PC to Receiver/TV no audio via HDMI or optical!

I cannot for the life of me get any audio from my PC to play through the external speakers via receiver OR when just hooked up straight from the PC to the television. Here's the gear first:

TV: Sony KDL-EX500 (firmware already updated)
Sound card: Audigy 2 ZS (drivers as current as possible)
Video card: EVGA GTX-285 SC (current NVIDA drivers)
On-board Sound (EVGA X58 SLI original mobo): Realtek w/TOSLINK and coax connections (current drivers)
Receiver: Denon AVR-1911
Speakers: Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1 satellites (sub died ages ago) with TSC (The Speaker Company) T300-210 sub
Cables on hand: two HDMI (one 1.4, one mystery version), one optical TOSLINK cable

After reading and reading other threads on here and the AVS forums all I've managed to do is nearly give myself an audio-aneurysm from the overload of information. I have tried countless combinations of moving the HDMI cables between different outputs, using the TOSLINK cable in addition to the HDMI and without, disabling the Audigy card and just using on-board and vice-versa, and now I come to you fine folks, exhausted and welcoming any input you may have. So far I only have one potentially silly question and that is: because I have to use a DVI-HDMI adapter for my video card, is that affecting this whole scenario?

I'm just about ready to give up on the dream of playing PC games with 5.1 surround and watching Blu-Rays on my TV out of sheer frustration, so any help is massively appreciated. Thanks again for your time!

The DVI-HDMI adapter could definitely be the cause of the problem, especially if you're using a random adapter that wasn't specifically designed to pass audio from your video card's DVI port. Most video cards that are capable of passing sound over the DVI port (and I think your GTX285 is capable of doing so) come packaged with a special DVI-HDMI adapter that does exactly that. Any old random adapter will pass video only.

I had my suspicions. Though I'm definitely using the adapter that came with my video card. Never bought such a thing otherwise. Bollocks, I'm not ready to upgrade a still decent card just to have native HDMI outputs.

Disable the Audigy and Realtek in Device Manager, leaving only the HDMI as an audio output. Then it's PC -> Receiver -> TV by HDMI. It's not impossible, don't give up.

Thanks for the votes of confidence, folks! Wish I could come back with better news. I tried disabling both the Audigy and Realtek, but then upon starting up the computer, it merely said I had no audio devices installed.

I went into the Nvidia Control Panel out of morbid curiosity, and found out there should IDEALLY be a option in the navigation tree under 'Display' for 'Set up digital audio' with flurry of useful options, but it's not showing up at all. In the same control panel, it shows my connector as 'HDMI (audio enabled)' so ideally the Nvidia DVI-HDMI is sort of being recognized. Hrmph. Going to try reinstalling drivers/Nvidia control panel and see if I get my digital audio options or not. Otherwise, color me baffled!

Again, thanks for all the help thus far! I really do appreciate the effort!

which audio devices do you see availible in sound control panel?

With the Audigy and Realtek disabled, I saw no devices.

Did a little more reading and may have found the issue? Evidently it's possible I should be using a SPDIF cable that has a 2-pin connection on the side of the 285 (just looked in the case and verified this connection being there), but if I ever had that cable (very likely from looking at old product images) it's long gone. It seems that this audio cable then plugs into the mobo SPDIF audio header. Does this sound right or just an extraneous step? Crashing for now and work for the weekend so replies will be sketchy until Sunday, but thanks for the continued help!

yes, you need to do that with a 285, i somehow missed you had a 285.... you shouldnt look for any nvidia or hdmi devices on that card.
http://www.amazon.com/CBSPIDIF2-2-pin-Internal-Digital-Audio/dp/B0044412V4/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b
you need that and then you set it to the realtek spidf output.

i looked up your evga manual, and while they dont mention the pinout in the text i can see it in the photo.
you might have to trial and error which 2 of these 5 pins are the ones:

Yep I looked in my mobo manual and it is a bit cryptic about the pins, but I have the cord ordered! Iit will be a bit before it arrives though - two-day shipping made the total ~$25 and forget that, but I'll be sure to update when I get it and hopefully all will be well! Fingers crossed! Thanks folks! You've been a GREAT help so far! Here's hoping the next step is the last step.

Doh I forgot all about that passthrough setup. I even set that up for a customer once. That'll be your ticket, I thought the cable was included with the EVGA card?

It was and I thought I had lost it, but after some extensive cleaning tracked it down earlier tonight! Also found this EVGA FAQ http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=58804 that helped save me some guesswork on which pins to utilize.

Oddly enough, after plugging it all back into the TV, I wasn't getting video anymore. The TV would say '480i' instead of '1080P' when switching to the HDMI input and only gave me a black screen. Swapped my two cables back and forth to no avail. Had it hooked PC->Receiver (Blu-Ray input in this case)-Receiver->TV (HDMI 1 input). I thought maybe a cable had failed and tried hooking it all to my up-converting HDMI DVD player and it worked fine with both cords, so threw it all back into the receiver and boom! Business. Frickin' oddity.

Have to select 'Realtek HDMI Output' to get sound and it's only in 2-channel stereo, which is kind of saddening since I was really looking forward to finally stretching my sub's legs, let alone surround, but isn't this the nature of the beast with SPDIF connections?

Anyway, I suppose this will have to do, but it's sound! You have all been so much help and have all my thanks!

Infantwar said:

It was and I thought I had lost it, but after some extensive cleaning tracked it down earlier tonight! Also found this EVGA FAQ http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=58804 that helped save me some guesswork on which pins to utilize.

Oddly enough, after plugging it all back into the TV, I wasn't getting video anymore. The TV would say '480i' instead of '1080P' when switching to the HDMI input and only gave me a black screen. Swapped my two cables back and forth to no avail. Had it hooked PC->Receiver (Blu-Ray input in this case)-Receiver->TV (HDMI 1 input). I thought maybe a cable had failed and tried hooking it all to my up-converting HDMI DVD player and it worked fine with both cords, so threw it all back into the receiver and boom! Business. Frickin' oddity.

Have to select 'Realtek HDMI Output' to get sound and it's only in 2-channel stereo, which is kind of saddening since I was really looking forward to finally stretching my sub's legs, let alone surround, but isn't this the nature of the beast with SPDIF connections?

Anyway, I suppose this will have to do, but it's sound! You have all been so much help and have all my thanks!

Click to expand...

Glad you got it working!

The audio input is SPDIF for the card if I am right. That means you get stereo if you are not passing DTS/ DD to the card. They are the only ways to get 5.1 down an optical cable. If you watch a DVD or something that should work. And if you can put a DD live source into the card you should get DD out.

I know it's very exciting! It definitely is SPDIF, and I'm only getting stereo, while currently playing Blu-rays through Power DVD 9 Ultra. No sub-action or surround. I'll try futzing with stuff a bit more and see what I can see. So many settings! Ugh. Thanks ya'all! I'm just happy to be hearing SOMETHING! The rest is value-added features in my book. (it's not a very smart book)