Still not able to get audio out on HDMI

[SteveP]

I am still not able to get audio out from my HDMI connection. I loaded ATI's HDMI software as instructed in a previous post. No new audio processing options show up in Sage. I have restarted the system and tried reloading the HDMI software, but no change. Any thoughts?

My previous post was:
"I have been running my XP-based system with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz audio card for several years. I now want to switch to HDMI audio output from my Asus EAH4550 card (ATI 4550 chip set). The card is capable of outputting video and audio. The HDMI video works fine, but I can't seem to set Sage 7 to get HDMI audio output. I removed the Turtle Beach audio card, and have tried each of the Audio Renderer choices. On decoders, the ATI MPEG Audio decoder causes an immediate shut down of Sage. The ffdshow decoders don't work. Each time I try to play a TV show I get a playback error, problem rendering the audio.

Help!

The choices I have in Sage setup are:

- Audio renderer:
Default
Default DirectSound
Default Wave out device

- MPEG2 Audio decoder filter
Default
AC3 filter
ATI MPEG Audio decoder
NVIDIA audio decoder
SageTV MPEG audio decoder
ffdshow audio decoder

- HD Audio decoder
Default
List of all decoders
ffdshow audio decoder"

Thanks for any help you can give.

Steve

[crusing]

Is the HDMI audio the default output device?

Have you tried using it outside of SageTV with another media player to see if the problem is the driver or is with Sage?

[SteveP]

How do I tell if HDMI is the default output?

I'll try another media player.

Thanks,
Steve

[GoAWest]

This isn't a function of the media player (program). Open up the Windows control panel and look at the playback devices. What's listed (is HDMI audio in the list?)? What's the default playback device (HDMI audio or ??)? Switch the default to HDMI audio if you can.

With my AMD mobo, I used to have problems setting and retaining the HDMI audio option under XP--when the TV was turned on & off the PC (HW, driver?) would lose its default setting. I used a HW-based HDMI spoof device for a while to work around this. Now running Win7 on that PC it still wasn't 100% reliable--until SP1 came out and MS *finally* admitted to & fixed a long standing W7 HDMI audio bug. Now the system is very reliable with HDMI audio regardless of PC reboots and TV on/offs.

[doncote0]

GoAWest has some good pointers and info. Try those first.

Interestingly, the audio on your ATI card might not be from ATI. I have two ATI HD5750's with HDMI. Who makes the audio circuit? Realtek.

Check this out:

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...&GetDown=false

You can see about on the 8th line down under High Definition Audio Codecs for Windows the entry for ATI HDMI Audio device. The version is R2.55. You can remove the audio drivers (codec) for ATI HDMI, install the Realtek ones and ensure they are used through a force driver install if necessary.

It would be good to restart the computer or do a complete shutdown and restart of Sage (including the service) after this is done. Make sure you have enabled HD audio in SageTV.

I don't know if this will help you, I just wanted to make you aware of it.

Good luck!

[crusing]

Originally Posted by doncote0

GoAWest has some good pointers and info. Try those first.

Interestingly, the audio on your ATI card might not be from ATI. I have two ATI HD5750's with HDMI. Who makes the audio circuit? Realtek.

Check this out:

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...&GetDown=false

You can see about on the 8th line down under High Definition Audio Codecs for Windows the entry for ATI HDMI Audio device. The version is R2.55. You can remove the audio drivers (codec) for ATI HDMI, install the Realtek ones and ensure they are used through a force driver install if necessary.

It would be good to restart the computer or do a complete shutdown and restart of Sage (including the service) after this is done. Make sure you have enabled HD in SageTV.

I don't know if this will help you, I just wanted to make you aware of it.

Good luck!

I am pretty sure this was the driver I was using when I was using a similar setup. I think this threw me off at first as well. The good news it it worked great once it was working.

[SteveP]

Thanks for the great information. I checked audio devices and the only device listed is my Santa Cruz card--no HDMI. I'm confused with how to get HDMI audio from my Asus video card (ATI HDMI driver installed) while bypassing the Santa Cruz audio card. I'm confused because I don't know what if any audio processing is actually done on the video card for HDMI. If there is audio processing, how do I find out who supplies the audio circuit (e.g. RealTek). I checked Asus's web site and I do not see any HDMI audio related downloads nor any mention of what audio circuit is used.

