Question I'll share this -- Following my upgrade of Win 11 to version 25H2

[BonzaiDuck]

The particular machine was a "Media PC" feeding an HDMI port on my Sony Bravia TV.

Never had this problem until after disconnecting then reconnecting cables to the system -- including the HDMI cable. It also was "discovered" after the successful upgrade of Win 11 to version 25H2. [I also had initial networking problems -- this system was a backup "server" for files on my front-end systems. Those difficulties have been resolved by "re-sharing" the relevant folders.]

Suddenly, I have video to the Sony but no Audio coming through the HDMI.

I can suspect: The HDMI cable; the HDMI port on the Bravia, the Intel Graphics HDMI on the motherboard. So far I haven't uncovered any "driver" problems. But experience of people in forums and elsewhere -- including your "Google AI" in response to a simple query -- suggest it is quite possible that the HDMI cable was just damaged from disconnecting and re-connecting.

I have a fix for this if the INtel Graphics on the motherboard has taken a dump, or something with the HDMI port.

We will get to the bottom of it. I just have undertaken too much in giving my computers and the home network a makeover. Well, we'll start with the cable. I ordered two $5 high-end 10ft HDMI's -- arriving tomorrow. I post this because it may inspire the curious or the knowledgeable to share their thoughts.

We're going to sort it out!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Always start simple. Did you go into the sound settings and make certain the Intel audio was set as the output? Sometimes windows updates will swap it to the mainboard audio as the default.

 

[mikeymikec]

I am confused. You installed a beta OS/update on your PC?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Always start simple. Did you go into the sound settings and make certain the Intel audio was set as the output? Sometimes windows updates will swap it to the mainboard audio as the default.

The plot thickens, Punisher! I can't be sure if this arose from first installing Windows 11, or getting the 25H2 update. Could be the former! It worked properly in Windows 10. Windows somehow "imagined" that I have a "Remote Audio Device" -- as with Blue-tooth, but there's no bluetooth on this motherboard, nor USB "bluetooth" dongle. I removed the device. But there is also an Intel [display] Audio device in the usual list of sound and game controllers -- the usual sound node in DM.

Rebooting reveals -- in addition to the RealTek audio that I'm not using -- a "Sony Bravia Display Audio". Now it appears in the sound dialogs as merely "stereo" left and right, but hitting the "Test" button on the screen gives successful left and right response.

There is information on the web about configuring "Windows 11" HDMI output for Sony Bravia as 5.1. The Bravia uses the eARC connection to my HD Receiver -- also Sony. There is a way to fix this, and now I can say it's only "half-broken".

 

[DAPUNISHER]

"Sony Bravia Display Audio". That should be the one you want. Mine says HISENSE (AMD HIGH DEFINTION AUDIO DEVICE) as that's the TV and video card I am on at the moment.

Under the advanced tab in sound settings click on more sound settings. There you can choose the audio device and configure it for 5.1.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I am confused. You installed a beta OS/update on your PC?

It was the "Windows Insider Program" "DEV" channel 25H2 rollout. After reading up on web-search results, the 25H2 version does not seem intrinsically responsible for this outcome. It is the way that Windows 11 made sense of devices and drivers at the get-go. But there is a way to fix it.

After first installing Windows 11 about two days ago, I didn't think to try playing a movie from my ISO jukebox.

It's just that the Windows 11 default presentation of devices and configurations doesn't so easily reveal what we're used to. But right now, I have it producing sound in stereo, and there are settings within the Bravia itself as well as the Win 11 PC which enable 5.1 surround.

You have to ask why they couldn't just leave well enough alone with the logic and structure of Windows 7. Really. I mean it.

At the moment, in the presentation of the "Sony Bravia Audio Device", there is also an indication of "Intel" sound controller. That may not be the precise wording, but it only makes sense.

So far, I'm getting stereo, and I just have to sort it out for 5.1 Surround.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You have to ask why they couldn't just leave well enough alone with the logic and structure of Windows 7. Really. I mean it.

