Connecting laptop to TV through audio receiver

[Stojakapimp]

Hi everyone,

I'm kinda of a n00b when it comes to home entertainment, so please bare with me.

I have a Harman/Kardon AVR 347 and am trying to connect my roommates laptop through the AVR so that it displays on the TV. His laptop has an HDMI output, so we're just plugging that in to one of the HDMI inputs on the AVR.

Yet when we do that, we don't see or hear anything on the TV. I know that when connecting to a projector from a laptop you have to pretty a certain key combination to switch the display over, but is that also true for going through AVRs?

Just so you know, his laptop is running Windows 7. Is there some setting on the laptop or the AVR that we need to do to get this to work?

Thanks!

-J

 

[Fallen Kell]

A couple issues:

1) You won't hear anything since you are not passing any audio if you are using a DVI -> HDMI connection (as the original DVI does not contain audio). To get sound you will have to use a SPDIF (if you laptop has one, probably not since it is rare on a laptop), or get a 1/8" stereo to dual RCA converter, and then use RCA cables to connect to stereo RCA audio input on the AVR (and need to configure the AVR to use that stereo audio connection for audio when using the HDMI connection that you have the laptop connected to, same goes for if you a SPDIF output).

2) You need to make certain that you have the laptop set to output at 1080p or 720p (depending on what your TV and AVR support). If these are not the resolutions you are using, the TV and/or AVR will not work as they all have a system which checks to see if the resolution is a supported resolution and won't display unsupported resolutions.

3) You may have an issue with HDCP. HDCP is the stupid encryption standard that was embedded into the HDMI standard. Any DVI device that you wish to connect to an HDMI device must support DVI-HDCP. If id does not, you are SOL (and you can thank the RIAA/MPAA for that).

4) Your DVI might not be the "correct" DVI to be able to convert to HDMI. You need to be using DVI-I or DVI-D in order to properly convert to HDMI. A DVI-A will not work when connected to the converter cable (even if it plugs in) as the converter cable only uses the digital feed and not the analog.

 

[Stojakapimp]

A couple issues:

1) You won't hear anything since you are not passing any audio if you are using a DVI -> HDMI connection (as the original DVI does not contain audio). To get sound you will have to use a SPDIF (if you laptop has one, probably not since it is rare on a laptop), or get a 1/8" stereo to dual RCA converter, and then use RCA cables to connect to stereo RCA audio input on the AVR (and need to configure the AVR to use that stereo audio connection for audio when using the HDMI connection that you have the laptop connected to, same goes for if you a SPDIF output).

2) You need to make certain that you have the laptop set to output at 1080p or 720p (depending on what your TV and AVR support). If these are not the resolutions you are using, the TV and/or AVR will not work as they all have a system which checks to see if the resolution is a supported resolution and won't display unsupported resolutions.

3) You may have an issue with HDCP. HDCP is the stupid encryption standard that was embedded into the HDMI standard. Any DVI device that you wish to connect to an HDMI device must support DVI-HDCP. If id does not, you are SOL (and you can thank the RIAA/MPAA for that).

4) Your DVI might not be the "correct" DVI to be able to convert to HDMI. You need to be using DVI-I or DVI-D in order to properly convert to HDMI. A DVI-A will not work when connected to the converter cable (even if it plugs in) as the converter cable only uses the digital feed and not the analog.

Hey Fallen Kell, thanks for getting back to me.

Just to reiterate, my roommates laptop does have an HDMI output on it. AFAIK, it is simply an HDMI output and is not a DVI-->HDMI converter (unless that is happening internally). So do you think the DVI issues could still be a problem?

My main theory now is your point #2, in that the laptop resolution wasn't set to something compatible with the AVR (720 or 1080). I'll have my roommate try using different resolutions and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks again.

 

[thomsbrain]

Most laptops have a function key that doubles as a screen-swap key. If not, go to display settings and you may have to enable the HDMI output as a valid "monitor."

 

[Fallen Kell]

Sorry for not checking back. If it has an HDMI port then a lot of the issues go away. You are correct that issue #2 is probably the first thing to check. And as thomsbrain pointed out, you may need to enable that as an output device on the laptop.