Help with SPDIF

[Boopop]

Hi all, I've just installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my dad's desktop, however I am having problems outputting sound via coaxial to his HiFi. In the ALSA sound mixer, the "IEC958" switch is ticked, which seems to enable the coaxial itself.

While sound can be output to the HiFi now, it would seem only one application can use it at once. An example of this is if I listen to music using amarok, once pidgin makes a noise due to a contact coming online for example, the music stops, and I have to restart Amarok in order to get the music coming out of the HiFi again.

Any help would be appreciated, this is something that his XP install manages quite happily, so I doubt he'll use Ubuntu if I can't get this working properly...

Thanks, Boopop.

EDIT: The sound card itself is Onboard Realtek ALC880

[Boopop]

Fixed! I found the "Play two sounds at once How-To". Delete as needed.