Patent ID: 7561932

Claim:
A method for using a single sound card to output audio data from a plurality of entertainment sources that include a media player and game software, comprising: presenting a plurality of virtual devices to a user with each virtual device corresponding to a selection of a set of speakers from a group of speakers in different locations including speakers located in at least two different rooms, the presenting including displaying a list of the plurality of virtual devices on a graphical user interface; receiving a first selection from the user associating a media player application with at least one of the plurality of virtual devices such that the first selection determines a first speaker assignment for the media player application; receiving a second selection from the user associating a game software application with at least one of the plurality of virtual devices such that the second selection determines a second speaker assignment for the game software application; and using a plurality of virtual device drivers to write audio data streams for the media player application and the game software application into a system memory accessible by the single sound card and to program the single sound card to associate audio data streams of the media player application and the game software application with output audio channels based on the user's selections of virtual devices; and the single sound card operative to simultaneously output audio according to the first speaker assignment and the second speaker assignment with the single sound card performing any mixing required to output audio from the media player application and the game software application on one or more shared speakers.