1. #1
    Deleted

    HDMI causing unexpected sound problems!

    Hey everyone, I got a problem I am hoping some of you can help me with.

    First of all, my video card is a Radeon of the 5770 series. I used to use the DVI interface of my video card for my monitor for a long time (about 2y) until recently when part of the cable started malfunctioning, I looked everywhere in my town but didn't manage to find a replacement for that part.

    However, I had an HDMI cable lying around so I decided to give it a try. Aside from the different resolutions and colors, I got used to it pretty quick, apart from one problem I encountered recently.

    While I have HDMI on, if I try to plug my headphones using my standard TRS jack (and of course disable HDMI sound from windows), I encountered a peculiar problem. All sound seems to play normally EXCEPT human voices, they are EXTREMELY low, even if I set my volume to max from both windows and my headphones the voices are barely existent(if existent at all)... If I play any song, I hear only instrumental, any movie turns into a soundtrack symphony but no voices!

    However, if I let the sound go to my monitor via HDMI, everything sounds normal, but unfortunately I can't do that all the time because I have 2 roommates atm. Furthermore, I never encountered this problem while using the DVI port of my graphics card.

    TL;DR : HDMI is causing sound problems with my TRS-connected headphones (WTF), please help!
    Last edited by mmoc299c4ad0c3; 2012-08-04 at 01:17 PM.

  2. #2
    Are you plugging the TRS into your monitor or into your computer?
    ^ Have you tried switching them around?

    HDMI can have a larger resolution size than DVI, (which means that there is more pixels in the same area, making the picture clearer) so if you wanted the resolution to be the same, i'm sure that you could easily just change that in your options.
    The colours shouldn't really be any different, unless the manufacturer did something so that it would be different, or if you configured something yourself.
    Computer: Intel I7-3770k @ 4.5GHz | 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM | AMD 7970 GHz @ 1200/1600 | ASUS Z77-V PRO Mobo|

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Interesting point! I used to try my PC's TRS, now I tried the monitor's TRS slot, the problem persists. The monitor's menu isn't very helpful on the matter either.

    About the resolutions, with DVI my max resolution used to be 1600:1200, however I had MANY steps (10+) downward till 1000-ish pixel resolutions. When I use HDMI, max resolution is 1920:1080, but there are about 5-6 steps downward and the resolution I used to use , 1440:900 is gone. Now I use 1360:768 simply because HDMI doesn't allow me to use 1440:900. Colors are mostly the same with HDMI, but they change dramatically in brightness on some resolutions(mostly in games, I've observed it in WoW and Diablo 3 so far).

  4. #4
    Okay, bear with me a sec while I write down my thought process...

    So, your DVI cable broke and then you switched to HDMI.
    The main difference between HDMI and DVI is that HDMI carries sound, whereas DVI does not.

    Your sound works fine while using the monitors speakers (which is using the HDMI signal).
    Your sound doesn't work properly while using the HDMI with an external speaker (head phones).

    Your motherboard has a sound device on it, which you connect your speakers to, but you also tried connecting it to your TV to no avail.
    Your GPU has an onboard sound device, which enables the sound to be carried over the HDMI cable (of which works fine).

    At first it sounds like there's a device conflict, but it could just be some settings, for example, Voice Cancellation (pic), so check that in your sound settings.

    Also if you have a sound program like Realtek HD Audio Manager, then i'd check those settings out, to see if there are sound effects applied to it.
    You also want to make sure that your sound settings are either on 24bits, 48,000 Hz or 16bits, 44,1000 Hz - if it's already on one, try the other one.

    If none of that works out, then I recommend trying to update your GPU drivers and your sound drivers.

    If it doesn't sort itself out after updating your drivers, try disabling the AMD High Definition Audio Device in Device Manager (pic).
    Computer: Intel I7-3770k @ 4.5GHz | 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM | AMD 7970 GHz @ 1200/1600 | ASUS Z77-V PRO Mobo|

  5. #5
    Sounds like you perhaps activated surround sound and your computer is trying to send out the voices through the center channel.

  6. #6
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Yohassakura View Post
    Okay, bear with me a sec while I write down my thought process...

    So, your DVI cable broke and then you switched to HDMI.
    The main difference between HDMI and DVI is that HDMI carries sound, whereas DVI does not.

    Your sound works fine while using the monitors speakers (which is using the HDMI signal).
    Your sound doesn't work properly while using the HDMI with an external speaker (head phones).

    Your motherboard has a sound device on it, which you connect your speakers to, but you also tried connecting it to your TV to no avail.
    Your GPU has an onboard sound device, which enables the sound to be carried over the HDMI cable (of which works fine).

    At first it sounds like there's a device conflict, but it could just be some settings, for example, Voice Cancellation (pic), so check that in your sound settings.

    Also if you have a sound program like Realtek HD Audio Manager, then i'd check those settings out, to see if there are sound effects applied to it.
    You also want to make sure that your sound settings are either on 24bits, 48,000 Hz or 16bits, 44,1000 Hz - if it's already on one, try the other one.

    If none of that works out, then I recommend trying to update your GPU drivers and your sound drivers.

    If it doesn't sort itself out after updating your drivers, try disabling the AMD High Definition Audio Device in Device Manager (pic).
    Thanks for the detailed analysis and your suggestions mate, really appreciated. Unfortunately, none of it worked. I updated my sound drivers, and my graphics drivers are better off not being updated ( I tried different versions and nearly all of them crash my PC at random moments, the current version is the only one stable enough ).

    I am thinking of buying a new PC in a couple of months anyway, I guess I will just have to work my way around the problem.

  7. #7
    Hmm, I don't like that only your current version of GPU driver is "stable". It sounds like your GPU could be faulty.
    Computer: Intel I7-3770k @ 4.5GHz | 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM | AMD 7970 GHz @ 1200/1600 | ASUS Z77-V PRO Mobo|

  8. #8
    Are you using a dedicated sound card or onboard sound? Can you also try disabling onboard sound if you're not using the onboard sound adapter?

    You can find a dvi cable online for cheap (newegg, ebay, amazon).

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