How do you connect Soundbar to Desktop PC via HDMI?

[Illuminatech]

Anybody connect Soundbar to PC via HDMI?

If your device have two HDMI (in-out) it would be:

VGA Card ---> Monitor ---> Soundbar, or VGA Card ---> Soundbar ---> Monitor

Which one is properly?


If you have two GPU, each has a HDMI

VGA Card 1 ---> Monitor
VGA Card 2 ---> Soundbar

Is that correct?


How if your mainboard have a HDMI on its display onboard?

VGA Card ---> Monitor
VGA Onboard ---> Soundbar


Which one of all above do you prefer?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, it all depends on your PC's configuration. If you are using multiple video cards and/or internal sound on the motherboard, only one is going to be set as your audio out. You will also want to use one which has DD Live! and/or DTS Live! encoding if you are planning on using them for video games and want the "surround" sound out from the Soundbar (as HDMI only supports stereo unless it is encoded in DD or DTS type format).

Also for multi-graphics card setups, most are in SLI/Crossfire mode which may limit the output connections from one or more cards (may no longer be the case, but you need to check with the current drivers to see what is actually enabled and supported in these modes).

As for going to the soundbar first before the monitor, that is the typical way as most monitors did not support HDMI out and/or audio return protocol until very recent (and even then it is not extremely common).

 

[s44]

You will also want to use one which has DD Live! and/or DTS Live! encoding if you are planning on using them for video games and want the "surround" sound out from the Soundbar (as HDMI only supports stereo unless it is encoded in DD or DTS type format).

Wrong. That's a limitation of (surprise!) DD and DTS only, or rather the optical/SPDIF format that forced either encoded multichannel using those formats or unencoded 2-channel.

HDMI supports unencoded multichannel, so there's no need for special software or hardware anything. Just plug and play.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Never knew that. Might be that my receiver at the time didn't support it (and ever since then I have had hardware which did DD/DTS Live, so it was a non-issue).