Operating System HTPC + HDMI + Win7 and its many issues... (2 Viewers)

[gibman]

btw. I have still have the tape attached to the hdmi pin.
maybe I should try without it

/gibman

Nah.. If it isnt broken, dont fix it.

ok after a few days with 12.8 this is what I have.

12.8 + hdmi tape trick:
resume from standby finally resulted in "hdmi audio unplugged"
seems most of the time it works.. but 10% is still damn annoying.

I have now removed the tape from the hdmi cable.
resumes ok so far, but again it needs more testing, atleast a week
I do about 3-4 suspend-resume power cycles a day.
what I did see was that turning off the TV while MP was rendereing audio/video (tv channel) seemed to work ok.
I can still hear the audio.
But turning the TV on again results in MP blocking. video stuck, + audio stopped.

What helped here to this specific problem was disabling and stopping the ATI services, like fuel and event services.
will report more later.

/gibman

 

[gibman]

ok back with some news..

it seems it took me 7 days of normal familty usage to reproduce the hdmi-no-audio issue.
it happened when resuming from standby.
(also I have removed the tape during this 1-week period.)

I just had to power cycle the AVR and sound was present again.

/gibman

 

[Bleazle]

Quick update on my "findings"

CCC 12.8 re-installed; The lack of Audio issue which I mentioned earlier turned out to be because the installer changed the default audio device - I changed it back to the correct setting and audio was fixed I must say that CCC 12.8 gives much better control (and results) of the video and desktop settings (now that I know what I'm doing...)so as far as that is concerned I'm happy

BUT - I CONSISTENTLY get the following problems:

• Turning the TV off causes the system "unplugged" sound to play - I normally I have system sounds turned off but for testing purposes I left this one on - so that's not a good sign, especially when...

• I always have the MP half screen issue (why does this only seem to effect MP?) when turning the TV back on

• If music is playing and I turn the TV off the audio stops (and system sound plays) and then resumes a few seconds later (and same for when I turn the TV on)

... so much for the audio issue being fixed with CCC 12.8...

My Setup:
Radeaon HD 5670 -> Marantz Amp -> Panasonic TV (both connections are HDMI)
Windows 7, SP1
MP 1.2.2

I haven't tried taping the HDMI lead yet - I take it it doesn't matter lead I tape? (and I only need to do one of them right?)

Cheers

Bleazle

 

[gibman]

Quick update on my "findings"

CCC 12.8 re-installed; The lack of Audio issue which I mentioned earlier turned out to be because the installer changed the default audio device - I changed it back to the correct setting and audio was fixed I must say that CCC 12.8 gives much better control (and results) of the video and desktop settings (now that I know what I'm doing...)so as far as that is concerned I'm happy

BUT - I CONSISTENTLY get the following problems:

• Turning the TV off causes the system "unplugged" sound to play - I normally I have system sounds turned off but for testing purposes I left this one on - so that's not a good sign, especially when...

• I always have the MP half screen issue (why does this only seem to effect MP?) when turning the TV back on

• If music is playing and I turn the TV off the audio stops (and system sound plays) and then resumes a few seconds later (and same for when I turn the TV on)

... so much for the audio issue being fixed with CCC 12.8...

My Setup:
Radeaon HD 5670 -> Marantz Amp -> Panasonic TV (both connections are HDMI)
Windows 7, SP1
MP 1.2.2

I haven't tried taping the HDMI lead yet - I take it it doesn't matter lead I tape? (and I only need to do one of them right?)

Cheers

Bleazle

after removing the tape I also had those issues with audio stopping when turning of the telly.
what I did was easy: disable and stop the ATI related windows services. ATI fuel and event service.. something
then retry...

if you go with the tape trick, then just find some thin tape and apply this on pin19.
look for my solution previously in this thread as how to verify that the tape trick is working or not.
as you will probably get it wrong the first few tries.

/gibman

 

[Bleazle]

Thanks for the pointers - I've got the pic of the taped off HDMI lead on my desktop ready to refer to I disabled an ATI service, I can't remember what it was called and the HTPC is in use right now so I can't check but it wasn't "Fuel" (there wasn't a service called that listed) - anyway whatever it was obviously didn't sort the problem out . Am I right in assuming that I only need to tape off say the lead from the HTPC to the Amp?

