Barry Beckham Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 I know many of you on this site are old hands at this, but today I tried for the first time to link my new laptop to the flatscreen TV in our caravan via a HDMI cable. I find I can get a picture OK, but no sound. I asssume that sound does not travel down a HDMI cable.I therefore took a mini jack cable from the output of the laptop to the input of the TV, but try as I might, I cannot get sound out of the TV and its just too quiet from the PC alone. Has anyone else experenced this and can point me in the right direction please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fh1805 Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Barry,I don't use HDMI connections myself but I do know that the HDMI cable carries both sound and picture.regards,Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Barryyou have to play around with the sound card settingsi cant tell you the exact settings but there are 3 different settings on my realtek audio manager -- i use the mob sound card - no 3rd party graphics or sound card on my latest build -- to save me time and fiddlin about i have speakers connected to the audio out of mob then i have a 3.5 mm feed from the head phone jack of said speakers to a Sony boom box c/w remote control and it feeds another set of amplified speakers mounted close to my ws tv - works great - Sony has line in and out connections- so if i want to view a show on 37" tv via hdmi. i select hdmi 2 on tv and with boombox remote, swing from radio to line in and the line out is connected to amplified speakers and i view the show and adjust volume withe the Sony's remote - sounds complicated but nothing is hardwired and seves my needsken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Beckham Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Well, I have looked at the sound setting of the laptop isolated from the TV and I can't see anything that gives me a clue what the problem is. The picture quality is great but I don't get sound on anything when connected to the TV, be they videos or a PTE slide show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conflow Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Hi Barry,From past experience I know that you want things as simple as possible ~ particularily in a Caravan.The 'HDMI-System' is essentially a Home-Video System which requires your Slideshows presented to itin the HDMI-format which is usually the DVD-Format where the Sound-channels are LPCM or MPCM.It seems as if your sound-channels are in Mp3/Wav which wont work. You dont say which Audio/Video Format you are using ??.......The other way is to 'mess-around' with the wiring such as Ken suggested and provide a seperate Amp plus Speakers particularily if the TV has no sound-input facilitiesThere is an easier way to get it to work...examine the TV-Set and see if it has a USB-Input or does it have a Camera-Card input ?? ~ If so slap the whole Show on to a Memory-Pen or onto a SD/MMC/MS Card then select the 'Media-Program' with your Remote-control...this should work immediately with no loss of apparent quality.Brian (Conflow)HDMI Specs below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yachtsman1 Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 I know the feeling, I tried all ways to get my PC to operate via HDMI to my Panasonic wide screen TV. One thing that hasn't been mentioned by the others is the cable, from what I believe some HDMI cables are not fully wired, worth a check. I gave up in the end & went back to a VGA lead & external speakers. Now we have moved home the VGA cable is too short Life's a bitch & then you're dead Yachtsman1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 HDMI definitely carries the sound.DVI definitely does not carry the sound.If you have a setup which requires a DVI to HDMI converter cable then you will not get the sound.Other than that it is down to your laptop settings.I have never encountered this problem with my aging Sony Laptop and up to date Sony TV - it worked from day 1.I echo what Brian said: If you have a USB socket on the TV and the TV has a Media Player then there is only a slight (but measurable) difference between playing an H.264 MP4 file via a USB key and playing the EXE via a HDMI connection.The advantage of the USB route is: NO WIRES!P.S. when connecting via HDMI is it possible for you to hear the sound from the laptop via earphones - that might prove something? Just saw your original reference to laptop volume - when connected to TV via HDMI my laptop sound DOES NOT PLAY!P.P.S If you look at PROPERTIES (I'm on Vista) there is a section for SOUND which includes the settings for HDMI playback. Mine tells me that it is "working" and includes (in another Properties section) a Digital Output Device Volume Control. In the ADVANCED section, both of the "Exclusive Mode" Options are ticked.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Barrysee attachmenti have speakers selected top leftyou have to select 1 of the othersk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Beckham Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 The HDMI cable is a new one, no convertors from DVI and I had already thought about a small speaker system. The volume on the caravan speakers is not good and in rain conditions it can easily overpower the sound volume, so that may not be a bad option. I think I need to bring the TV inside and have a play. I have plenty of USB cables.I will also take a closer look at the settings, but I admit I have little tolerance for all this detective work just to get a result that others seem to get easily. Thanks for the tips so far, I will follow up on them as soon as possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Barryi think max length of usb cables is < 20 ftken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USBway down pageMaximum cable lengthFor USB 2.0 or earlier, the maximum length of a standard cable is 5 metres (16.4 ft).