Thread: No sound when connecting PC to TV through DVI-HDMI

Hey guys,

I am trying to connect my laptop to my Sony Bravia TV with a DVI-HDMI cable and a separate 3.5mm audio cable. My TV has a specific HDMI port that comes paired with a 3.5mm sound input jack for this purpose.



The first time I tried this, it worked perfectly. Since then however, I haven't been able to get the sound working anymore-I only get the image. Then yesterday it suddenly worked again, but today it is back to how its been like for most of the last few weeks. Also, there is nothing wrong with the cable because if you change the TV input to PC (and sound to PC as well), then the sound works fine, but of course then there is no image.

So I was wondering if anyone knows any reason why this might not be working? I already googled this for hours, and most people mention various hacks or reasons relating to the TV thinking it is getting sound through the HDMI cable already, but this is not true because the TV has a specific port especially for use with HDMI to input a separate sound stream.

One thing I can think of is a bad audio cable. Have you tried the cable somewhere else?

That is extremely odd that your t.v wouldn't try to get the sound from the hdmi cable. The audio jack on the back would generally be for like a vga connection. Have you tried restarting your computer while it's connected only by the hdmi?

Just to be clear: its not supposed to get audio from the HDMI cable, because the HDMI cable is actually being output from my laptop via DVI, which doesn't carry an audio signal. Thus the need for the separate stereo cable to send sound to the tv along with the image that is going through the DVI to HDMI cable.

And as I said, the audio cable works fine if you change the input on the tv to PC audio, but not when its connected to the TV along with HDMI video.

DVI to HDMI can actually carry audio. I'm not certain if your laptop is capable of doing so but I have an internal SPDIF cable connected from my video card to the motherboard. To enable the sound through the HDMI, I simply go to the sound properties, highlight SPDIF, and set that to default.

I also had this problem before trying to send the audio through the analog 3.5mm. It seems like your TV is trying to pick the digital audio from the HDMI cable. What's happening is most TVs select digital audio over analog and simply disables the analog.

I'm going to assume you're using Windows 7. Anyways, try going into your sound properties (right-click the speaker in your system tray and click sounds) and disable Digital Audio (HDMI). Make sure Speakers are set to default. You'll have to restart your PC in order for the changes to take effect. If this doesn't work try disabling Digital Audio (SPDIF) as well. Again, reboot if necessary.

You may need to update your video and sound drivers so give that a go.

Sometimes your video card may be the culprit. If at all possible, open up your video card properties and see if you could find anything relating to HDMI digital audio. If you could, disable it.

My solution was the one in my first paragraph. If you still can't get it going, I'm not too sure what other advice I could give you. Good luck.

Originally Posted by el2em

DVI to HDMI can actually carry audio. I'm not certain if your laptop is capable of doing so but I have an internal SPDIF cable connected from my video card to the motherboard. To enable the sound through the HDMI, I simply go to the sound properties, highlight SPDIF, and set that to default.

I also had this problem before trying to send the audio through the analog 3.5mm. It seems like your TV is trying to pick the digital audio from the HDMI cable. What's happening is most TVs select digital audio over analog and simply disables the analog.

I'm going to assume you're using Windows 7. Anyways, try going into your sound properties (right-click the speaker in your system tray and click sounds) and disable Digital Audio (HDMI). Make sure Speakers are set to default. You'll have to restart your PC in order for the changes to take effect. If this doesn't work try disabling Digital Audio (SPDIF) as well. Again, reboot if necessary.

You may need to update your video and sound drivers so give that a go.

Sometimes your video card may be the culprit. If at all possible, open up your video card properties and see if you could find anything relating to HDMI digital audio. If you could, disable it.

My solution was the one in my first paragraph. If you still can't get it going, I'm not too sure what other advice I could give you. Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I don't have any spdif related option in my sound options, so I guess I don't have that feature. I indeed have windows 7, but I'm not sure what you are referring to regarding the disabling of digital audio. There were two items listed under the playback tab, one of which was the default (speakers-realtek high definition audio) and the other one (which was not set to default and thus I'm assuming not being used) called digital audio something. I disabled that one, but that shouldn't make a difference if it was not set to default I would assume.

I also tried updating the drivers, which didn't work, and now I'm trying some registry editing of the vcard drivers to see if that helps, no luck so far though.

Hi OrangeArmy:

I had the same problem as you whilst trying to connect my ATI HD card to my Samsung TV.
I used an ONKYO receiver. I found that by bypassing the receiver, I was able to get it working. However, I needed to use the receiver! So, I simply sent the card back to newegg and got an Nvidia instead. I guess that was my problem ;)

If it has worked before, and now all of a sudden isn't, it's probably a problem with the devices rather than the compatibility.

Thats just my 2 cents,
-ToMz

Well I finally got it to work, in case anyone else ever has this issue, I followed this guide: How to: Disable sound output over HDMI for nVidia graphics cards - currysauce.org

Also, for me this only worked in conjunction with rolling back my drivers to an older version (in my case 197.16) AND for some reason I had to reset the TV to factory settings and then start it up and make it output from my PC first (if you let it show cable/digital TV first it wouldn't work after switching to PC input). It was an incredible hassle so I hope no one else has to go through it, I was practically tempted to just buy a ******* home theatre system and hook my PC sound up to that (which I will do at some point anyway).

Anyways thanks again for the suggestions!

try changing audio setings in pc to digital output if not check ur cables for looase connectivity or try another wire