Solved! Correct way to pass HDMI audio from PC to sound bar?

[evonguyen]

I'm trying to connect my PC to LG SJ9 sound bar via HDMI to utilize Dolby Atmos. But I am running into some issues.

Currently I have an HDMI cable plugged into my GPU (GTX1080) to HDMI IN on the sound bar. However, this is causing some screen flickering and NVIDIA control panel thinks there is an extra monitor plugged. When I disable the extra monitor the sound-bar no longer works.

Is there a setting I need to change to force the HDMI to be audio only or is there a better way to accomplish this?

 

[americanaudiophile]

The only way to get Atmos into the soundbar is HDMI.
If your PC drivers and video don't cooperate I don't know if there is a way around that. They set it up for a BD player/streamer not a PC.
In any case the result would not have been impressive. Even though the soundbar is labeled as 5.1.2 it has no separate surround speakers and putting them into the soundbar ain't the same thing. The two upward firing speakers in the soundbar won't do Atmos properly either.
Kind of an expensive soundbar lacking what it doesn't have. If you can send it back and get a real AVR and speakers it will work much better. If you have to cut back and add Atmos speakers later do that. Quality of sound is much more important than more channels.

 

[jsmithepa]

If the SB has HDMI In ports, that's the proper way. Otherwise u would have to go PC --> TV --ARC-->SB.

 

[robert600]

I might be missing something obvious but ... could you not disable the extra (phantom?) monitor and ... just go into 'sound' in the Control Panel and pick 'digital audio' or 'hdmi audio' or whatever your system wants to call it?

 

[evonguyen]

I might be missing something obvious but ... could you not disable the extra (phantom?) monitor and ... just go into 'sound' in the Control Panel and pick 'digital audio' or 'hdmi audio' or whatever your system wants to call it?

Disabling the monitor will also disable it as a sound output.

 

[robert600]

I might be missing something obvious but ... could you not disable the extra (phantom?) monitor and ... just go into 'sound' in the Control Panel and pick 'digital audio' or 'hdmi audio' or whatever your system wants to call it?

Disabling the monitor will also disable it as a sound output.

Yes but can you not re-enable the sound portion of the hdmi output in 'sound'? I only use laptops so I may be off base but ....I know I can send both video and audio to my receiver via hdmi (the default) ... or I can use the laptop's screen and send only sound to the receiver or ... I can use the laptop's speakers and send only video to the receiver.