Is there a way to output sound by HDMI without video ?

Nenu said:
Unfortunately soundcards dont have as good s/n as external DACs for stereo.
Its better to have an external stereo DAC and a good enough solution for surround
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The good pro ones do. Remember these are the things actually being used to record and mix the music you listen to, any noise/distortion they have you are getting on your music anyhow. They are external DACs (and ADCs), just more than one in a rack. That aside, pro interfaces are often multi-channel digital affairs as well, that you can hook to other DACs.

My point was just that the solution for high end computer audio, including surround, is pro interfaces. That's just not what all of us are looking for, we just want to use our AVRs/prepros :p.
 
Sycraft said:
The good pro ones do. Remember these are the things actually being used to record and mix the music you listen to, any noise/distortion they have you are getting on your music anyhow. They are external DACs (and ADCs), just more than one in a rack. That aside, pro interfaces are often multi-channel digital affairs as well, that you can hook to other DACs.

My point was just that the solution for high end computer audio, including surround, is pro interfaces. That's just not what all of us are looking for, we just want to use our AVRs/prepros :p.
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I'm not seeing how they compare.
My DAC has -126dB s/n via PCM 48KHz and -120dB via DSD64. It is capable of 384KHz PCM and DSD512 Native.
I can most certainly tell the difference in detail between PCM and DSD so would prefer better than -126dB not worse.
Price is of concern although I'm so happy with what I have I dont care to change anyway :)

Have you come across any audiophile reviews of the pro DACs you are discussing?
 
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I'm not trying to sell you on getting a pro interface, nor that one in particular, just using it as an example of what the solution, such as it is, for high end computer surround sound.

If you are just after higher numbers on the page (do note that unless a company provides the actual benchmarking data from something like an Audio Precision and you know how to interpret it, it isn't very useful) sure you can find stuff. Benchmark Audio makes some extremely low-noise DACs and amps. Matrix Audio also makes claims of extremely low noise, though they don't have detailed AP info like Benchmark does.
 
Sycraft said:
I'm not trying to sell you on getting a pro interface, nor that one in particular, just using it as an example of what the solution, such as it is, for high end computer surround sound.

If you are just after higher numbers on the page (do note that unless a company provides the actual benchmarking data from something like an Audio Precision and you know how to interpret it, it isn't very useful) sure you can find stuff. Benchmark Audio makes some extremely low-noise DACs and amps. Matrix Audio also makes claims of extremely low noise, though they don't have detailed AP info like Benchmark does.
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Yet it isnt a solution without evidence, I am rather confused.
Its only possible to work with the figures that are known, they serve as a guide to narrow down what is worth considering.
I also go on professional reviews (taking care not to fall for hype) and peer review.
Saying I am just after numbers is at least something tangible, I care how it sounds and how much clarity it has.

I dont listen to speakers used for mixing purposes because I'm not keen on how they sound.
Why should I prefer these DACs?
If they are a total solution for PC audio you must have evidence surely?
 
If you are going over HDMI out into a home theatre receiver then you are not exactly going into a high quality dac. They won't typically be terrible, but nothing amazing.
 
extide said:
If you are going over HDMI out into a home theatre receiver then you are not exactly going into a high quality dac. They won't typically be terrible, but nothing amazing.
Click to expand...

Pretty broad statement as HTR's vary quite a bit. Just like DAC's.
 
Is there a USB dac solution for 7.1? I use a USB dac but it is stereo.

You might need to ditch the receiver for another digital decoder plus integrated amp or separates.
 
What about PC to display direct by HDMI and then ARC return from display to reciever via HDMI to get sound into receiver.

There are lots of say to skin this cat if you don’t need surround.
 
What they really need to do is add support for ARC to windows, or maybe it's nvidia, amd, and intel that need to add it to their drivers.

That's the officially supported way for sending an audio only signal over HDMI that basically every receiver and sound bar support.
 
sharknice said:
What they really need to do is add support for ARC to windows, or maybe it's nvidia, amd, and intel that need to add it to their drivers.

That's the officially supported way for sending an audio only signal over HDMI that basically every receiver and sound bar support.
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ARC has nothing to do with this issue. If you are connecting your video card to a receiver then it is already sending audio to the receiver.
 