[32] The primary reason for this limit is the maximum allowed round-trip delay of about 1.5 μs. If USB host commands are unanswered by the USB device within the allowed time, the host considers the command lost. When adding USB device response time, delays from the maximum number of hubs added to the delays from connecting cables, the maximum acceptable delay per cable amounts to 26 ns.[32] The USB 2.0 specification requires cable delay to be less than 5.2 ns per meter (192,000 km/s, which is close to the maximum achievable transmission speed for standard copper cable).[33] This allows for a five meter cable. The USB 3.0 standard does not directly specify a maximum cable length, requiring only that all cables meet an electrical specification. For copper wire cabling, some calculations have suggested a maximum length of perhaps 3 m.ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Have I missed something?How is a USB Cable (however long) going to help?DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Barry said he had lots of usb cables - "I think I need to bring the TV inside and have a play. I have plenty of USB cables"he does not want to join them to reachken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Ken,I'm wondering what he intends to do with USB cables?USB on computer - input device.USB on TV - input device.You can't connect an input device to an input device - won't work!I was talking about a USB KEY (I use a 16Gb Key) a storage device or maybe a USB External drive can be connected to the TV and an MP4 played from it (NOT an EXE BTW).If using USB External Drive I can only connect up to 500Gb on my Sony TV - anything bigger is not recognised.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 he may be going to connect comp to dvd player c/w usb jack and then to tvi have 2 wd interfaces that i can connect 2 external hard drives to tvdisco the hard drives and it can read my xp system via network cablehave never tried them on the new box but there is a 1 tb hard drive connected to "the cooler" that is collecting stuff for the future Ronnie West, David "frets"White , and "hawk" got me into them and when they dropped prices to +- $100 i got 2think Tom Court went the WD route as wellken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Exactly, but you can't connect a laptop to a TV in the same way.Don't you ever go to bed?With the new TVs having Media Players the WD units are redundant.DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Beckham Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Perhaps I can make it clear what I want to doWe always have a laoptop when we are away in the caravan and we also have a flat screen TV. I don't want to buy or have to carry any more gadgets,I want to be able to show what I have on the laptop on TV. That may be a WM Video, an Mp4 Videp or a PTE slide show.When I plug in my 1.5mtr HDMI cable I get picture but no sound when I select HDMI from the TV imput menuI tried taking a minijack from the laptop to the TV input, but that dodn't work either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davegee Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 barryhave u tried as i suggested above right click on desktop a look for properties/sound settings and anything to do with digital or hdmi sound with cable connected.dg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Beckham Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Someone has pointed me in the right direction and I have selected the HDMI from control panel, when I expected it all to be automatic. Its all now working fine.The thread is now resolved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 well now is the time to share your new found knowledge - what is the procedure there are likely others that would like to knowken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Beckham Posted September 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 KenIts the usual thing with computers, easy when you know how, baffling when you don't, with too many possible causes and solutions to tie you up in knots. I went to the Sound card and found nothing, but in the control panel under sound, there was a HDMI option that I had to set on default to make it work. When I want to use the laptop sound out of the mini jack socket, I will have to set it back to headphones and speakers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted September 1, 2011 Report Share Posted September 1, 2011 Barry, thanks that is why i went the route i did - my next challenge is to connect another camera to the win 7 system and will have to make another decision re the sound -- been holding off to see what MS is going to do with Skype purchase - they may marry it and MS Messenger ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickl Posted September 2, 2011 Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 KenIts the usual thing with computers, easy when you know how, baffling when you don't, with too many possible causes and solutions to tie you up in knots. I went to the Sound card and found nothing, but in the control panel under sound, there was a HDMI option that I had to set on default to make it work. When I want to use the laptop sound out of the mini jack socket, I will have to set it back to headphones and speakersSame on my Dell XPS Barry... Right click on the speaker in the tray, select Playback Devices... Two shown Speaker/Headphones and HDMI. Make HDMI default, and you are on your way...Now try to remember to reverse that when you are not using HDMI... ha ha And the debugging renews afresh as you try to find out what happened too your sound!?Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.