Video Card Sound Complications

Uatomaton25

Hello Everyone,

I currently use my computer as a media center hub for movies, TV, games, music, etc.  I have been using my sound card for sound via HDMI.  I feed the HDMI from the video card (GeForce GTX 750 Ti).  The problem is that the sound output doesn't turn on unless I turn on my TV first, a pain for music).  Any suggestions?

Bigfingers

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Uatomaton25

That's close, I still need to pass video through though. I run dual monitors, one is a computer screen, one is a TV. The feed for the TV comes from the HDMI input on my computer, runs to the a/v receiver, then to the TV.
If in watching a movie or something there is no problem. The issue is when I want to just listen to music because the output is turned off until a monitor is detected. Unfortunately, turning the receiver on does not trigger the output, only turning the TV on.

Bigfingers

What happens if you set the HDMI as the default audio device in the PC control panel?

next010

It may the receiver wont play ball if the TV is not on either so the HDMI ports stay in standby mode, perhaps some setting on the receiver could change that behavior.

As a work around does the receiver have any network functionality ?

If it does try installing Airfoil on the PC, it can redirect system or individual application audio over Airplay, DLNA, Bluetooth. If it's just for music playback Airfoil may be good enough.

Uatomaton25

The receiver does not have network capability, it is rather old.  I will be upgrading here pretty soon.  as for the HDMI ports being off, it's possible.. If I turn the TV on, the sound works, I can then turn the TV off and sound works until the receiver is turned off.

Uatomaton25

That's how I have it setup.  I contacted Nvidia and they said there is no signal being given to the video card to turn the output on.  They said I was SOL but I find that hard to believe.  If it is the case, I will be upgrading my computer soon as well so I would be open to different video cards or different setups to avoid this headache.

I currently use an optical cable for sound, but it only carries 2 channel so I don't get the full surround sound.  The receiver does an okay job splitting the signal but it's not the same as feeding a multichannel signal.

mdbarber

surely the fault here lies with the receiver, it should shield the fact the TV is not on from the card and should carry out the "output" handshaking independently of the input

next010

For multi-channel audio on a PC you ideally want PCM 5.1 which is only possible via HDMI.

Very little software on Windows has the means to bitstream Dolby/DTS 5.1 and PCM is the default everything gets decoded to.

So yeah that's puts you in a bind, only thing I can think of is combine the HDMI dummy adapter with a HDMI switch on the output of the HDMI receiver.

See this 1080p 1 in 2 out device with a remote; (there are 4K models too)
* You plug receiver HDMI output into In1
* You plug the TV HDMI into Out1
* You plug the dummy HDMI into Out2

So when you want to use the AV receiver you set the switch to output 2 and hopefully that generates the signal necessary for it to stay active on the PC without having to turn on the TV.