There are multichannel USB DACs out there - but channel mapping is a minor pain.

Your best bet is to tell your video card to duplicate the displays - as the HDMI output will then conform to your primary monitor and they'll always display the same thing.
 
Armenius said:
ARC has nothing to do with this issue. If you are connecting your video card to a receiver then it is already sending audio to the receiver.
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But you don't want to send a video signal with it. The only way to do that is ARC.
 
sharknice said:
But you don't want to send a video signal with it. The only way to do that is ARC.
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Are you sure ARC doesnt send blank frames?

btw, eARC can send multichannel PCM and multichannel codecs.
Many recent HDMI 2.0b receivers have been updated to support it.
My Denon X4400H has.
I used it to send Atmos to the receiver from my none eARC TV but it wont send multichannel PCM.
No fault of the receiver, its lucky Atmos worked from this TV to the receiver!
 
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Nenu said:
Are you sure ARC doesnt send blank frames?

btw, eARC can send multichannel PCM and multichannel codecs.
Many recent HDMI 2.0b receivers have been updated to support it.
My Denon X4400H has.
I used it to send Atmos to the receiver from my none eARC TV but it wont send multichannel PCM.
No fault of the receiver, its lucky Atmos worked from this TV to the receiver!
Click to expand...
It requires a special hdmi connection and can also do things like send power on off signals and adjust volume so I doubt it's simply sending a blank video signal.

But actually regular ARC doesn't allocate enough bandwidth for uncompressed surround sound. HDMI 2.1 eARC does though. So maybe we'll see it with HDMI 2.1 cards.
 
sharknice said:
It requires a special hdmi connection and can also do things like send power on off signals and adjust volume so I doubt it's simply sending a blank video signal.
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I would expect it to be sending a video signal as normal. As there is no video data it will be blank.

ARC uses single or dual/differential data wire(s) to transmit, what would normally be sent over SPDIF, using the connection already made.
A connection must be negotiated before ARC can be set up and any data transferred.
 
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Just saw this over on PC Gamer, unfortunately, like most PC Gamer articles these days, there isn't a lot of super detailed info but the new Soundblaster AE-9 has an HDMI out which may allow you to output audio through the sound card while using the video card's display port without having to jump through a bunch of loop holes. It ain't cheap but it's an option.

https://www.pcgamer.com/it-is-2019-and-i-am-still-interested-in-these-new-discrete-sound-cards/


EDIT: Nevermind, I found more info at https://hothardware.com/reviews/sound-blasterx-ae-9-review?page=2 it's just a connector for the breakout box.
 
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Resurrecting this thread again.. I'm still working with this. Unfortunately last time I did this it changed all of my monitor IDs, which has this workaround to attempt to re-assing them to what you had before adding the last monitor (use at your own risk)

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ntities-on-window-10?forum=win10itprohardware
his is a real issue for some users of specific projection software such as OpenLP, Easyworship, VideoPsalm etc., especially when using one monitor for desktop work and the second monitor is hooked to a projector.

The answer is to delete some registry keys and then restart the PC with only one monitor - the one you want to use as main monitor - monitor 1. All other video leads MUST be removed FROM THE PC. This will then force the OS to assign that monitor on that video output as 1. Then you can attach the second monitor, detect monitors and away you go. Do the usual dragging to how you like to use them if you wish. Make sure you've then assigned the monitor you want as the primary monitor and (probably) extended the displays.

The registry keys you need to delete are these:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Systems\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Systems\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity

Don't forget to make a backup of your registry first!

Many thanks to https://support.displaylink.com/kno...ndows-display-properties-identify-numbers-are for this. Took some tracking down. But it works.

best, revdv
Click to expand...

Since I use displayfusion to move windows around via hotkeys assigned to buttons on my streamdeck usb button array device, shuffling the monitor IDs was a pita and required either trying the above "fix" wiping the monitor ids and painstakingly rebooting the pc once for each monitor connect, hoping nvidia didn't prioritize the hdmi outputs as it would like regardless.. or diving back into my displayfusion functions and re-assigning the monitor ids for each window placement function I am using. I chose the latter.

