This behaviour occurs at the same time as the connect/disconnect messages. Or, would be what I wanted if the configuration page would stop disappearing and reappearing. I was right about the OEM drivers in that there are more options for surround configuration, which is what I want. Upon rebooting I suddenly started receiving a popup message from the Realtek audio manager saying either 'You've just plugged in an audio device' or 'You've just unplugged an audio device'. I first tried Gigabyte's official driver, which is basically a branded version of the OEM Realtek HD Audio v2.70. So, I thought I may be able to get better results using manufacturer provided drivers over the MS offerings, however this has opened up a whole new world of misery. This issue is covered by this question although it's not adequately answered. However, all applications that can output surround sound (games, VLC etc.) are unaware of the multichannel capabilities and the amp only ever receives a stereo signal. When using Microsoft's own certified driver for the Realtek HD Audio there are setup options for bitrates and surround codecs (AC3/DTS), I can select them, test them and everything works fine including the multichannel tests. I'm running a Gigabyte X58 board with integrated Realtek HD Audio under Windows 7 64bit and I'm wanting to pass surround audio to my AV receiver via the onboard coaxial S/PDIF output.
