71monaro Posted June 28, 2008 Posted June 28, 2008 (edited) I have just installed an ASUS 9600GT video card in my htpc to get audio thru to Sony X series LCD over HDMI. And have mixed results. Please help me sort out. In VMC Settings Audio set up - I get test tones. the connection options i tried worked selecting toslink 2 channel. I have music playing through TV. I have some TV channels working + such as ABC1, 7Digital, SBSHD, etc What isnt working is I have no sound on TENHD, TEN Digital, Nine Digital etc I have no sound on playing DVD's I do have sound out of headhone jack of PC in all cases. My Sony TV, says 'Unsupported audio signal, check device output' in those circumstances I get no sound. Any idea what needs changing and where? EDIT - I have googled the error message and most posts say the TV is receiving Dolby Digital signal and cant decode. OK makes sense. Solution turn off dolby digital. But no instructions relating to Media Center!!! in Vista I go to control panel-> sounds - and there is a High Def source. using the test button and i get a test tone on tv. Then going to Vista Media Center->setings->MC setup->speakers and I have about 5 options for cable connection (no HDMI) the only one that gives sound as I select options is the Toslink. Then select 2 channels. Then try test tone and nothing!!! even though there is a windows chime on my tv when I make selections. I ran a driver doctor to see if driovers uptodate and said my 9600GT driver (ASUS disc) was not, so I downloaded latest driver fron Nividia. and now nothing on screen. Screen turns off. DOH!!! SOOOO frustrating. Edited June 28, 2008 by 71monaro
digitaladvisor Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 I have just installed an ASUS 9600GT video card in my htpc to get audio thru to Sony X series LCD over HDMI. And have mixed results. Please help me sort out.In VMC Settings Audio set up - I get test tones. the connection options i tried worked selecting toslink 2 channel. I have music playing through TV. I have some TV channels working + such as ABC1, 7Digital, SBSHD, etc What isnt working is I have no sound on TENHD, TEN Digital, Nine Digital etc I have no sound on playing DVD's I do have sound out of headhone jack of PC in all cases. My Sony TV, says 'Unsupported audio signal, check device output' in those circumstances I get no sound. Any idea what needs changing and where? This is interesting as the HDMI could be delivering multi channel PCM or a form of LPCM over the HDMI. Your computer maybe simply re-delivering multichannel PCM [more then stereo] which your TV is unable to decode. Stereo maybe fine. You may have to turn off SP/DIF /Toslink on sound card to enforce your computer internal sound to present a stereo version of sound rather then multi-channel LPCM which can be 5.1/7.1. There is still much confusion in how drivers and software are handling sound in PCs now. You also have conventional sound plus an added output of sound via HDMI. In recent tests on the 4500 ATI it was found to be very confusing and also very frustrating and elusive at times. Disabling the sound card helped or turning SP/DIF in the PC sound driver off helps. The HDMI handshaking both ends must be capable in receiving different levels of sound either in PCM format to bitstream. It may well be that your PC is delivering actual AC3/ DD sound untouched to your TV. <- I think this is your problem here. It was also found that it is possible to send with a double headed 4500 ATI [DVI to HDMI], two outputs at the SAME time - one being sent to the AV recevier for decode and the other to TV. The sound in the receiver fine whilst the TV displayed the video fine. This was with the extended desktop where the twin headed outputs behaved like a linked wide display over two monitors! The technology is very new and there will be cause for lots of frustration with it. Along with those issues, many HDMI connections from a PC actually break down and are incapable in deliverying anything at all except stereo PCM. They must state in their specs they are capable of something of LPCM sound at least. These are my thoughts and after heaps of reading on the internet and attempting to help a user with Blu Ray on a PC [but with a receiver], we have had unpredictable limited success. It seems we are all hitting our heads in trailing patchups and updates often that either work or fail at the moment. Suggested Logic: PCM - Works - Why? All wave forms are STEREO - this includes MP3s and Windows Sound, this is simple PCM - stereo. AC3/DD - Fail - Why? LPCM being sent HDMI that your TV cannot handle. [5.1 /7.1] AC3/DD - Fail - Why? Bitstream pass through via HDMI to TV that cannot decode DD or AC3 bitstreams via HDMI DA
sold Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 I haven't really played around with it much but I had a similar issue using HDMI to a Samsung N8. If the audio decoder is set to pass through DD/DTS it doesn't work, it needs to be set to 2 channel PCM output.
ajm1503559545 Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 It may well be that your PC is delivering actual AC3/ DD sound untouched to your TV. <- I think this is your problem here. I reckon you're spot on DA. The problem seems to be that there's no obvious way to downconvert the AC3 audio to stereo before it leaves the PC over HDMI. Is toslink an option from the PC to the TV? I've used this for a stereo system and output everything as stereo.
ApoLakay Posted June 29, 2008 Posted June 29, 2008 I have just installed an ASUS 9600GT video card in my htpc to get audio thru to Sony X series LCD over HDMI. And have mixed results. Please help me sort out. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a 9600GT GPU has only got a dual DVI-I interface & a TV-out? So I would assumed that you would be using a DVI-HDMI adaptor to connect to your TV. I do not think any of these I/O are able to carry any audio. Or have I missed something? I would have thought that you need a separate cable to connect your PC to your TV as you do not have an audio out in your GPU card.
71monaro Posted June 29, 2008 Author Posted June 29, 2008 Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a 9600GT GPU has only got a dual DVI-I interface & a TV-out? You are correct, but the latest cards take audio from the mobo internally. then output it on the DVI socket, able to be adapted to HDMI with sound. (as is done in my case) and I do have stereo sound working over HDMI, just doesnt work with DVD's and most TV channels probably as DD/AC3/5.1 and no know idea how to fix. Therefore using audio over HDMI is virtually useless. The sound is downmixed with the onboard audio and outputted analogue ok, so i will just have to run extra analogue audio cables. I hope my TV will allow me to set it so it takes video from HDMI and audio from the RCA inputs at the same time. And upgrading the video card was a waste of time.
71monaro Posted June 30, 2008 Author Posted June 30, 2008 DGaust, I found it thank you I go to controlpanel->sounds-> and under playback tab there are 3 playback devices. 1) Headphones - (front jack i presume) 2) Speakers - Analogue out of rear, setup option allows downconvert DVD to 2 channel Test on this gives correct sound out and DD sources work on this. 3) Digital Output Device(SPDIF) - this has no setup option, but a test gives sound to TV via HDMI then I saw properties and in that there was check boxes asking what receiver was able to decode. It had Dolby DTS checked. I unchecked it and retried playing a DVD hey presto - fixed. Thank you all
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