I also not only moved the "ghost monitor" monitor 4 to the upper left corner, I also reduced it's resolution to the smallest allowable in the menus, 720x480 (480p). If I could custom rez it to zero by zero or 1 x 1px that would be even better.

I'd also add that afaik, you won't get any audio device showing up in windows 10 for hdmi audio output and configuration if you don' t have the monitor showing up so I'd be curious if disabling the pins makes the hdmi still show up as a configurable audio device in windows without having the monitor device installed/enabled.
 
After using my headphone jack on the front of my onky SR607 for a few hours and then powering down the receiver for the night (it runs hot), I turned the PC on today and had no sound. Checking control panel and sound applets showed max freq 48hz and it was looking like a misidentified SR607 even though it had the same name. No audio would play even setting everything to 48hz 16bit. I tried all of the usual, disable, re-enable, plug and unplug the hdmi cable from both ends, reboot the pc, tried different hdmi inputs on the receiver. I also plugged the headphones in and out just to make sure it wasn't stuck in headphone port mode (It wasn't, and had the excepected input click-over sound each time I added and removed the headphone pin. I know you have to select and set the receiver's input to hdmi sound which I did last night for the original output so I douibt it was that. Very strange behavior as if it was a dead audio device it was connecting to. The receiver only showed "input" in small leters at the top. Frustratingly, the remote wouldn't go into the settings menu during this either so I couldn't check to see what input the sound was on. I'd like to check to see if it had somehow reverted from hdmi sound on the dvd/br input. .

Now I have the receiver on GAME input with an optical cable off of my motherboard's REALTEK audio device and the receiver is working normally sound wise even if the remote/osd seems a little bugged. I went back to using my headphones off of my astro mixamp -which can run either as it's own usb audio device or as optical off of a powered splitter from the same realtek motherboard output.

On further investigation I found that the receiver seems to only allow me to get into the settings OSD menu and adjustments on an input with a valid source connected to it, in this case spdif optical on the GAME input.

I'll take a look at it again at some point and try the settings the hard way with the buttons at the front of the receiver if I can. but that would be a big pita right now. It's an older receiver but it's not ancient, it's a 7.2 from just before the 4k generation came out. It's a hand-me-down from upgrading my living room receiver to a 4k passthrough one several years ago so I'm not really interested in replacing it outright if it's the source of the bugginess. The volume and on/off of the remote don't seem to be working on the hdmi input either lol. (I did change the batteries). These onkyos run hot as hell (even with a light laptop fan on this one) and this has been in use for years.

There's no way I'm leaving that onkyo hot plate griddle on 24/7 just to keep it working solid so the reliability factor is gone even if I could get the hdmi sound device chain working again. As it stands now it's working fine for optical audio in 7.1 so I'm just going back to basics with that. It's a shame though because last night I had the hmdi audio working perfectly.

Update.. On/Off working on the optical GAME input. Shutting off the receiver with the onkyo hdmi device and ghost monitor enabled ends up deleting that monitor until I turn it back on, which screws up all of my window placement hotkey functions in displayfusion so the hdmi ghost monitor thing is a complete bust at this point for my setup . Now I'll disconnect that hdmi output from my gpu for good and I'll have to re-do all of my window placement shotcut functions again..
 
elvn said:
After using my headphone jack on the front of my onky SR607 for a few hours and then powering down the receiver for the night (it runs hot), I turned the PC on today and had no sound. Checking control panel and sound applets showed max freq 48hz and it was looking like a misidentified SR607 even though it had the same name. No audio would play even setting everything to 48hz 16bit. I tried all of the usual, disable, re-enable, plug and unplug the hdmi cable from both ends, reboot the pc, tried different hdmi inputs on the receiver. I also plugged the headphones in and out just to make sure it wasn't stuck in headphone port mode (It wasn't, and had the excepected input click-over sound each time I added and removed the headphone pin. I know you have to select and set the receiver's input to hdmi sound which I did last night for the original output so I douibt it was that. Very strange behavior as if it was a dead audio device it was connecting to. The receiver only showed "input" in small leters at the top. Frustratingly, the remote wouldn't go into the settings menu during this either so I couldn't check to see what input the sound was on. I'd like to check to see if it had somehow reverted from hdmi sound on the dvd/br input...
Click to expand...
In 2008 I bought an Onkyo 875 knowing they run very hot. HDMI video processing when enabled produces an incredible amount of heat and it isnt that cool with video processing turned off!
But my master plan was a 250mm silent fan drawing hot air out of the amp top, worked a treat.
The amp was always cool to the touch.

