HDMI audio via hp laptop, through a receiver?

[BLK95TA]

I have a 3 year old HP laptop running windows 7 that i just turned into a home pc. I'm trying to run dual monitors (one via hdmi, one via vga) and audio through the HDMI. I got it all working but for some reason, the hdmi audio will only work when my TV is on. I could understand this if my TV was directly connected to the laptop, but i have the HDMI cable running through a Pioneer V523x surround sound receiver. Shouldn't the signal get to the receiver first making the TV somewhat irrelevant? I only plan on using the TV as a second monitor when i am playing some arcade game emulators and old nes games, but i'd like to be able to use the audio all the time. i know i could just hook up RCA's but i want the 5.1.

any suggestions?

 

[nukemaster]

The only thing I could remotely think of is the receiver is just taking the audio and not actually telling the computer it is in the chain. If this is the case, the computer may not send sound when it thinks HDMI is not connected.

Can you check to see if it shows HDMI as disconnected when the TV us turned off.

Images.

TV on

TV off

As you can see at this point, no audio will be sent out. This may vary from TV to TV. some may also have a audio return port that is another HDMI port that can send audio out. I am not sure if it is always on or not.

 

[BLK95TA]

yes, the receiver shows up in the audio outputs when the TV is on, and immediately disappears when the TV is shut off. The screen on my desktop monitor which is hooked to the VGA port flickers and i hear the tone of the hdmi disconnecting from the machine.

I basically want to take the TV out of the equation most of the time and just have the audiio passing from the laptop to the receiver regardless of whether or not the TV is on. incidentally, the laptop used a TV icon but the name of it was pioneer 523x which is the receiver.The TV is a 46" Haier and the computer doesn't mention it at all. i changed the icon to a receiver icon, but i think the PC thinks the receiver is a TV?

it was working earlier but for some reason it stopped. it seems like the receiver should be able to let the pc know to send the hdmi signal whether or not the TV is on. i don't even have the TV set up for audio as it is.

 

[nukemaster]

I wonder if the receiver has an option to keep HDMI active since it shows its name, it has to be dealing with the signal.

Are you still sending image to the TV when it is off? I know when I tell the computer to switch to just the monitor the TV shows disconnected as well.

Does your system have any other outputs like optical or coaxial spdif to try with?

 

[BLK95TA]

only other output is the headphone jack which works when using a 3.5mm to rca adapter hooked to the receiver but that's only 2.1. i wanted to use the hdmi for 5.1.

it doesn't seem to matter what's on the TV, as long as it's turned on and the surround sound receiver is hooked to the BD port (i had it on DVD but those ports will change as soon as the hdmi signal is lost, so i tried the BD port which is locked to HDMI audo but that didn't help. Even if the TV is set to the wrong HDMI port, the sound stays on, but once the TV goes off, the laptop no longer sees the receiver.

 

[nukemaster]

They make HDMI splitters that fake a TV is on all the time(to avoid issues when other tv's are turned on and off), but that just adds cost. For that cost you may even find an external sound card that will do what you want.

Sorry, I forgot it was a notebook and thus will not have the extra outputs.

They seem to list a warning on the pioneer website about this

"Turning on/off the device connected to this unit’s HDMI
OUT terminal during playback, or disconnecting/
connecting the HDMI cable during playback, may cause
noise or interrupted audio"

I think it may be worth checking the full manual to see if they have any solutions for this issue. Even the TV may be have an option for either audio return or some other way to keep things always active.

 

[BLK95TA]

Ironically, i may have accidentally ordered one of those yesterday. I couldn't get the vga and hdmi working at the same time for some reason. i got that resolved and tried to cancel the order but it was already shipped. it's a 1 out 2 input splitter. i suppose i could use my dvi to hdmi that i used to use for my monitor, to run from 1 hdmi out while the other hdmi out goes to the surround sound receiver. i assume it would still register as long as the monitor was on even if the monitor is set to run on the VGA port.

http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HXFARS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[nukemaster]

Well if you get it, I guess you can try some tests.

You may be able to try it connected to the TV and stereo to see if it allows the audio to pass even with the TV off.

As for HDMI to DVI. that works, but tends to shut off the sound(DVI does not normally have sound, but some of the HDMI to DVI adapters will actually carry the sound too[the one I was getting those images with actually does pass sound from DVI to HDMI].).

 

[BLK95TA]

I found a fix for this. I have a 3 into 1 hdmi switch i bought a couple years ago when i had 1 too many devices for my TV and didn't yet have a receiver with HDMI ports. I had tried to use this the other day to split the laptop signal but it's only for using 3 hdmi outputs on 1 input, not 1 output into 2 inputs. Today i tried hooking the laptop into one of the 3 hdmi out ports and then plugging the hdmi input cable into the port on the receiver. That has done the trick. the audio will still cut out for a second or 2 when i turn the tv on or off as it reconfigures the monitor setup, but the audio will come back. I also just tested the setup by shutting down the laptop and turning it back on while leaving the TV off. The audio still worked. I'm guessing it sends constant power since there's a red light telling you which hdmi port is active. so if i just leave that plugged in between the laptop and the receiver, it apparently keeps the laptop thinking the audio is going to the TV even if the TV is off.

 

[nukemaster]

Interesting and strange fix(since it seems to be installed backwards or the description is confusing). I guess as long as it works