Thanks,
Steve

[dvd_maniac]

I'm actually looking to go a differentroute here.
I have my Nvidia video card hooked up via HDMI and my audio via stereo cables to my audio receiver. All my media players play through the receiver except for Sage. How do I get Sage to play through the receiver too?

[doncote0]

Change the Multimedia audio renderer: DirectSound: HDMI (XXX High Definition Audio). You might also want to turn HD audio on if it is not setup as that already. This all assumes that your system can support HD audio. Restart the system. Verify the playback level through the volume control for playback devices (and, of course, make sure it is not muted).

The drawback is that you will not be able to hear sage on the PC unless it is through the speakers.

You might also be able to select a less specific format for the Multimedia audio renderer (like DirecSound XXX High Definition Audio).

I hope this helps!

[crusing]

Originally Posted by SteveP

Thanks for the great information. I checked audio devices and the only device listed is my Santa Cruz card--no HDMI. I'm confused with how to get HDMI audio from my Asus video card (ATI HDMI driver installed) while bypassing the Santa Cruz audio card. I'm confused because I don't know what if any audio processing is actually done on the video card for HDMI. If there is audio processing, how do I find out who supplies the audio circuit (e.g. RealTek). I checked Asus's web site and I do not see any HDMI audio related downloads nor any mention of what audio circuit is used.

Thanks,
Steve

I did some searching and found several references that reported success using the Realtek driver for your card. I would install the Realtek driver and then check the Audio settings in the control panel again for an HDMI output device. If I remember correctly there will also be a separate audio device listed in the Device Manager once it is installed correctly.

[SteveP]

Ok, I made some progress. I now have Realtek HDMI and Directsound Realtek HDMI available as renderers in Sage. I tried both. No sound yet, but the Toslink from my external audio splitter is now lit.

The choices for MPEG2 audio decoder filter and HD audio decoder are still the same. Any thoughts on what I should use? I've tried a variety of combinations. I wouldn't think any decoders would be used since the external receiver should do the decoding. Here are my currently available choices:

- MPEG2 Audio decoder filter
Default
AC3 filter
ATI MPEG Audio decoder
NVIDIA audio decoder
SageTV MPEG audio decoder
ffdshow audio decoder

- HD Audio decoder
Default
List of all decoders
ffdshow audio decoder

Thanks again,
Steve

[doncote0]

I would go with SageTV MPEG audio decoder
or AC Filter.

Leave HD at Default.

Open your volume control and make sure the mixer device for playback is listed as Realtek HD Audio Output.

Check all volume controls that are not selected and see if any make sense to you. If so, select them. For example, if you see SPDIF select it.

Make sure none of your sources are muted as well as making sure that volume levels are not set to zero.

Once you get everything setup correctly, it would be a good idea to restart Sage.

[GoAWest]

SteveP,

I still think you're focused on the wrong thing.

Your posts talk about the assorted audio setups inside Sage. Step back. Forget Sage. Focus on Windows where the problem is.

Do you see an HDMI audio output option (ideally as the default) in the Windows Sound control panel (maybe Realtek HD Audio Output counts)?

Can you make Windows go "beep" to your HDMI audio device (Sounds control panel/Sound tab/pick a sound and click "Test") so you can hear it? Until you can say "yes" to that there's no point in even launching Sage and expecting to get any audio out.

[vikingisson]

what he said.....

Get audio working in regular Windows and it will work in Sage.
Did you get the latest generic ATI video drivers and the audio driver (I think they are two downloads?)? If audio choices for HDMI out aren't available in the control panel then you need drivers. Choose your output and test in the Sounds tab.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by vikingisson

what he said.....

Get audio working in regular Windows and it will work in Sage.
Did you get the latest generic ATI video drivers and the audio driver (I think they are two downloads?)? If audio choices for HDMI out aren't available in the control panel then you need drivers. Choose your output and test in the Sounds tab.

+1

[ccsmoke]

Would make sure chipset drivers are up to date. (optional)

Disable onboard sound in bios as that maybe Realtek also. The video card will do the audio in this case too.

Apply the 2 ati drivers 1 for HDMI audio as listed in previous post under the optional download section.

Reboot

Test sound control panel/sound devices.

[doncote0]

Did you get the latest generic ATI video drivers and the audio driver (I think they are two downloads?)? If audio choices for HDMI out aren't available in the control panel then you need drivers. Choose your output and test in the Sounds tab.

Get the audio driver from Realtek. It's listed as ATI HDMI Audio Device (R2.55).

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/dow...&GetDown=false