I gave it to my Dad with a new 250mm fan probably 8 years ago and its still his main AV amp, it behaves and looks like new still.
If the fan is left off I swear you can cook an egg on top, its stupid hot.
That fan saved it for sure, sorry to hear yours went the way of the fairies.

My current hifi has Bitfenix 230mm fans on both amplifiers, they work great and last a long time.
Power amps can never be cool enough unless Class D (which sound a little shrill to me).
 
I do have some light fans on it but it's a hot running receiver. My denon I upgraded to from it in the living room is nothing like that heat.

Technically it still works fine for 7.1 surround off of optical. Though it worked at first, it was buggy as hell using the "ghost monitor" trick running HDMI sound to it reliably after receiver on/off day to day.

I'm not certain it's bugginess of the receiver itself and not confusion in windows 10 ~ nvidia hdmi devices. But yes at least the remote is dying perhaps idk I'll have to test more.

I can report back later if I get a chance mess with the front buttons instead of the remote but like I said -- the Nvidia HDMI sound device's detection after having been turned off isn't reliably working and the on/off of the receiver is screwing up my window placement. I like to swap between sound devices and turn the receiver off when using the headphones at times and I can't do that without dropping the ghost monitor from the array and adding it back every time. . Considering all of that, the HDMI sound isn't worth the trouble.
 
Hello all

I found this thread through google because I have the same issue. Specifically, I currently duplicate the two "monitors" without issue, but I want to upgrade to a 144hz monitor, which would cause screen tears coupled with the 60hz receiver.

I read about the eARC, or enhanced Audio Return Channel feature of HDMI 2.1 which allows audio to flow back to a receiver from a monitor.

I hope if I can find a monitor with a HDMI 2.1 port, my idea of feeding the audio back from the monitor to the receiver, after connecting the gpu via display port to the monitor will work. That is, I hope I understood this feature of HDMI 2.1 correctly. And that display port can carry high def audio the way HDMI can. Because I need DP for G-Sync.

Meanwhile, do you think I can use the "expand receiver-monitor into corner" workaround with differing refresh rates? I think yes, but I'm not sure.
 
Pantagruelo said:
Hello all

I found this thread through google because I have the same issue. Specifically, I currently duplicate the two "monitors" without issue, but I want to upgrade to a 144hz monitor, which would cause screen tears coupled with the 60hz receiver.

I read about the eARC, or enhanced Audio Return Channel feature of HDMI 2.1 which allows audio to flow back to a receiver from a monitor.

I hope if I can find a monitor with a HDMI 2.1 port, my idea of feeding the audio back from the monitor to the receiver, after connecting the gpu via display port to the monitor will work. That is, I hope I understood this feature of HDMI 2.1 correctly. And that display port can carry high def audio the way HDMI can. Because I need DP for G-Sync.

Meanwhile, do you think I can use the "expand receiver-monitor into corner" workaround with differing refresh rates? I think yes, but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

ARC has been around since 2009 / HDMI 1.4. From my understanding, eARC is just higher bandwidth than ARC, won't solve this problem.

Unfortunately, I can't answer your last question. I hope someone else can weigh in for you on that.
 
Pantagruelo said:
Hello all

I found this thread through google because I have the same issue. Specifically, I currently duplicate the two "monitors" without issue, but I want to upgrade to a 144hz monitor, which would cause screen tears coupled with the 60hz receiver.

I read about the eARC, or enhanced Audio Return Channel feature of HDMI 2.1 which allows audio to flow back to a receiver from a monitor.

I hope if I can find a monitor with a HDMI 2.1 port, my idea of feeding the audio back from the monitor to the receiver, after connecting the gpu via display port to the monitor will work. That is, I hope I understood this feature of HDMI 2.1 correctly. And that display port can carry high def audio the way HDMI can. Because I need DP for G-Sync.

