Question using my TV as a 3rd monitor.......50 feet away

W

Wuyley_sl

shitlord
1,443
13
So I never use my tv anymore as I watch everything on my computer now but when I have "company" over to "watch a movie" it is nice to lay on the couch instead of having to both be in computer chairs. Now I already have a 50ft HDMI cord going from my computer to the tv that runs along the baseboard of my apartment but for sound I need to turn on my computer speakers and it is too far away/in the corner. Although I build my own computers, I am HORRIBLE with home audio.

My question, what would be the best way to add sound to my TV when watching shit from the computer? I have a receiver with no speakers at the moment (older hand-me-down but still only a couple years old) so i think my options would be:

Buy some "home audio" speakers and run a "red/white" cord from the receiver to the computer and then get a converter from red/white to "headphone jack" to plug into my computers sound card.

Order a 50ft "headphone jack cord" to run from my computer to my TV and then just buy some cheap, but decent computer speakers to put next to my tv.

Not sure if this is available on the market but perhaps get some sort of wifi speakers / device that I can hook up to my network and run through there.

I went to Best Buy and looked at some of those "all in one" speaker bars and they look cool but I don't know if it is worth it to spend $200 on something that I RARELY use when a set of $50 computer speakers would work just fine. I suppose I could get one of those "all in one" audio kits with the 5 speakers, receiver, and blu-ray player but I sold all of my discs and only run movies from my hard drive so I don't see myself ever using the blu-ray player.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
What Video card do you have? HDMI should generally carry audio as well as video, unless the feature is turned off on your card for some reason. Might be as simple as changing a setting in windows or your video card driver suite to enable HDMI audio.

That being said, that should get at least your TV outputting sound, you might still want a soundbar or surround system to enhance that but getting audio to the TV itself should be your first step.
 
opiate82

opiate82

Bronze Squire
3,078
5
I know on my HTPC I have to enable a setting in the Sound menu to get HDMI sound to work (pretty sure when you go to the Sound menu under playback devices an HDMI option pops up when I plug in an HDMI cable). But otherwise, yeah, should be able to get it over the HDMI w/o any other sort of wiring I would think.
 
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,695
32,086
Took me a while to find the setting in my TV to allow sound over the HDMI to be played. I also had to check off a box on my video and sound card menu in windows.
 
Alkorin

Chancellor Alkorin

Part-Time Sith
<Granularity Engineer>
6,029
5,915
I use HDMI audio with my TV/laptop setup. It didn't need any specific setup to work. Just plug it in and go. I might have had to manually choose the HDMI audio out when I first put in the laptop -- I can't remember, it's been so long -- but when I unplug it/plug it back in these days, it just plays through HDMI by default.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
37,961
14,508
When I use the HDMI out on my laptop it is sketchy as fuck. I have to enable/disable it 13 different ways to maybe get sound to work. 50% of the time the video also won't work. Pain in my ass.
 
W

Wuyley_sl

shitlord
1,443
13
Ok I am not having any luck so here are some pictures on what I am experiencing. I have an AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series that looks like this:

rrr_img_16438.jpg
My Dell 19" is on the top left with one of my ASUS underneith it and in the display port. The tv is hooked up to the HDMI and there is one more display port to the right.

Under Catalyst I can't "check HDMI sound" for the tv as seen here and that is the only audio options I am getting.

rrr_img_16439.jpg

On my TV under sound and setup I only get:

rrr_img_16440.jpg
and
rrr_img_16441.jpg

so no luck there. Any ideas would be great.


Also in order to have my TV on I have to disable one of my monitors but I was told that my vid card should be able to run 6 at the same time but I get this message when trying to add the 4th:
rrr_img_16443.jpg
Any ideas / help is appreciated.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Check your device manager, you should have an ATI or "HD Audio Device" listed under the sound adapter listings alongside your normal onboard audio.

If it is indeed listed as either an unknown or only as a High Definition Device... you must install the latest ATI drivers and ensure the sound device for the ati audio is showing up as something being installed.

Also it looks like several versions of ATI drivers would disable the HDMI audio when the device you were plugged into(TV) was powered off. So make sure your TV is on and connected via this HDMI(and on the correct HDMI channel) when messing with the PC end of things.

edit - you might also try downloading these audio drivers from Realtek ->http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&GetDown=false
 
D

darkko_sl

shitlord
231
0
I have a 50 foot HDMI running to my TV as well. I always have to unplug the computer speakers for the sound to come through the HDMI. Try that.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Or rather than unplugging, on most versions of windows you can right-click the sound/speaker icon in your taskbar and get into some sound properties where you can change the default sound device. I do this quite often when switching default sound from my speakers to my headset and back, without having to physically unplug anything.
 
S

Sean_sl

shitlord
4,735
11
You really shouldn't have to unplug stuff or change the default sound devices - most players have an option to choose the sound device it uses for output.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Right, things like Skype, or any media player(VLC, Windows Media, etc) will have its own setting on where you want the sound to go. I change the default when I just want *everything* to switch from speakers to headphones(when the wife is asleep, don't need the sub & speakers going nuts right under our bedroom).
 
fris

fris

Vyemm Raider
2,020
2,221
I assume your 'tv' that's on the other end of the 50' hdmi cable has built in speakers.

check the sound settings, control panel. some apps allow you to pick which sound 'path' to send app sounds to. some don't. check to see what's default, which is probably your integrated sound controller on your motherboard, i see a blank speaker cable plugged in to the green jack on your first pick.

you should be able to switch default sound to something named "ati hdmi hi def audio" or something similar
 
Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,695
32,086
fris_sl said:
I assume your 'tv' that's on the other end of the 50' hdmi cable has built in speakers.

check the sound settings, control panel. some apps allow you to pick which sound 'path' to send app sounds to. some don't. check to see what's default, which is probably your integrated sound controller on your motherboard, i see a blank speaker cable plugged in to the green jack on your first pick.

you should be able to switch default sound to something named "ati hdmi hi def audio" or something similar
Click to expand...
Mine only shows the HDMI option when the HDMI is actually plugged into a device on the other end if that helps any. I have the HDMI checked as default then when it's not plugged in it disappears and the computer speakers are shown and that's where the sound goes.
 
fris

fris

Vyemm Raider
2,020
2,221
that's as it should be. it will actually display the name of the display, you can see in my screen shot i have a Planar 27". is your TV at the end of the 50' hdmi cable have built in speakers? if not, does it have an audio out port?
 
Quineloe

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,463
I can throw another level on that problem:

I have the xbox connected to the TV via HDMI, and the TV connects to an old audio power amplifier through RCA Red/white, which then uses copper connected speakers.

If the sound originates from the TV or comes from a SCART connected DVD player, sound passes on to the speakers. Xbox sound however does not, it stays on the TV speakers.

Anyone an idea?
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Sounds like your TV can't convert digital audio(HDMI) to analog audio(red/white cables), basically it's not converting digital audio from the XBOX into an analog signal to pass on to the ramp/speakers. This is what a stereo/surround receiver generally does. You'd want all of your audio entering the receiver to be processed out to extra amp/speakers. I don't think most TVs have receiver-like processing capabilities(at least not lower-end TVs that I'm mostly familiar with)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.