 

[gibman]

Thanks for the pointers - I've got the pic of the taped off HDMI lead on my desktop ready to refer to I disabled an ATI service, I can't remember what it was called and the HTPC is in use right now so I can't check but it wasn't "Fuel" (there wasn't a service called that listed) - anyway whatever it was obviously didn't sort the problem out . Am I right in assuming that I only need to tape off say the lead from the HTPC to the Amp?

yep, from the htpc to the AVR. I hacked the hdmi plug going into the ATI gfx card.

/gibman

 

[Bleazle]

Cheers, I'll try and get it done on the weekend then "report" back on how it works after a few days...

 

[gibman]

Here's a small update on what I'm currently testing.

my livingroom setup consists of:
htpc with 1 ati 5750 gpu : 2xdvi, 1xhdmi, 1xdisplayport.
1 projector @ 720p
1 lcd tv @1080p

I had an idea about only sending the audio over hdmi to the AVR and completely avoid using the hdmi output of the AVR.

a hdmi splitter could do the trick here.

gpu hdmi => splitter in
splitter out1 =>tv
splitter out2 =>pj
splitter out3 =>avr

but I'm too chicken to throw in yet another expensive hdmi device into the fray as it might cause new issues with edid.

Instead I realized that the ATI card has several digital outputs just sitting there.
Why not use them as a splitter?

So I took the dive and tried setting up a constellation that would do the trick.

A few limitations.

• Only one of the gpu outputs will receive hdmi audio, you have no control over which one. but you can do several things in order to make sure it's the AVR that gets the audio. (more info about the limitation here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1259028/two-audio-streams-via-both-gpu-hdmi-out)
  
  Connect the gpu and AVR using the hdmi port of the gpu.
  Connect the gpu and TV/PJ using a dvi-hdmi adaptor with NO audio pins to the DVI port of the gpu.
  When it is connected this way, the ATI driver realizes that only one device is able to receive audio, which in this case, is the AVR.
  You can probably also edit the edid info and remove the audio capabilities there, using a tool like moninfo. I didn't try the moninfo approach here...
• You can only clone 2 devices, and not 3.
  You can possible clone 2 devices, and extend the 3rd device (avr).
  if you extend the desktop it's annoying because your mouse cursor and open windows can disappear into the extended area.

I connected one device at a time and created a monitor inf driver with moninfo.
I then updated the monitor driver in device manager.
I did this for each of the 3 output devices.
Once done, I connected all 3 devices simultaneously.
Maybe this edid trick can be skipped, but it shouldn't hurt atleast.

So I have created 2 ATI CCC profiles.

profile1: TV@1080p with keyboard shortcut: ctrl-alt-T
clone: TV + AVR, disable PJ, resolution 1080p @ 50hz

profile2: PJ@720p with keyboard shortcut: ctrl-alt-P
clone: PJ + AVR, disable TV, resolution 720p @ 50hz

So far it does the trick...
audio works regardless of TV or PJ usage.
and the AVR seems do accept the fact that no display device is attached to its HDMI out port.
turning TV on/off also doesnt disrupt anything.

Note:
You can easily and maybe benefit from this approach even though you only have 2 devices, like a TV + AVR.
Just skip the profile part, as you would have no use of this.

Will report later about possible "hdmi audio disconnected" issues.

/gibman

 

[gibman]

wow..it's been over a week and not one single issue with the above setup
hush hush ... I have to whisper, as if the htpc hears me, it will probably instantly fail again. speaking of the devil you know
anyways the hdmi audio device is now (so far) always present.
happy camper so far..

/gibman

 

[peque]

Sorry to bring up this after more than one month...

I'm gonna try that pin19 trick... I don't have any problem with audio lost or half screen, but when I disconnect avr, if I remote connect to my HTPC using Radmin, I get 640x480 screensize, and I can't change that as it's the only resolution available in nVidia Control Panel. Also I think is "safer" to avoid Windows to detect it, as this triggers a definitely (for us) useless resolution/hz change.

So I'll test it and report back...

bye!