Meanwhile, do you think I can use the "expand receiver-monitor into corner" workaround with differing refresh rates? I think yes, but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Most displays and AVRs with HDMI eARC do not support 7.1-channel LPCM - only bitsreaming works reliably. So even if such a monitor existed, and they did DisplayPort to HDMI eARC, and supported 7.1-channel LPCM, it may not work with your AVR.

The extended desktop method is very reliable if you have a HDMI 2.0 EDID emulator like this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1351398-REG/apantac_edid_ew_h_all_in_one_edid.html
Switch on the AVR before powering on the PC and it will work perfectly.

Use CRU to create a custom resolution of 1280x720 144 Hz with LCD Standard Timings, and tweak the timings to exactly match the refresh rate of your monitor down to the last 3 decimal places (144.xxx Hz). This completely stops the stuttering on the desktop.
 
Monstieur said:
Most displays and AVRs with HDMI eARC do not support 7.1-channel LPCM - only bitsreaming works reliably. So even if such a monitor existed, and they did DisplayPort to HDMI eARC, and supported 7.1-channel LPCM, it may not work with your AVR.

The extended desktop method is very reliable if you have a HDMI 2.0 EDID emulator like this:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1351398-REG/apantac_edid_ew_h_all_in_one_edid.html
Switch on the AVR before powering on the PC and it will work perfectly.

Use CRU to create a custom resolution of 1280x720 144 Hz with LCD Standard Timings, and tweak the timings to exactly match the refresh rate of your monitor down to the last 3 decimal places (144.xxx Hz). This completely stops the stuttering on the desktop.
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for the tips. That's too bad, I thought I might have found a loophole..

Can you explain why the emulator and CRU are necessary in this workaround? I thought the differing framerate should not matter if the displays are only extended and not duplicated. At least that was the case when the AVR was originally set to 30hz and the screen to 60.

But I guess I could use CRU for the duplication method.
 
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I had thought about trying eARC since I am using two 43" tvs as monitors. Theoretically I could send a HDMI eARC audio "OUT" from one of the TVs if I set that TV as the hdmi sound device in windows while still using my displayport gaming monitor in the monitor array. That way I wouldn't have to set up a "ghost" fake monitor. Unfortunately since my pc surround receiver is always a hand-me-down from my TV/home theater setup, it's just old enough that eArc return channel is not supported and it's only hdmi 1.3 so doesn't even have 4k 60hz pass-through. It's an Onkyo TX-SR607. Otherwise with eARC supported hardware it should work without setting up a ghost monitor as long as whatever app is playing doesn't try to be monitor specific with hdmi handshaking. Weird things can happen with that. For example if I try to play the netflix app on my pc, it will blank my other 43" monitor due to hdcp/hdmi handshaking so I can only use the browser version (not that I use netflix much at my pc).

The "fake"/"ghost" monitor trick is unreliable for me because every time I turn the receiver off it disappears and screws up all of my saved windows placements , displayfusion windows management , etc. I turn off the receiver regularly to use headphones when desired. It makes no sense to keep the hot running, power hungry receiver on while using headphones on my astro mixamp.

I could pin plug the headphones into the receiver (and get better headphone sound on uncompressed sources) but it would be a pita removing the pin every time I want to switch back and forth since the reciever is tucked away on the side. If the 1/4" port was on the right side of the reciever it might have been doable but it's buried on the left end how I have it now. As it is now I can swap audio sources on the fly with the windows sound drop down between my astro mixamp + headphones or my motherboard's realtek to the onky reciever over spdif optical. I also split my optical to the astro mixamp and the receiver so I can run the headphones that way too, just turning off the mixamp or setting the vol knob to zero when using the reciever by itself. I'd prefer uncompressed hdmi audio for videos and flac audio to the reciever but this is how it is for now I guess until I upgrade my living room reciever someyear to a 9.2 (7.1 + 2 atmos) hdmi 2.1 receiver and buy a few ceiling speakers, after which I'll hand-me-down the earc and 4k capable denon I have in the living room now to the pc. That is some time off though, bottom of the list.