Can't let sensible things developed by their predecessors be left alone because then it brings into question what the new hires are supposed to be doing if everything was already working fine. Gotta justify their high salaries. I have my dumb IT guy running around and upgrading people to Win11 and logging them onto a domain server yet he hasn't got a lick of sense what the benefits of doing that are. So far, three people have had to login to their PCs by disconnecting the network cable so it doesn't try to login to the domain. This is progress?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Can't let sensible things developed by their predecessors be left alone because then it brings into question what the new hires are supposed to be doing if everything was already working fine. Gotta justify their high salaries. I have my dumb IT guy running around and upgrading people to Win11 and logging them onto a domain server yet he hasn't got a lick of sense what the benefits of doing that are. So far, three people have had to login to their PCs by disconnecting the network cable so it doesn't try to login to the domain. This is progress?

The inclination of home networkers running Windows Server was to circumvent having a Domain server, running the Windows server OS in a "Workgroup" configuration. I KNOW that the Domain Server concept was imposed in a business environment. But I can't wrap my brain around removing the ethernet cable. Then -- no network or resources from the network.

I just discovered something. When the Bravia is switched to a streaming source or subscription, this "Remote audio" mystery reappears when accessing the (server/media) system via Desktop Remote. But then , that all makes sense. I have to sort all this out. Trying to configure audio through RD is a disaster for what I'd achieved earlier this evening. More tomorrow, then.

 

[igor_kavinski]

But I can't wrap my brain around removing the ethernet cable. Then -- no network or resources from the network.

Oh, they connect the cable once it is logged in.

The scummy/scammy IT administrator has almost zero clue about these things. He is getting an outsourced vendor to do this stuff and claiming to be the IT heartbeat of the organization.

The only thing preventing me from sending off a scathing email to everyone feigning ignorance is that either they will find some way to attack me or even if the idiot's ousting is successful, they will hire an even bigger idiot. The management of some companies (like Intel) is very good at hiring people who excel in doing subpar jobs but pretending and showing off like they built a NASA rover.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Oh, they connect the cable once it is logged in.

The scummy/scammy IT administrator has almost zero clue about these things. He is getting an outsourced vendor to do this stuff and claiming to be the IT heartbeat of the organization.

The only thing preventing me from sending off a scathing email to everyone feigning ignorance is that either they will find some way to attack me or even if the idiot's ousting is successful, they will hire an even bigger idiot. The management of some companies (like Intel) is very good at hiring people who excel in doing subpar jobs but pretending and showing off like they built a NASA rover.

You're a good guy. I'm glad you're younger than I am (probably), but sorry you have to work for a living. I burned my candle at both ends, juggling moonlight teaching/consulting with my civil service day job. You can call me a "burn-out", and maybe I was. I just decided to give the whole thing a boot.

Unwavering ambition is a killer. I'm just glad I'm not dead.

Back to this "Media PC" issue. All the advice about configuring for 5.1 Surround to TV with passthrough via ARC to HD Receiver suggests I need to stop using the onboard Intel graphics. The advice just literally says so up front. I had previous experience using an nVidia card for a different sort of "media PC" configuration and with a "dual monitor" (gaming monitor plus HDTV) configuration.

I can either use an MSI GeForce 970 card I have in the parts locker, or pick up an inexpensive unit like an RTX 3050. As much as I was using this to play movies from my ISO jukebox, I don't need Ultra HD or high-end graphics. I had best rummage through the parts bins for the MSI first, but it's too big and heavy for its destination. But I do remember I had less trouble with nVidia HD sound output.

At this juncture with the onboard Intel graphics, I've got quadrophonic and stereo to work, but I had previously had 5.1 Surround working just fine until I moved from Win 10 to Win 11. Doesn't make sense, but I had better try something different. I just really hate to have a machine "down" / out-of-commission for very long, and all of these media configurations had either once supported WMC when M$ supported it, or like this one -- sort of a PC-spare-parts afterthought.

But I don't want to change the eARC and cabling between the TV and HD Receiver.

I just have more on my plate than I want right now. First priority today: Take that shower I'd been planning since Tuesday . . . . Yes -- I know. The stink. This is a pitfall of retirement -- you tell yourself "I can get away with it!" As long as you still feel comfortable, you console yourself with what Sarah Silverman told a Mexican woman in her stand-up routine who said "I don't stink!" -- "You can't SMELL your-SELF!!"

 

[BonzaiDuck]

OK. I'm submitting too much for my colleagues to read about my little-bitty teeny-weenie problems. They just don't seem teeny-weenie to me. But I could be testing patience and bordering on the impolite.

