Setting up sound for HTPC thru AV Receiver

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branttheant

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Feb 25, 2013
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Hello! I'm in the process of connecting my HTPC to my AV Receiver, an Onkyo TX-SR607.
My TV is a Sharp 52" 1080i with all HDMI connections. I am able to connectect to the TV from my PC utilizing a DVI-HDMI Cable directly to HDMI Input #2 (DVR/VCR) on the rear of my Receiver and I have a beautiful picture.
My dilemma is, NO SOUND. How do I and what setup do I use to connect to the AV Receiver speakers? If you have an answer and can provide a pictorial please submit with your response. Thank you!
 
It's simple really. A DVI cable only carries video, the minute you put that in your loop you lose sound. You need an HDMI to HDMI setup to have sound.
 
Does your video card have hdmi? (can't see signatures as I'm on the mobile site) From the way you have it setup now, I wouldn't think so. I would look at hooking up your video card to the receiver and have your soundcard go to the same input, then have the receiver out to your TV to get video and sound together.
 
Most receivers will let you specify what sources to use. HDMI can be used for video, and an optical cable for sound. Most motherboards have toslink/optical onboard. You will just have to edit the input on the receiver.
 
Spring for a cheap video card that has an HDMI-out that supports sound (any, really). Then use an HDMI-HDMI cable from the video card's HDMI out to the HDMI in of the receiver.
 
If your video card supports HDMI sound use that instead of optical. The HDMI is going to give the best sound quality over optical or spidf.

You should be able to choose if the sound goes to the receiver or passed to the TV with the video.
 
Hey there, thanks for the quick response. My card does not support HDMI. What I initally did though was accquire a mini plug from pc speaker to rca red/white plug to receiver and connection did not appear to work. Now I am open to other ideas.
 
Hey there, in response to your last sentence, this is the way that i'm curently setup and it does not work. HDMI from pc to HDMI input 2 DVR?VCR on receiver and rca speaker to audio in for that same HDMI component, any other suggestions?
 
mls1995 said:
It's simple really. A DVI cable only carries video, the minute you put that in your loop you lose sound. You need an HDMI to HDMI setup to have sound.
Click to expand...

This is not accurate.

A DVI cable can carry sound too. I have a cable coming out the DVI port of my video card and into the HDMI port on my receiver and sound is working just the same as if I was using HDMI on both ends.

Every AMD card since the HD 5xxx and every nVidia card since 4xx send sound out every HDMI, and DVI port.
 
SirMaster said:
This is not accurate.

A DVI cable can carry sound too. I have a cable coming out the DVI port of my video card and into the HDMI port on my receiver and sound is working just the same as if I was using HDMI on both ends.

Every AMD card since the HD 5xxx and every nVidia card since 4xx send sound out every HDMI, and DVI port.
Click to expand...
Don't know what to tell you SirMaster. i'v tried every angle that I can think of, to no avail.
 
Like most of the people suggested, I suggest to buy a cheap video card that has HDMI out.

Otherwise, use your current method and then use optical out from your computer to your receiver if you have optical out.

RCA audio out from computer to receiver is not good. You will only get stereo sound. Optical out only does up to 5.1 audio output. You really get a lot more with HDMI.
 
What sound card are you using? If it is onboard what motherboard is it? Do you have a blu ray drive in your htpc? If you don't have a blu ray drive you can use the optical/coax out if you have it along with the dvi cable and it will be basically the same as hdmi. hdmi is only needed if you want the HD dolby/dts which as far as I know no streaming sites use only blu rays do.
 
A DVI or HDMI connection running in DVI mode can't carry audio. Audio isn't part of the DVI specification. While it's possibe for a DVI to HDMI cable, or even a DVI to DVI cable, to carry audio, it's only possible when the connection is in HDMI mode, and thus following the newer HDMI spec.