It's too bad that I can't just port a nvidia hdmi output to the reciever for audio out only without the ghost monitor mess. I'm not willing to keep the receiver on 24/7 and every time I turn it off it loses the ghost monitor screwing up all of my windows management.
 
Snowdog said:
I annoys me that SPDIF never got an upgrade and we are stuck getting high quality multi-channel digital through Video connections.
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There's no incentive to because all the content is under HDCP DRM. The only ones who would really use a high bandwidth, multichannel toslink at this point would be pirates, lol.
 
Here something you can try. Of course depends on the inputs available on your monitor. TVs are more flexible in this regard as they have multiple HDMI inputs.
Your monitor is likely to have 1 HDMI and 1 DP input. Plug your GPU directly into the monitor with a DP cable. This will take care of video only. From the GPUs HDMI out, plug that into the AV receiver. From the receiver, HDMI out to the monitors HDMI in. In your monitors settings, set up the HDMI source as 1080p 60hz. Then switch to your main video source which will be the DP to the monitor at 144hz. This way you might be able to get audio from your receiver.
 
elvn said:
The "fake"/"ghost" monitor trick is unreliable for me because every time I turn the receiver off it disappears and screws up all of my saved windows placements , displayfusion windows management , etc. I turn off the receiver regularly to use headphones when desired. It makes no sense to keep the hot running, power hungry receiver on while using headphones on my astro mixamp.
Click to expand...
The HDMI 2.0 EDID emulator I linked to solves that problem. You need to switch on the AVR only once before powering on the PC. Then you can switch it on and off anytime.
 
Pantagruelo said:
Hi and thanks for the tips. That's too bad, I thought I might have found a loophole..

Can you explain why the emulator and CRU are necessary in this workaround? I thought the differing framerate should not matter if the displays are only extended and not duplicated. At least that was the case when the AVR was originally set to 30hz and the screen to 60.

But I guess I could use CRU for the duplication method.
Click to expand...
The EDID emulator prevents a lot of extended desktop glitches and audio device cutouts which can cause applications to stop playing audio when you power on / off the AVR or the TV connected to the AVR.

If the refresh rates are perfect multiples, like 60 Hz and 120 Hz, the only issue will be animation slow down on the desktop whenever you maximize a window (briefly, when it touches the edge) or drag a window across the edge near the second display.
If the refresh rates are not perfect multiples, like 60 Hz and 144 Hz, there will be severe stuttering in the above cases instead of just slow down, and the G-SYNC backlight will flicker randomly on the 144 Hz monitor.
Even if the refresh rates are perfect multiples, the G-SYNC backlight may still flicker unless you use CRU to perfectly match the last 3 decimal places also as a perfect multiple.
 
I got a shiny new Yamaha RX-A880 AVR (expensive AF!) with 7 HDMI inputs and 2 HDMI outputs, supposedly supporting all the higher 4K resolution, etc.. thinking it was going to be so great..

Just trying to run a 4k 60hz panel - no big deal, no high refresh rate stuff.

WTF! Tying to get 7.1 audio to receiver while still being able to use custom resolutions on display is a freaking joke.

Audio constantly going bye-bye until I reboot, settings constantly resetting themselves upon reboots, constantly having to reset resolutions in order to run 2560x1440 in games, etc. receiver wouldn't even pass 2560 x 1440 60hz to display for some reason, only 30hz so I had to plug HDMI directly into TV then run second HDMI to receiver, but then I have all the problems outlined in this thread.

Tried cloning, but then after PC wakes up from sleep I have no audio and in games can't get custom resolutions no matter what. It goes from 1080p to 4k, nothing in between WTF. Microsoft and Nvidia need to get their collective heads out of the asses.
 
Sometime this year I'll be getting a 48" LG CX for my pc which will require me to move my desk and redo my pc room layout a bit. At that time I'll probably experiment with using the TV as the audio device. My now dated surround receiver (onkyo TX-SR607) on my pc doesn't support sending audio back from the TV over HDMI via e-Arc. In a spdif/optical out or e-Arc configuration no video signals have to pass through the receiver at all. e-Arc can send uncompressed formats so it is better than spdif/optical if I had a receiver that supported it (like the one in my living room). The onkyo on my pc is a hand-me-down to the pc receiver from when I upgraded my living room one to a denon model so it's older now, I think 2009 and no e-Arc (hdmi audio in) port.

