Need help with getting HDMI audio going

C

Cathar

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 15, 2001
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Ok guys, I got a bit of an odd one, and I've not been able to find an answer.

I have a Radeon 7970 video card, and previously was driving my old 1920x1200 monitor with a dual-link DVI cable, and driving a surround sound system with an HDMI cable plugged into the HDMI out of the video card. That all worked well.

I've since upgraded my monitor to a Samsung SA850T, and am driving it at 2560x1440 resolution. The problem I have now though is that if the HDMI cable is plugged into, the screen resolution drops back to 1920x1080, but with nothing displayed. I can see the desktop background, but nothing else, and can't do anything. There are no icons, control bar, or anything.

If I unplug the HDMI cable again, no problem.

I tried with an HDMI out sound card. Same issue. As soon as I plug the HDMI cable in, video messes up.

I then tried a cheapie second video card with HDMI out. Same deal.

I then tried DVI->HDMI out of the second video card. Same deal.

I then tried DVI->HDMI from the second video card to the HDMI sound card's in port, and then HDMI out from the sound card to the surround receiver, and still have the same frustrating problem with the original display messing up.

I am at wits end on how to drive a 2560x1440, and still get HDMI surround sound working.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
sounds like you're displaying on the samsung as a second display, and it's sending video over the the HDMI to your reciever as the primary. curious, have you tried running video from the receiver to the monitor?
 
OniFactor said:
sounds like you're displaying on the samsung as a second display, and it's sending video over the the HDMI to your reciever as the primary. curious, have you tried running video from the receiver to the monitor?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply.

The DVI is definitely the primary, or at least I think it is, because when I boot up, it's all working fine. It seems to be as soon as the windows drivers load is when it goes haywire. Yeah, I tried from GPU to receiver to monitor, and no go. Receiver is actually 1.3a itself, and doesn't support more than 1080p

Edit: However, you may be on to something. How can one actually set what the primary display port is? There's no option in the Catalyst Control Center for that
 
I have a very similar setup. A 6970 with a 2560x1600 monitor connected via dual link dvi, and a receiver connected via hdmi.

Try getting into windows without the hdmi connected. Once your loaded, plug in the receiver's hdmi cable. Open Catalyst control center and make sure that it recognizes the receiver as the 2nd monitor. The asterisk will be on your primary monitor.

If your still having problems, I'd recommend you completely uninstall the AMD drivers and try installing them again.
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nimbyfaygo said:
I have a very similar setup. A 6970 with a 2560x1600 monitor connected via dual link dvi, and a receiver connected via hdmi.

Try getting into windows without the hdmi connected. Once your loaded, plug in the receiver's hdmi cable. Open Catalyst control center and make sure that it recognizes the receiver as the 2nd monitor. The asterisk will be on your primary monitor.

If your still having problems, I'd recommend you completely uninstall the AMD drivers and try installing them again.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your response. Yes, I've tried loading Windows without the receiver HDMI plugged in, and then plug it in. As in the OP, as soon as I plug the receiver HDMI in, all I see is the desktop background, and nothing else, in 1920x1080 subsetted within the 2560x1440 frame (ie. desktop back-ground centered on screen with filler frame around the edge).

I tried setting the monitor resolution to 1920x1080, just to try to get around that issue, and got exactly the same thing as soon as I plugged the receiver HDMI in.

What I might try is your suggestion. Uninstall the AMD drivers and see then if I can have both plugged in. If so, that'll point to an issue with the AMD drivers. Then re-install with both plugged in, and see what happens.

This has been driving me nuts for a month now.
 
OniFactor said:
does the audio work, when this issue occurs?
Click to expand...
That's hard to test. I've currently got audio working via SPD/IF to the receiver for compressed surround sound decode.

If I start up anything that plays sound, before plugging in the HDMI to the receiver, then the sound source is already bound to the SPD/IF output, and so it doesn't switch over. If I disable the sound-card (ie. disable all sound, barring the HDMI out) and then play some music and then plug in the HDMI, the sound source still doesn't switch.

What's got me stumped is that this all worked before with a native 1920x1080p monitor.
 
i'm assuming you've tried to see if you could move the mouse cursor onto the "blank" desktop, by going way left, or way right, as well?

honestly, my train of thought, right now, is going from an analog/digital to digital/digital setup is throwing things off.. if your old monitor was using an analog DVI signal, and now your new one is asking for digital, i'm wondering if it's limiting what your card is capable of outputting via the HDMI digital...
 
OniFactor said:
i'm assuming you've tried to see if you could move the mouse cursor onto the "blank" desktop, by going way left, or way right, as well?
Click to expand...

Mate, thank you so much. That was it exactly!

Been driving me nuts, and it was as simple as that. I kept moving the mouse, moving, moving, and eventually the pointer showed up on screen. Clicked to set the resolution, and got the displays to select. Set it to the Samsung as the main, and display problem solved.

Am now not seeing the receiver see an HDMI signal. Just messing about with that now, but just wanted to say thanks!
 
Ok, got it all sorted now. Thank you for the help.

The HDMI wasn't working, because I had selected to display just to the Samsung. I then tried to do extended displays, but couldn't get the 2560x1440 res on the Samsung. I finally managed to figure out the correct sequence to do it all in (Windows 7):

1) Unplug the receiver HDMI from the vid card
2) Shutdown ALL desktop windows (precaution for next steps)
3) Plug the receiver HDMI in
4) Move the mouse around (and keep moving) until it is seen on the blank desktop
5) right-click, and select Screen Resolution
6) Click the Multiple Displays drop-down box, and set it to "Extend Displays"
7) Select the Samsung monitor from the Display drop-down
8) Click the make this your primary display check-box (for the Samsung)
9) Now set the resolution on the Samsung to 2560x1440


That has brought me to the point where I now have the dual-link DVI output on the 7970 driving the Samsung SA850T at the full 2560x1440, and the HDMI out on the 7970 linked to my Yamaha RX-V371 receiver acting as a "secondary display", and the receiver now doing full uncompressed 5.1 surround sound.

The only minor caveat is that the mouse pointer can now move off to the left of the screen into the non-existent second display, and I need to move it right far enough again to bring it back to the Samsung display.

I'm a happy boy now. Thanks once again!
 
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