Here is the basic array of equipment integrated with the PC. I have a Sony STR-DH590 AV/HD Receiver. I have the Sony Bravia X85K TV. I had set up the connection between TV and Receiver using the eARC/ARC HDMI port, so the streaming channels from the Android/Google/Sony TV would output through the Receiver and 5.1 Surround.

The TV is supposed to pass the PC signal through to the Receiver. It doesn't. PERHAPS I should add a TOSLINK Optical cable to the mix, but not likely it would go from PC to Receiver but from TV to Receiver.

In the meantime, if I switch the TV's sound output from "Audio System" to "TV speakers", I get a sort of crippled 5.1 from the PC through the TV speakers. The Test for 5.1 runs through the six speaker outputs, but they are only the speakers of the TV. I can then switch back from the "HDMI 1" selection (the PC) to the Sony, change the speakers back to "audio system" (receiver and 5.1), and I get 5.1 that way from the streaming channels.

For the moment, it appears that I get sound either from HDMI 1 (PC) through the Sony or from the Sony pulling the streaming channels through the Ethernet through both speaker alternatives -- the receiver 5.1 limited to the streaming content of the TV itself. But I must use "TV Speakers" to get sound when using the HDMI 1 and PC.

Any suggestions? I'm finally going to take that morning shower I spoke of . . . Ahh . . . comin' back briefly here . . . . Even switching between the two audio modes on the TV doesn't reliably re-enable the sound on the PC.

 

[SamMaster]

I found this with a quick search, I don't know if you tried it:

Keep your soundbar where it is on the eARC port. eARC allows any HDMI device plugged into the TV to send sound to the sound device plugged into that port. Plug your GPU HDMI into one of your non-eARC TV HDMI ports. Select your TV from the list of sound devices in Windows once that's done and you're set up.
I use my LG CX TV with eARC on a Samsung 5.1 soundbar setup with my PC and it works mostly fine. I did encounter an issue that due to my TV's EDID settings, it would only tell Windows I had 2.0 Stereo sound instead of 5.1 Surround sound which I had to fix by using Custom Resolution Utility to edit the EDID to say I had 5.1. If you only have a stereo soundbar this won't be a problem.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/tufumg/can_i_use_the_hdmi_port_on_my_graphics_card_to

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It now appears through some more web-queries that an alternative connection to resolve my problems is to use the S/PDIF Optical "out" on the PC connecting to the TOSLINK(?) In port on the receiver, while the PC-to-TV HDMI connection is same as before. Does this seem feasible?

But thanks to SamMaster, there is still the alternative that his link suggests. The worst that can be said about the TOSLINK connection is the limitation on uncompressed sound quality. But we're moving in reliable directions here.

I seriously don't know what other folks do. The scenario has many various streaming subscriptions defined within the TV's capability itself. They are either sent to the TV via Ethernet, or by wireless. My brother is comfortable with wireless.

But my brother has eliminated any sort of Home Theater "HD" surround-sound feature. Yet we were all hot-dawgs for the "big sound" of stereo first, and then quad and surround. The only thing I NEED to do is integrate a computer with a database of movies in ISO and other common formats. I had come too far with this to merely give it up. I mean . . . . what happens when I want to play that "Weeds" scene in which Mary Louise Parker is getting slam-danced by the Mexican on the hood of a low-rider? Huh?!

So I had a "Media HT PC" with WMC and analog 5.1 surround (Logitech, then an Onkyo receiver with my current speakers.).

Anyway. Here's an excerpt from what my own search turned up to the question of the PC, HDTV and HD Receiver:

Option 2: PC > TV (video) and PC > Receiver (audio)

• Connect PC to TV for video: Use one HDMI cable to connect the PC's HDMI output directly to an HDMI input on your Sony Bravia TV.
• Connect PC to receiver for audio:
  • Use an optical audio cable if your PC has an optical output and your receiver has an optical input. This will carry multi-channel audio.
  • Alternatively, use a 3.5mm stereo mini-plug to RCA adapter cable to connect your PC's headphone jack to an analog stereo input on the receiver.

There were other "options" -- one for instance in which the PC is first input to the receiver and the receiver is input to the TV -- not involving a TOSLINK optical connection. This "Option 2" method preserves the existing connections between TV and receiver.

If I don't blow things up, I may eventually solve this.

Maybe I just ask too much for my entertainment setup. . .