Realtek, Separate Back Panel Playback Devices

[Mooseman7]

My front panel audio jack is broken and one of my back audio jacks is being used for speakers. I'd like to plug my headphones into one of the other back audio jacks and use the "playback device" tool to switch the audio between the speakers and the headphones without having to unplug the device I'm not using.

The problem is, the "Realtek HD Audio Manager" treats all the back panel audio ports as one playback device. I'm assuming it does this in order to give you surround sound, ie: one port is for the subwoofer, one port is for the left speakers ect. I would like to designate two of the rear audio jacks as two separate playback devices.

When my front audio jack worked I had a similar setup. I would leave my speakers and my headphones plugged in and use the "playback device" tool to alternate between the two. It worked well because the Realtek audio manager designates the front audio jack as a separate playback device than the back audio jacks. The headphones were designated as "Realtek HD Audio 2nd output" in the 'playback device' tool, and the speakers were designated as "Speakers". But now that I have both my speakers and headphones plugged into the back panel, they both play when the "Speakers" playback device is set as the default playback device. The "Realtek HD Audio 2nd output" playback device shows that nothing is plugged in because it is associated with the front panel sound ports.

I'm wondering if there might be a way to assign one of the back panel sound ports to the "Realtek HD Audio 2nd output" playback device. Or maybe create a new playback device designated one of the back sound ports to it. I'm not sure. I just need to designate two of the back panel sound ports to two separate playback devices.

 

[Lutfij]

In reality that will not be possible since the way the port detection mechanism works whereby the jacks/ports are assigned as they are connected with a corresponding audio device. For example when you connect off the (regular)green port Realtek's jack detection will assign it as a headphone or a stereo output. While connected to the green port if you were to hook another device to the black audio port then the software will assign the new connection as rear while the green is left as front so now you have 4.1 surround. When you connect to the blue port the device will be recognized as a mic(in reality you can make your earphones into mic though the volume on them should be turned down). As you progress through the ports you'll learn you're running of one source in your system as opposed to two sources alongside the FP.

You could use a 3.5mm splitter but that would mean two devices playing off one source. Is there no way to get your FP fixed via soldering? Maybe its time to buy a new case that has FP I/O connectivity?

Can you pass on your full systems specs? Just to double check on your motherboard manual and the audio chip's capabilities.