- Oct 9, 2002
- 28,298
- 1,234
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I ask because I just had the most annoying problem ever.
My HP Pavilion Elite configure-to-order system came with an NVIDIA GeForce 9300 based card that had a native HDMI output connector. You would never dream of playing a game on this thing...even most old games would run terribly at 1920x1200 on my 28" LCD. It's pretty-much useless for anything except H.264 decoding for Blu-Ray. There is an internal audio cable that carries SPDIF digital audio from the motherboard to the video card. It is my understanding that the 2 pins are wired directly to the HDMI port (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I found a killer deal on a PNY NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT EE ("Energy Efficient") 1GB card @ Best Buy for $69.99, which is perfect for the OEM power supply in this system. It's low-power, so it doesn't even require a power connector.
The only disadvantage to this card is that it doesn't have a native HDMI connector. I have to use an adapter, which is included.
I have several adapters from previous video cards that I already *know* will work fine with internally-connected SPDIF audio, and even some generic ones that work fine and didn't originally come with video cards. On top of that, the cable to my Hanns-G LCD monitor has DVI on one end and HDMI on the end that goes into the monitor...and it was already able to get audio from the original 9300 card. Even a Phillips-brand DVI->HDMI adapter (which I purchased from Wal-Mart back in the days of the GeForce 6 series) works fine to pass audio, so there is definitely some kind of standard to use DVI Dual-Link pins to carry audio using specialized DVI->HDMI adapters.
Still, I used the one that was included with the card first. There was no sound. I tried right-clicking each "Playback device" and selecting "Test", but couldn't hear a thing from any digital display. I tried every combination, connecting only one display at a time, restarting repeatedly, updating drivers...I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7. Still nothing. When I switch back to the 9300, everything works fine. I can get audio just fine from either the HDMI port or the DVI port.
Finally, I checked the PNY web site for a firmware update of some kind or any confirmation of a known problem. There seemed to be no product-specific support page. I called PNY and their menu system simply asks me to leave a message so PNY can call me back.
In desperation, switched to the internal audio cable that was included with the card, making sure to connect the black wire to the same pin on the motherboard as the black wire on the original audio cable. The other end of the cord that goes into the card is keyed and can only be connected in one direction. Because there is heat shrink tubing on the video-card-end of the new cable, I can't tell if the black cable goes to a different pin on the card than the original.
Cliff notes:
I'm simply in disbelief that two internal, keyed SPDIF digital audio cables, both designed for NVIDIA cards, would have different polarity. What engineer would consciously decide to defy an interoperability standard?
My HP Pavilion Elite configure-to-order system came with an NVIDIA GeForce 9300 based card that had a native HDMI output connector. You would never dream of playing a game on this thing...even most old games would run terribly at 1920x1200 on my 28" LCD. It's pretty-much useless for anything except H.264 decoding for Blu-Ray. There is an internal audio cable that carries SPDIF digital audio from the motherboard to the video card. It is my understanding that the 2 pins are wired directly to the HDMI port (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I found a killer deal on a PNY NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT EE ("Energy Efficient") 1GB card @ Best Buy for $69.99, which is perfect for the OEM power supply in this system. It's low-power, so it doesn't even require a power connector.
The only disadvantage to this card is that it doesn't have a native HDMI connector. I have to use an adapter, which is included.
I have several adapters from previous video cards that I already *know* will work fine with internally-connected SPDIF audio, and even some generic ones that work fine and didn't originally come with video cards. On top of that, the cable to my Hanns-G LCD monitor has DVI on one end and HDMI on the end that goes into the monitor...and it was already able to get audio from the original 9300 card. Even a Phillips-brand DVI->HDMI adapter (which I purchased from Wal-Mart back in the days of the GeForce 6 series) works fine to pass audio, so there is definitely some kind of standard to use DVI Dual-Link pins to carry audio using specialized DVI->HDMI adapters.
Still, I used the one that was included with the card first. There was no sound. I tried right-clicking each "Playback device" and selecting "Test", but couldn't hear a thing from any digital display. I tried every combination, connecting only one display at a time, restarting repeatedly, updating drivers...I installed a fresh copy of Windows 7. Still nothing. When I switch back to the 9300, everything works fine. I can get audio just fine from either the HDMI port or the DVI port.
Finally, I checked the PNY web site for a firmware update of some kind or any confirmation of a known problem. There seemed to be no product-specific support page. I called PNY and their menu system simply asks me to leave a message so PNY can call me back.
In desperation, switched to the internal audio cable that was included with the card, making sure to connect the black wire to the same pin on the motherboard as the black wire on the original audio cable. The other end of the cord that goes into the card is keyed and can only be connected in one direction. Because there is heat shrink tubing on the video-card-end of the new cable, I can't tell if the black cable goes to a different pin on the card than the original.
Cliff notes:
I'm simply in disbelief that two internal, keyed SPDIF digital audio cables, both designed for NVIDIA cards, would have different polarity. What engineer would consciously decide to defy an interoperability standard?
Last edited:
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