HDMI on Video Card questions

milkman001

Junior Member
Jun 27, 2009
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I am helping a friend put together a computer and he's gotten a monitor w/ audio built in so it has HDMI ports. Me myself I have always gone with separate speakers so I've never needed HDMI, So I have a few questions:

1) We've selected this Card, which has HDMI built in, is the audio passed through the 4830 or is it generated by the 4830?

2) If the 4830 is generating the sound, does that mean I should disable the motherboard's on-board audio?

3) Would HDMI through an DVI-HDMI adapter produce sound? I am talking about a video card such as the 4770, which says it supports HDMI but only has DVI ports.

4) I've only considered HDMI through ATI cards so far; is there anything different about NVIDIA's that I should know about?


Thanks a lot for any answers I get.
 

dug777

Lifer
Oct 13, 2004
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1) IIRC, sound is passed through, not generated (assume onboard on my P5Q PRO, in my case).

2) No.

3) That's how my 4850 works.

4) No idea, would presume they would support sound over HDMI as well with newer cards, it seems pretty critical and simple to me...but again, I stress that I have no idea!
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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ATI chips have built in audio chips, so the audio is generated on the card.
Nvidia cards with HDMI do a pass-through for the audio, if at all.

The 4770 likely comes with a DVI-HDMI adapter. ATI uses unused DVI ports to transmit audio.
 

milkman001

Junior Member
Jun 27, 2009
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I was thinking it was produced on the card, although I am curious as to why you never see any specs regarding the quality and maker of the sound (Realtek, Asus, Creative, w/e).

So recognizing that then I should disable on board audio correct?
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
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I'm interested in this too. I currently have an 8800 GTS512 connected to my monitor with one dvi port and my 46" tv with the other (using a dvi->hdmi cable.) When I watch movies loaded from my computer, I need to have my z5500s on to get sound. If I get say a 4890 with dvi ports, does that mean I can use the same dvi->hdmi cable to the TV and not need to use my z5500s for sound?
 

dug777

Lifer
Oct 13, 2004
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Originally posted by: TemjinGold
I'm interested in this too. I currently have an 8800 GTS512 connected to my monitor with one dvi port and my 46" tv with the other (using a dvi->hdmi cable.) When I watch movies loaded from my computer, I need to have my z5500s on to get sound. If I get say a 4890 with dvi ports, does that mean I can use the same dvi->hdmi cable to the TV and not need to use my z5500s for sound?

I know with my card, I can choose whether the sound comes out via the card & HDMI or the onboard sound jacks.

I would guess this means my initial suggestion that the sound was generated on the onboard and then passed though the ATI card and HDMI was wrong :eek:
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
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Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: TemjinGold
I'm interested in this too. I currently have an 8800 GTS512 connected to my monitor with one dvi port and my 46" tv with the other (using a dvi->hdmi cable.) When I watch movies loaded from my computer, I need to have my z5500s on to get sound. If I get say a 4890 with dvi ports, does that mean I can use the same dvi->hdmi cable to the TV and not need to use my z5500s for sound?

I know with my card, I can choose whether the sound comes out via the card & HDMI or the onboard sound jacks.

I would guess this means my initial suggestion that the sound was generated on the onboard and then passed though the ATI card and HDMI was wrong :eek:

Interesting... would I be able to maintain a separate "choice" for each output (i.e. set to hdmi for TV and set to onboard for monitor) or would I need to switch manually each time I go from playing a game to watching a movie?
 

WildW

Senior member
Oct 3, 2008
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evilpicard.com
Generally Windows only supports one device at a time for all sounds, so you can't have, say, all Windows sounds coming through both if it's an ATI card with sound being generated on the graphics card. . . however, some programs (media players) can select a different sound output device than the default. That means you can have all sound coming out of your PC speakers, but just sound from a media player program going to the TV. . . which can be handy if that's what you want to do.
 

milkman001

Junior Member
Jun 27, 2009
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Well I am still curious as to whose sound it is on ATIs cards...is it just one company doing all the HDCP HDMI business or what?
 

TemjinGold

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Dec 16, 2006
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Originally posted by: WildW
Generally Windows only supports one device at a time for all sounds, so you can't have, say, all Windows sounds coming through both if it's an ATI card with sound being generated on the graphics card. . . however, some programs (media players) can select a different sound output device than the default. That means you can have all sound coming out of your PC speakers, but just sound from a media player program going to the TV. . . which can be handy if that's what you want to do.

That's what I'd like to do. Thanks!
 

wlee15

Senior member
Jan 7, 2009
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Originally posted by: milkman001
Well I am still curious as to whose sound it is on ATIs cards...is it just one company doing all the HDCP HDMI business or what?

The audio is all digital so things like signal-to-noise ratio that you see on sound cards aren't applicable in ATI's case. The maximum quality of output for audio on an ATI 4XXX series card is 8 channel 16-bit 48khz LPCM for protected content(blu-ray/HD DVD) the best quality available on a discrete graphics card.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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Originally posted by: WildW
Generally Windows only supports one device at a time for all sounds, so you can't have, say, all Windows sounds coming through both if it's an ATI card with sound being generated on the graphics card. . . however, some programs (media players) can select a different sound output device than the default. That means you can have all sound coming out of your PC speakers, but just sound from a media player program going to the TV. . . which can be handy if that's what you want to do.

Realtek has an app that allows for multiple simultaneous sound outputs.