How to make smp ignore hardware volume buttons?

[HeinzHarald]

I really enjoy SMPlayer (x64 Win10), but I would much prefer if the physical volume rocker on my Surface Pro 4 wasn't catched by it since it causes the system and application volume to change at the same time. Is this possible to achieve somehow, and if so how? My google-fu failed me on this one.

The software volume control setting doesn't change this behavior.

What I usually did with VLC (until I got tired of it being a resource hog) was leave the volume at a certain level in the application, and only use the rocker/system volume for changes. This way I could have full control of the volume with the rocker in the let's say 50%-150% volume range.