If I do ever get an eArc receiver for the pc or swap the ones I have I still would have some concerns with how well it will work out. - Will it still pass audio if/when the video display of the TV times out and goes to sleep? I may have to rely on screensaver/slideshow rather than having the screen time out if I want to listen to music and save the screen for example. That isn't best if I do earc from the OLED screen even if I keep a black wallpaper and no background, and use slideshows/screensavers. I do have another tv in the array though so maybe I could just run earc out from that one someday instead. I'm also not sure that the CX will pass uncompressed hdmi audio formats correctly or at all since I read that the C9 series of 2019 had issues with doing that.

---------------------------

Long story short - You should be able to (in a best case scenario) use eARC out from the TV if both the TV and the receiver have eARC ports so that you can get full uncompressed HDMI audio formats transmitted. You can alternately just run spdif/optical audio directly from your pc sound to your receiver for sound, or from your tv to your receiver. Running video sources combined with audio to multiple inputs on a TV makes the TV inputs the switching station rather than the receiver. The receiver just acts like a set of speakers more or less. In all of those configurations, no video has to pass through the receiver at all.
 
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BWX said:
I got a shiny new Yamaha RX-A880 AVR (expensive AF!) with 7 HDMI inputs and 2 HDMI outputs, supposedly supporting all the higher 4K resolution, etc.. thinking it was going to be so great..

Just trying to run a 4k 60hz panel - no big deal, no high refresh rate stuff.

WTF! Tying to get 7.1 audio to receiver while still being able to use custom resolutions on display is a freaking joke.

Audio constantly going bye-bye until I reboot, settings constantly resetting themselves upon reboots, constantly having to reset resolutions in order to run 2560x1440 in games, etc. receiver wouldn't even pass 2560 x 1440 60hz to display for some reason, only 30hz so I had to plug HDMI directly into TV then run second HDMI to receiver, but then I have all the problems outlined in this thread.

Tried cloning, but then after PC wakes up from sleep I have no audio and in games can't get custom resolutions no matter what. It goes from 1080p to 4k, nothing in between WTF. Microsoft and Nvidia need to get their collective heads out of the asses.
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Best way to resolve your issues is to have a secondary display, preferably 1080p since that is a standard res compatible with AV receivers. Plug your GPU directly into your main monitor (with DP), then plug the HDMI from GPU directly to receiver which is connected to your second display. The receiver will not pass audio without a display connected to it. So if you have a spare old 1080p monitor and space for it, that will solve the audio issue. Or you can buy a dummy HDMI adapter to fool the receiver that its plugged into a TV or display. When your main monitor is directly connected to the GPU, all your res or refresh rate issues will be gone.
 
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eARC on this TV will make audio lag I am about 100% sure. Also only one input on TV and one on Rx support it, and doesn't HDMI have to already be coming from Rx to the TV, and then eARC sends audio back the Rx on the HDMI? If PC is hooked up directly to PC, how is eARC supposed to work on that input? I already have the eARC input connected from TV to Rx on another HDMI on my TV so the onboard apps can send audio to Rx if needed although I haven;t set that up because I have a Firestick4K hooked up to one of the Rx inputs and use that instead of TV apps now. This is such a damned fustercluck.
 
amenx said:
Best way to resolve your issues is to have a secondary display, preferably 1080p since that is a standard res compatible with AV receivers. Plug your GPU directly into your main monitor (with DP), then plug the HDMI from GPU directly to receiver which is connected to your second display. The receiver will not pass audio without a display connected to it. So if you have a spare old 1080p monitor and space for it, that will solve the audio issue. Or you can buy a dummy HDMI adapter to fool the receiver that its plugged into a TV or display. When your main monitor is directly connected to the GPU, all your res or refresh rate issues will be gone.
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I actually have the Rx hooked up to the TV on a second input for display number two- I can switch back and forth between them, I cloned it to a separate input- (edit- also have it hooked up now without "cloning" the display. Just running it as a 720p 60hz second display up off right upper corner). Of course now my GPU voltage won't reduce so fans keep coming on where before it was silent.

