Audio through DVI

[nameon]

Guys i need answers, please

now i've been googling this for quite a while now and it sounds pretty interesting

i've found a handful of posts of people saying that they are able to get audio on their tv's/monitors while their only connected to a single dvi cable
from their gpu. in those posts i also saw people saying that later ati and nvidia crads support audio through dvi, and some people say its completely impossible to get audio through a dvi cable.

So, i need an answer from you tomshardware readers and writers, IS IT TRUE THAT TODAYS GPU'S ARE ABLE TO PIPE AUDIO THROUGH THEIR DVI CONNECTORS AND CABLES AND OUTPUT THE AUDIO ONTO A HDTV SPEAKER OR SIMILAR? (e.g, ati/amd - HD 6800/6900 series, nvidia - GeForce 400/500 series)

 

[soundguruman]

I think the people who said they get audio are confusing it with HDMI

 

[hooru]

Sum video cards' DVI-output CAN output an audio signal to a HDMI input on a tv or receiver. So you would need a DVI-to-HDMI cable, DVI on GPU to HDMI on your tv/receiver. As for what cards actually support this, im not sure, but i would imagine most newer card do(ex..AMD-HD5series and up?) This could also depend on your tv/receiver, not sure tho.....

 

[ssddx]

i have a nvidia 470gtx and i'm using a dvi-to-hdmi cable. i currently have it connected to an av receiver and i get great sound. yes, only one cable.

what i understand of the situation is that if your video card supports sound-out through dvi then a cable such as the one i use should work for you. i'm not sure about dvi-to-dvi cables though.

i believe that there must not have been the ability to get sound through dvi at one point in time. perhaps this is where the word impossible came from. however, can vouche for getting sound through my own connection! if you are unsure if your card supports it try asking the manufacturer.

i think the only part determining if you can get sound or not is the video card. the end device shouldn't matter.

 

[amite]

Recently, I replaced my older Asus GT9600 card with the newer Asus GTX560. Now, at first I didn't noticed any changes (well, apart from the performance boost).

Then the other day I randomly booted up with my amplifier being off and my headphones disconnected - and the weirdest thing happened; sound was playing. At first I was all confused and couldn't figure out where it was comming from. My monitor (Samsung 2493HM) has build in speakers, I knew that much, but I've never connected the audio and though I was using HDMI input, I was using DVI output from the adapter - so it took me a second to realize what had happened. Once I did though, it was pretty obvious: They must have added support for DVI->HDMI on my new graphics adapters (nothing else had changed). Alright, cool.

I then checked the "Sound" settings in the control panel; here a device named "Syncmaster-0" with a screen icon had appeared as a playback device.

So I started diggin' around...

From what I can tell, Nvidia 200-series and newer as well as cards from the ATI 3k-series and upward will output sound over DVI. With the certain exceptions. As it seems to require additional hardware features, some of the "cheap" versions may not support this. For example, it should be supported by most GTX200 models, but not the GT200 - though I guess it's more of a manufacturer difference, as I doubt the actual GPU model has anything to do with it...but I really don't know.

I would however expect any of their newest cards to offer this feature.

As for the monitor input. If you're using HDMI input, any monitor should natively support this feature, as the monitor cant tell the diffence.

 

[nameon]

Thanks for the insight all of you, however it wasn't what I was hoping for,
I hoped that, boom dvi-dvi can now pipe audio as well, no need for that stupid HDMI cable,
I guess somethings are too good to be TRUE. Buts its still wierd why would anyone with a modern gpu need
A dvi-HDMI connection in the 1st place? Example a gtx 560 they all come with HDMI

Amite, Good choice on the 560 btw , but U could have summoned a bit more courage and got a 560ti,
Now with the 560 ur only getting abt 90% of the cake

Why do U have a div-HDMI coz im sure that 560 has a HDMI port.

I think connecting HDMI on your gpu to HDMI on monitor.is better than

Connecting dvi-HDMI converter on the dvi of you then connecting HDMI
from converter to HDMI on monitor

 

[nameon]

Best answer selected by nameon.

 

[nameon]

Amite, Good choice on the 560 btw , but U could have summoned a bit more courage and got a 560ti,
Now with the 560 ur only getting abt 90% of the cake

Why do U have a div-HDMI coz im sure that 560 has a HDMI port.

I think connecting HDMI on your gpu to HDMI on monitor.is better than

Connecting dvi-HDMI converter on the dvi of your gpu then connecting HDMI
from converter to HDMI on monitor

 

[datdarndot]

Amite, Good choice on the 560 btw , but U could have summoned a bit more courage and got a 560ti,
Now with the 560 ur only getting abt 90% of the cake

Why do U have a div-HDMI coz im sure that 560 has a HDMI port.

I think connecting HDMI on your gpu to HDMI on monitor.is better than

Connecting dvi-HDMI converter on the dvi of your gpu then connecting HDMI
from converter to HDMI on monitor

Amite, Good choice on the 560 btw , but U could have summoned a bit more courage and got a 560ti,
Now with the 560 ur only getting abt 90% of the cake

Why do U have a div-HDMI coz im sure that 560 has a HDMI port.

I think connecting HDMI on your gpu to HDMI on monitor.is better than

Connecting dvi-HDMI converter on the dvi of your gpu then connecting HDMI
from converter to HDMI on monitor

I can't answer for Amita, but there are plenty of reasons for using a DVI port. Many video cards have one HDMI, one DVI, and perhaps one VGA port. Many computer users, self included, have more than one HDMI monitor and/or projector. Some of us have an AV receiver (which may or may not pass-through the monitor's EDID). Some of us are using nVidia 3D Vision which won't work if it can't read the EDID of a 3D certified monitor/PJ. Things can be complicated, but the simple answer is — if you have two HDMI monitors but your video card has only one HDMI port, one of the monitors gets connected to the DVI port via an adapter.

 

[Petkevicius]

Even stock motherboard DVI output may let the audio through DVI-HDMI adapter. In ASRock MB case, it has to support HDCP (or DHCP) function for DVI port as well. Of course, these converters do not increase the quality, but as some of the guys already posted, there are situations when you have to choose the better of two evils.

Here's a link to official ASRock FAQ (Q&A-102|335):
http/www.asrock.com/support/faq.asp?k=dvi

 

[RWFrazerjr]

End device does matter....ie.....Some kids are running their Xbox360 on a comp monitor and have a need for additional speakers. That's where a lot of questions have come from.

 

[Pizzarro]

Why do U have a div-HDMI coz im sure that 560 has a HDMI port.

I think connecting HDMI on your gpu to HDMI on monitor.is better than connecting dvi-HDMI converter on the dvi of you then connecting HDMI from converter to HDMI on monitor

I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 750ti.
In my case, I have two DVI outs and a mini-HDMI out.
I tried the mini-HDMI out, first, as I thought audio couldn't pass through the DVI (and I already had a mini-HDMI cable).
But, the picture quality and resolution was all messed up (it looked terrible).
So, I used a DVI-HDMI cable, to see if the card was bad.
Lo and behold, audio started playing on my TV.
I was shocked.
I had never heard of a DVI out passing any audio.
JJ

 

[ssddx]

this thread is from 2011. let it die.

closing this.