
Then you switch to your headphones, the crackling noise continues. I may make a Youtube video explaining all of this in the near future and I'll post a link to it here when I do for future readers.This may sound familiar to you: you’re hearing static and crackling sound coming out from your speakers. Sorry for the long post but I've been struggling with this for quite a while and wanted to help out others that were in a similar situation. WMP has a setting in the Tools>Devices(I think) to select an individual sound output for the program. In your specific situation, it might be a better long term solution to just use Windows Media Player to play the movie. If you exit out of the application you began the process with, you will need to set it up again once you re-open it. Unfortunately, you have to do all of this every time your girlfriend wants to watch a movie. It sounds complicated in writing but you'll get quick at it. Now you should get all sound except the movie through your headphones. Despite this, however, you should still be getting the movie sound coming through your speakers. In other words, your speaker output is no longer marked as anything. Third, you set your headphone output to 'Default Device'. Second, you set your headphone output as the 'Default Communication Device'. First you set up your speakers as the 'Default Device' and you start up what ever your girlfriend is using to play the movie.


I'll use the OP's situation as an example for this. I don't think Microsoft actually meant these functions to work in the way I've made them work but nevertheless I got them to. The way you accomplish this is by using the windows 'Default Communication Device' and the 'Default Device' function. My speakers going through the normal stereo 3.8 mm output and my headphones go through SPDIF/ Optical Audio Output.


I'm in a similar situation as I like to play music out of my speakers (using iTunes) while playing a game at the same time through my headphones. Hey, I don't know if you've (the OP) has resolved his problem yet but I may have some helpful input if you haven't.