Any TV with a DVI port but no HDMI ports, almost certianly doesn't follow the HDMI spec and thus any sort of DVI or HDMI connection to the TV must be made in DVI mode. Extrapolating from what jdsmoothie said, I'm guessing that most if not all AV receivers force their source HDMI connections into DVI mode when the connection to the TV is running in DVI mode.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1404872/no-sound-when-hdmi-cable-plugged-in-from-dvi-tv#post_21894349
 
mls1995 said:
A DVI or HDMI connection running in DVI mode can't carry audio. Audio isn't part of the DVI specification. While it's possibe for a DVI to HDMI cable, or even a DVI to DVI cable, to carry audio, it's only possible when the connection is in HDMI mode, and thus following the newer HDMI spec.

Any TV with a DVI port but no HDMI ports, almost certianly doesn't follow the HDMI spec and thus any sort of DVI or HDMI connection to the TV must be made in DVI mode. Extrapolating from what jdsmoothie said, I'm guessing that most if not all AV receivers force their source HDMI connections into DVI mode when the connection to the TV is running in DVI mode.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1404872/no-sound-when-hdmi-cable-plugged-in-from-dvi-tv#post_21894349
Click to expand...

His TV doesn't have any DVI ports though, all it's got is HDMI. The receiver should definitely try to talk HDMI to the PC regardless. He could unplug the TV from the receiver altogether and just try to send the sound to the receiver from the PC. That always works on all the Denon's I've used. The OP still hasn't said what video card he has though as that's probably what matters. Possibly even how it's configured in Windows.
 
branttheant said:
Hello! I'm in the process of connecting my HTPC to my AV Receiver, an Onkyo TX-SR607.
My TV is a Sharp 52" 1080i with all HDMI connections. I am able to connectect to the TV from my PC utilizing a DVI-HDMI Cable directly to HDMI Input #2 (DVR/VCR) on the rear of my Receiver and I have a beautiful picture.
My dilemma is, NO SOUND. How do I and what setup do I use to connect to the AV Receiver speakers? If you have an answer and can provide a pictorial please submit with your response. Thank you!
Click to expand...

The easy way to do this is to follow the TV manual. There should be a section that indicates how to set up the sound.

My Toshiba manual has a section, "Connecting a personal Computer."

DVI to HDMI cable. PC audio cable.

The PC audio cable connects to the IN PC/HDMI 1 (audio) jack

Nice pictures in the manual.

Pervious pages have options for different components.

Really not that hard.
 
GeorgeHR said:
The easy way to do this is to follow the TV manual. There should be a section that indicates how to set up the sound.

My Toshiba manual has a section, "Connecting a personal Computer."

DVI to HDMI cable. PC audio cable.

The PC audio cable connects to the IN PC/HDMI 1 (audio) jack

Nice pictures in the manual.

Pervious pages have options for different components.

Really not that hard.
Click to expand...
He is trying to get sound from his A/V receiver, not his TV. So the TV manual is of little use here. He should be able to set up coax or toslink digital audio with no problems, or even with his analog red/white RCA cables. He probably needs to configure his receiver to assign the sound inputs to that HDMI video input.
 
JohnDC said:
He is trying to get sound from his A/V receiver, not his TV. So the TV manual is of little use here. He should be able to set up coax or toslink digital audio with no problems, or even with his analog red/white RCA cables. He probably needs to configure his receiver to assign the sound inputs to that HDMI video input.
Click to expand...

My point was he needs to read the manual.
 
You never answered what video card you're using. Please do.

I had an older nVidia card (9800GT) that required the spdif 2 pin jumper cable from the motherboard to the card in order to enable HDMI audio (no HD audio bitstream support still). It could be something simple like that.
 
Hello people, First of all, I really appreciate all the positive responses. Secondly, my setup did not come with a manual, i'm in the process of downloading a manual from the manufacturer. Thirdly, this is my setup in detail: Intel Core i7-920 Processor, 6gb mem., ATI Radeon HD 4800, ATI HDMI Audio, Realtek HD Audio, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Intel X58 Express Chipset.
AV Receiver- Onkyo TX-SR607. Oh yeah, out of frustration I connected my pc rig speakers and it works well but it has the mono sound.
 
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