[mythtv-users] HDMI and audio

[Mark Greenwood]

On Wednesday 18 Nov 2009 21:56:28 Patrick Doyle wrote:
> This is why I overanalyze... and why I suffer from it...
> 
> I started wondering about how audio was going to get to my TV via the
> HDMI connection that I intend to use between the Myth box and the TV.
> As far as I can tell, my TV (a 37" Vizio) doesn't have any menu items
> to specify which audio sources should be associated with a particular
> video source.  So, it seems to me that the only way I'll be able to
> listen to audio through the television is if it is transmitted along
> the HDMI cable.
> 
> I have seen various posts about jumpering the onboard audio to the
> video card, so I took a look at the manual for the mobo I had selected
> (ASRock  A780GMH/128M) and it claims that it only has an optical
> S/PDIF output.  So, I think that means this isn't going to work for
> me.
> 
> The mobo has an AMD 780G northbridge with an integrated ATI Radeon HD
> 3200 video chipset.  Does anybody know if the onboard audio is
> magically routed to that chipset?
> 
> If I go with the recommended nVidia chipset on a separate card, will I
> be able to get the audio routed to that w/o the connector?
> 
> Basically, I don't know what I don't know here.  So I'm going to go
> off on a digital-audio-over-hdmi hunt (in fact, I've already started
> it), and I would sure appreciate any tips or pointers for where to go
> to figure this out, short of buying a mobo that won't work w/ my TV.

The HDMI specification is not just a video interface, it's a Multimedia interface. This includes Audio. Every HDMI chipset ought then to be capable of video and audio. So if you buy an external video card, ALSA should find it and it'll show up as a separate audio card - you shouldn't end up using the onboard audio at all. You may have to fiddle with .asoundrc files but I'd be very surprised if it didn't work.

Mark
> 
> --wpd
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>