo I updated sound drivers and the frequency of
drop-outs got worse. After backing out that change I decided to swap out the
entire PC to the Intel P5B - but issue remains.

Aside from the video card (Nvidia 6200tc) the only additional cards are a
pair of DNTV Live! Tiny USB2 digitial tuners and a PCI express digital tuner
card that appears as an 'NXP SAA7162, Hybrid Device'.

Hope that's enough info for someone to point me in the right direction.

thanks

On Mon, 4 Feb 2008 00:40:01 -0800, Disorganise
<> wrote:

>I have Vista Ultimate set-up to run my TV. There's a digital coax SP/DIF
>connected to my home theater amp.
>I use DNTV Scheduler Pro 2 to record TV programs in MD-DVR format for later
>playback (I have 4 tuners, 3 configured for recording, 1 for live TV).
>
>Every so often (sometimes several times a night, other times it can be
>several days) when starting a recorded TV program, or even a DVD, the sound
>drops out. To bring it back I have to reboot (the simplest), or disable the
>SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio device in device manager and then
>re-enable it (the quickest but can't be done via remote control)
>
>I've had the same issue with 2 different motherboards: an ASUS M2N-SLI
>Deluxe (AMD CPU, Nvidia chipset) and currently an ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel CPU,
>Intel chipset) which leads me to believe it's definately a software problem.
>I also definately didn't have the problem with XP MCE, so it seems to be
>Vista's doing.
>
>Incidently, when the sound 'disappears' for TV, system sounds may or may not
>disappear too. On the M2N mobo I updated sound drivers and the frequency of
>drop-outs got worse. After backing out that change I decided to swap out the
>entire PC to the Intel P5B - but issue remains.
>
>Aside from the video card (Nvidia 6200tc) the only additional cards are a
>pair of DNTV Live! Tiny USB2 digitial tuners and a PCI express digital tuner
>card that appears as an 'NXP SAA7162, Hybrid Device'.
>
>Hope that's enough info for someone to point me in the right direction.
>
>thanks


I've been fighting similar battles and have yet to find a solution. It
appears that M$ only got the audio about half right in Vista.