I don't even have room for a second display that in this room. Also this Rx will support 4k HDR 60hz. So Nvidia should allow custom resolutions especially 1440p 60hz to pass through it if it can do 4K. I imagine it's some HDCP BS stopping that from working, not sure.

Also this TV has no DP inputs, only HDMI, and I am using HDMI to DP converter to get HDMI audio to Rx since using the adapter makes the 4k picture look like garbage if I use that as main one going directly from PC to TV. It's all blurry, so I use that one for audio.

The whole situation is a giant shitshow created be HDMI / HDCP protocols and Microsoft and Nvidia. I have onboard Realtek 7.1 audio with optical out but that has it's own giant set of issues now in games created by windows 10 and Microsoft not supporting DTS over optical anymore due to some license BS, so tons of games are reduced to 2 channel stereo. That's the only reason I'm doing any of this BS in the first place really, I would even settle for lossy digital 7.1, not even being a snob about that and still can't get it to work.. SMH
 
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BWX said:
eARC on this TV will make audio lag I am about 100% sure. Also only one input on TV and one on Rx support it, and doesn't HDMI have to already be coming from Rx to the TV, and then eARC sends audio back the Rx on the HDMI? If PC is hooked up directly to PC, how is eARC supposed to work on that input? I already have the eARC input connected from TV to Rx on another HDMI on my TV so the onboard apps can send audio to Rx if needed although I haven;t set that up because I have a Firestick4K hooked up to one of the Rx inputs and use that instead of TV apps now. This is such a damned fustercluck.
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Read up on eARC, it will help you not be the problem.
 
elvn said:
If I do ever get an eArc receiver for the pc or swap the ones I have I still would have some concerns with how well it will work out. - Will it still pass audio if/when the video display of the TV times out and goes to sleep? I may have to rely on screensaver/slideshow rather than having the screen time out if I want to listen to music and save the screen for example. That isn't best if I do earc from the OLED screen even if I keep a black wallpaper and no background, and use slideshows/screensavers. I do have another tv in the array though so maybe I could just run earc out from that one someday instead. I'm also not sure that the CX will pass uncompressed hdmi audio formats correctly or at all since I read that the C9 series of 2019 had issues with doing that.
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No existing TV can passthrough multi-channel PCM over eARC - they only support stereo PCM or bitstreaming. Some Samsung TVs will passthrough 7.1 PCM if you modify and emulate the EDID. Even then you have the issue of the AVR not supporting 7.1 PCM over eARC. You could leave Dolby Atmos for home theater enabled permanently in Windows so it always bitstreams, but then you lose Dolby Surround upmixing on the AVR. On Xbox, Dolby Surround is performed on the console itself for stereo applications and an upmixed Atmos bitstream is sent to the AVR. I'm guessing Microsoft pays for this capability on Xbox.
 
Ok- very good news for all involved.

I don’t know why it hasn’t been suggested- all you need is a simple hdmi 4K switch with 18GBPS Dolby vision/atmos capabilities to guarantee full quality everything- they start at less than 40 bucks on amazon. Nicer ones will net you integration with control4 etc Remote control systems.

It goes like this:
Connect computer to tv with hdmi.
Connect computer to receiver with hdmi converted from any other port on graphics card or the integrated hdmi on your motherboard.
Connect outbound video from receiver to input of hdmi switch. Connect outbound of hdmi switch to tv on additional hdmi input.
Disable receiver video output using hdmi switch by simply choosing a different input while using pc, then change back to hdmi input for receiver when watching any other normal source- ie cable Apple TV roku etc- and you’ll get your all in one receiver function back.

This way you get all your audio- all your video- all the way up to top quality anytime you need it.
Once integrated with your remote control solution in the living room- or if you’re gonna manually switch the hdmi switch to different inputs- you can make this happen without ever really noticing. And no more handshake order or bs.
Gonna implement with my Q800T, 2080, Marantz 7012 within the week and report back.
Just had to home theater outmaneuver this bitch.
 
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