Vista - Line in and Micophone playback control in Mixer

i searched the net an couldn't find anyone that seemed to want to have this option, which is weird. In XP when you clicked the mixer you could easily adjust the playback/output levels of Line in and Mic. It is really pissing me of that, since i have a TV tuner card with an external cable connecting the audio from the card in to the Line in, i have to go to Playback devices -> Speakers -> Levels -> Line in| every time i want to adjust the sound level coming from my TV card. In short, is it possible to make the mixer look like this?





Obviously photoshopped

Hi, SasquatchSK, and welcome to the forums.

In Vista mixer is for output. For input you'll need to right click on the speaker icon and set the levels for your independent input devices manually.

Yes i know the vista mixer handles per application outputs. You can see that i did not ask about the inputs at all. Both playing and recording audio from my TV card works fine. It is just that I'm bugged about the fact that i do not have a simple control in the mixer for the "amplification" level of the signal that is coming from the Line in. There seems to be a general confusion on every forum I've visited about this issue regarding Line in recording/input levels and output levels as well as microphone recording/input and output levels.

I adjusted each input level (mic, line in, stereo mixer etc.) manually even though the controls are not in the mixer itself, that was not a problem since i only needed to adjust record/input levels once.

My program for the TV card is not entirely vista compatible and it can not access the Line in output controls.
So, for example, when I'm watching TV and want to lower or raise the Line in volume to control the volume of the signal from the TV card, each and every time i have to go to Playback devices -> Speakers -> Levels -> Line in. I don't know how to simplify this more and it is somewhat frustrating to get the same generic answer about where to find the controls each and every time. So please do not give me instructions where to find the controls. I am asking whether the it is possible to have the Line in output controls (not recording or input) in the mixer itself, or even if there is some shortcut.

And the answer is *no*. Hence me giving you instructions on how to do it.

And, for the record, you never mentioned any of this information previously, so I am not a mind reader and do not know what you have tried already and what your situation is - if you want a full answer you need to ask a full question, including all of the information you just made in your last post ***in the first post***.

You asked a question that gave me an incomplete picture of what you were trying to accomplish, and I gave you the requisite answer.

While it is true that i did not implicitly ask whether there could be line in and mic controls in the mixer in the first post i did supply a hypothetical picture. You don't have to be a mind reader just look at the picture and see that i wrote how to find the controls. Besides, how did i get the line in and mic icons in the fist place?? 90% of the questions about the vista mixer are about "where can i find the line in control", so i think i would have found it. You just presumed that i was asking the same question. I appreciate the help and do not want to get into a useless argument.

Anyway i cannot believe Microsoft never thought that users would like to change the output levels of devices in the mixer.

Doing it like this each time is just stupid

Hi Sasquatchsk there is a fix for this and it's embarrassingly simple!

1) Get another sound card, the cheapest you can as you only need stereo.
2) Connect the TV output (or other Line In device) to the Line In of the new card.
3) Connect the Speaker output of the new card to the Line in of the original card

Now you can control the volume on the new card in Volume Mixer. All you have to do is select the new card on the Device drop down and then use the "Speakers" fader.

You won't be able to use the volume control on the TV card's remote control thanks to Vista's new way of controlling sound, but this fix makes life a bit easier!

Also there is a freeware tool called Volumouse that enables you to control sound levels directly with the mouse.

Hope this helps!