HDMI audio pass-through on HD 4870?

So, I'm a bit confused... I know the HD 4800s have an HDMI audio pass-through feature, but I'm unsure how to set it up. Essentially, what I'd like to do is have audio pass to my LCD TV's integrated speaker. My question is three-fold:

- Will audio be channeled through my DVI-D/HDMI adapter straight to my TV? Or do I need some other type of connection?
- Is there a connection between the video card itself and my sound card I need to hook up?
-In the Vista Sound dialog box, I see two "Digital Audio Output Devices (HDMI)". I assume these are my two 4870s. Is there a setting I need to change to tell Vista to direct sound here?

1. Yes, you only need the DVI/HDMI converter that came with the 4870, HDMI cable and some sort of reciever that can use HDMI sound.

2. No, the sound uses PCIe connector with the audio passthrough, no case internal cabling needed.

3. You should enable the HDMI devices and set em as default audio devices, and/or disable other playback devices.

edit:

If you get into trouble, you should download/update the Realtek ATI HD audio driver from realteks homepage.

Thanks, I figured it out. It was the simplest of things: you NEED to use the adapter that comes with the video card attached to an HMDI cord for the audio to pass. The DVI/HDMI cable I was using didn't have audio pass-thru (I don't think it had the extra prongs for audio).

This is a great feature and I can actually use the decent integrated speaker on my LCD now.

harmattan said:

Thanks, I figured it out. It was the simplest of things: you NEED to use the adapter that comes with the video card attached to an HMDI cord for the audio to pass.

Click to expand...

You have to use the ATI dongle because they have a non-standard implementation of HDMI/DVI (see my post here).

harmattan said:

The DVI/HDMI cable I was using didn't have audio pass-thru (I don't think it had the extra prongs for audio).

Click to expand...

There are no audio pins in HDMI. Your DVI-to-HDMI cable is fine, the problem is to do with ATI's non-standard implementation of HDMI/DVI.

I had the same issue and, thanks to this thread, was able to get sound over my LCD TV speakers. The big a-ha! for me was that I needed to set HDMI audio as the output on my PC. This should hold me over until I buckle down and by an A/V Receiver and speakers. =)

Two questions remains:

(1) How can I tell whether I am actually getting 1080p on my LCD TV when I play a Blu-ray on my PC? It looks OK, but I was somehow expecting to be blown away by the sharpness and detail (I'm new to blu-ray). I feel like my HD channels look better than this on a good day.

(2) Is there an easy way to switch between the audio outputs (and for that matter, monitors), without going to the control panel? I want, ideally, in order of preference,a keyboard hot-key, a keyboard shortcut, or a button on my taskbar. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thank you, all.