Video card with HDMI audio ?

[Ken C]

I recently moved the Sage computer back into the media room, next to the new LCD HDTV. For some reason the TV will not recognize the analog audio from the computer.

Is there a video card that will route the audio to the TV via the HDMI connection ?

The computer mb has a PCI-e x16 slot (not ver 2.0).

[reggie14]

I think all (or almost all) the ATI HD3xxx and HD4xxx cards support that. I'm doing it with an ATI HD4670 card right now. The biggest problem I have with that card is that until ATI's software loads up (which doesn't happen until after you log in) the fan is really loud. Once you log in the fan slows way down, but until then it runs at full speed. It's annoying because I have a dedicated server, and there's really no reason for me to log in since SageTV and sgraphrecorder (for firewire recording) run as services.

[babgvant]

+1 for the ATI card. I have a low profil 4650, it is almost completly silent (even when booting).

[Ken C]

Both the 4650 and 4670 are listed as PCI Express 2.0 x16. Are they backward compatible with a PCI Express x16 (ver 1) slot ?

[babgvant]

yes. It should fall back to 1.1 speeds.

[reggie14]

babgvant is correct. I have my 4670 in a older PCI-e version 1 motherboard (an Asus A8N-E).

[Ken C]

Thanks, guys. It's over to Newegg.

[Clift]

what video card do you have now? If it's an NVIDIA card there is a tweak to fix that problem. they had issues with the HDMia nd the TV EDID. When the card would read the EDID and see that it's a TV it would send "audio" out through the HDMI cable. And the TV, naturally would ignore the analog inputs. But since there is no audio coming out of the HDMI on account that the card has no audio chip built in, then you get no sound.

You could save $100...

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Clift

You could save $100...

No need to drop $100. Depending on what you want to do with it $30-$60 should do it.

The 4350-4550 should work great for progressive content (ATSC 720p & BD sourced), but I've heard that they lack the umph to deinterlace 1080i so I went with a $55 4650.

[Clift]

You could save $55...

[Ken C]

Originally Posted by Clift

You could save $55...

The current video card is an nVidia 8400gs which was a freebe. It only has a DVI output, no HDMI. It will get moved to one of the grandkids machines. I ended up getting a 4650 for $55. And, well, I just had to get another HDHR ...

[Clift]

Originally Posted by Ken C

The current video card is an nVidia 8400gs which was a freebe. It only has a DVI output, no HDMI. It will get moved to one of the grandkids machines. I ended up getting a 4650 for $55. And, well, I just had to get another HDHR ...

Cool! Well just for future reference, when using a DVI to HDMI adapter the NVIDIA 8 (and I think 9) series cards all do that. I know because I have both an 8400GS and an 8600GT. So if you ever run into the issue again, there is a fix.

[Ken C]

Installed the 4650 and, after finding the audio driver, audio is working as well. Thanks for the info.