NVIDIA HDMI Audio says "Not plugged in"

[petsorre]

I am wanting to play Bluray DVDs on my Sony Vaio AW21-M/H laptop through my Panasonic Viera TV, TH-37PX60B, using the HDMI connection.

The picture on the TV is fine, but I cannot get any sound through the TV speakers.
When I check the properties for the audio output device it says "NVIDIA HDMI Audio - not plugged in".

Obviously the HDMI cable is plugged in or Ither would be no picture!

One of the reasons for buying this particular model was its ability to play Bluray discs through the plasma TV, so at the moment I am a little disappointed.

Can any body please help?

[Blencogo]

Hi petersorrell and welcome.

Your sound card cannot output analogue and digital sound at the same time.

Have you switched the sound output from analogue speakers to digital HDMI?

Start -> Control Panel and click on Classic View. Double click on 'Sound' and under the Playback Tab make 'Digital Output HDMI/SPDIF' your default sound output.

Unfortunately you will need to change this manually between speakers and HDMI.

[petsorre]

Hi Blencogo and thanks for your swift response.
There are four playback options in the Sound dialogue box:

1 NVIDIA HDMI Output
2 Speakers (normal default)
3 Speaker/HP
4 Digital Output (Optical)

Since I am using an HDMI cable to my television, surely I should be using the NVIDIA HDMI Output? If I select properties for the Digital Output (Optical), Jack Information specifies Right Panel Optical Jack.

Comments please.

[markj1993]

Hi peter sorrell,

I'm not certain but im think it should be the digital output

Just try them all and you will eventually get some sound. Btw you have to sometimes resart the video software for the changes to take effect.

Hope this helps, Mark.

[petsorre]

Thanks MarkJ2008. I'll try the settings tomorrow.

In the meantime I have looked on various other forums and some people are having to download updated audio drivers to cure their problems. I have run Driver Robot and Driver Detective on my machine and they both report that my NVIDIA and Realtek audio drivers are out of date.
This is a little surprising as I've only had the laptop for a couple of months.

Do you think it would be a good idea to try some updated drivers?

[markj1993]

Yes

Well my audio is SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC.

Your updates should be on your vaio update page

Mark.

[Blencogo]

What nVidia driver version do you have installed?

Have you updated this to a non-Sony version of the driver? I have heard some of the driver updates offered by Windows Update sometimes cause this problem.

Yes obviously you should use the nVidia HDMI sound default.

[petsorre]

I tried setting Sound / Playback to Digital Output (Optical), but it didn't work.

My NVIDIA HDMI Audio driver is 1.0.0.30 (25/06/2008)
This is the original driver installed as new, I have not changed it in any way.

On other forums, people have changed the HDMI/SPDIF setting in BIOS.

Could an updated driver or a BIOS setting be the answer?

Just another thought - I have only just bought my HDMI cable from a reputable supplier, so I assume it is fully wired to the correct standard.
Could it be possible that it is only wired for video?

[Blencogo]

HDMI should carry both sound and video.

That is the nVidia Forceware Driver v176.76 - there is a newer version v182.75 but you would have to hack the .INF to install it.

What sound settings do you have on the TV setup?

[petsorre]

From where do I download the new driver file?

Which .INF file do I need to hack and what do I have to do?

I'll check my TV sound settings tonight and get back to you.