[SOLVED] Geforce 9600 GT and audio over DVI

[ASharp]

would it be called "DMI" instead? digital multiple interface. XP

Who knows? Maybe they could make a new interface. They should call it HDMI.

[torseller07]

Actually I believe what happened was that the nVidia driver was trying to be "smart" but perhaps a little too smart. When it detects a HDMI connection (via HDMI-DVI cable), it queries the ID of the display being connected. In my case, my LCD TV reports itself as HDTV. So the driver thought the best thing to do is to allow audio over DVI by default.

What the override does is to force the LCD TV to report back as a normal LCD rather than a HDTV. This way it tricks the driver to believe the display won't accept audio and will turn off audio over DVI. As a bonus of this override, you get flat panel scaling back too.

This problem has been around for a while already (as early as version 169; the latest driver is 175). I believe it's more about nVidia has issues with their design (e.g. they should have provided an option in their control panel to turn on/off audio over DVI) rather than releasing drivers under time pressure. AMD seems to be miles ahead in the HD display area than nVidia.

[TruE SkiLLS]

Who knows? Maybe they could make a new interface. They should call it HDMI.

hmm, i wonder where the H comes from

[torseller07]

So after several emails going back and forth with BFG, they tell me 9600 GT does support audio over DVI. But you would need their dongle kit.

Is this kit worth it? Since I kind of fixed the audio problem with a driver tweak + 35mm stereo cable to my LCD TV. Would digital audio make a difference for gaming purpose? (I watch HD movies on another PC, so it's a non issue. )

Comments welcome. Thanks!

[champlinD]

So after several emails going back and forth with BFG, they tell me 9600 GT does support audio over DVI. But you would need their dongle kit.

Is this kit worth it? Since I kind of fixed the audio problem with a driver tweak + 35mm stereo cable to my LCD TV. Would digital audio make a difference for gaming purpose? (I watch HD movies on another PC, so it's a non issue. )

Comments welcome. Thanks!

And My commnets is why you didn't google. I found out that it requires S/PDIF Audio Cable and you couldn't and I am not even techie. Google is my Techie.
But looks like you were stuck on Audio over DVI, which is for Video. Google is solution and don't be stubborn.

[torseller07]

And My commnets is why you didn't google. I found out that it requires S/PDIF Audio Cable and you couldn't and I am not even techie. Google is my Techie.
But looks like you were stuck on Audio over DVI, which is for Video. Google is solution and don't be stubborn.

FYI. In case you haven't read the previous update, there is a work around that disables audio over DVI in Forceware. This way, my LCD TV would just act as a LCD and I can use a 35mm stereo cable to patch in the sound.

So to re-iterate: I have sound now and that's without using audio over DVI.

[torseller07]

Sorry for raising this old thread from the dead.

I finally figured out how to get audio over DVI works on Geforce 9600 (and in theory, on all Geforce 9000 series cards) using off the shelf cables. All you need is a DVI-D to HDMI cable and a 2 pin SPDIF digital audio cable (available at Active Surplus).

They key here is to make sure you got the polarity right on the SPDIF cable. The SPDIF header on your motherboard should look like this:



You want to use Pins 3 and 5 only. Make sure Pin 5 (ground) is connected to the right pin on your GPU (assuming the front side is facing you).

After that, reinstall nVidia's driver. If you have previously applied this trick, make sure you search through your registry and delete any keys that contain "OverrideEdidFlags0" before reinstalling.

After reinstalling driver, go to Control Panel > Audio. Make sure you are using the SPDIF device as default device. (Realtek driver calls the SPDIF device HDMI device for some reasons.) Depending on your receiver, you may want to tell Windows to output the digital audio in Dolby Digital or DTS.

Congratulation! You got audio over DVI now.

[ppl4golf]

Thanks for the update !

I am glad I read the dates before 'telling' all naysayers that DVI doesn't do audio LOL!

I have the same 9600GT probably around the same time and I thought it was pretty well known back then it could do audio but it was just that BFG was too cheap to include any of the accessories (well at least there is the 2 little pins on the graphic card which some companies don't even bother solder them on)

Cheapest solution, like mentioned, is to dig out an old CD-ROM audio cable and feed the SPDIF OUT on the mobo to the little pins on the graphic card.

[torseller07]

I think it's pretty unethical for BFG tech support to tell customers that 9600 GT audio over DVI only works with their HDMI adapter kit. My result shows that you really just need a cheap DVI-D to HDMI cable and a 2 pin SPDIF cable (which you can mod from a 4 pins CD audio cable) to get audio over DVI to work.

[Halibutt]

Sorry for raising this old thread from the dead.

and a 2 pin SPDIF digital audio cable (available at Active Surplus). (...)

They key here is to make sure you got the polarity right on the SPDIF cable. The SPDIF header on your motherboard should look like this:

Sorry for raising this thread again, but it seems it's the only topic out there explaining what to do to connect my 9600GT to my Samsung TV.

The last time I had this problem (almost a year ago) I followed this solution. Namely I used a DVI-HDMI cable and a separate jack-jack cable, and then modified my Nvidia drivers.

However, had to reinstall drivers recently and the problem is there again. So I decided to give SPDIF solution a try and get rid of one of the cables.

Here's my problems:

• My mobo is Asus P5Q SE/R. According to user guide it has two SPDIF sockets, one marked SPDIF O1 located near the top and already connected to an unused white audio out (coaxial S/PDIF out port). The other is marked "SPDIF_OUT CD". I assume I would have to empty the upper socket and use that one, as the lower one has only 3 pins, but I'm not sure. Which one should I use?
• I got myself a two-pin SPDIF cable, almost identical to this one, except it's unmarked. I assume that when looking at the white plug end, the SPDIF is always on the right, and ground is on the other, right? Yeah, I know, I'm a complete newbie.
• Will following this method affect my PC speakers? Will I have to switch between HD Audio and analog every time I switch from playing a song on my PC and on my TV? Or would both work at the same time?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Cheers

[Halibutt]

A quick update in case someone actually wanted to help

I spent the best part of the night working on a solution to my problems. What I did was:

• Connect the cable to the 3-pin "CD" S/PDIF out on my motherboard on one side and 2-pin white socket of Nvidia 9600GT on the other (the socket there is not marked in any way, but it looks pretty much like this, except it's white)
• Uninstall the Nvidia driver
• reboot
• Reinstall the nvidia driver (195.39)
• Reboot
• Make sure SPDIF is set to HDMI mode in the BIOS
• reboot
• Make sure audio is not muted in control panel
• Make sure Windows uses Realtek HD audio everywhere

And still nothing. No sound on my TV. Any ideas what might have went wrong?
Cheers

[torseller07]

It looks to me your source connector is not right. Try the AFCP connector instead.

[Halibutt]

It looks to me your source connector is not right. Try the AFCP connector instead.

English please? You mean the one near the top, with coaxial socket sticking out of my computer case?

Just in case, the detailed layout is available here (page 27).
Cheers

[torseller07]

English please? You mean the one near the top, with coaxial socket sticking out of my computer case?

Just in case, the detailed layout is available here (page 27).
Cheers

It looks like the AAFP connectors. I believe the current SPDIF you are using is not the right one, because it is for external device pass through (e.g. DVD ROM, video capture card, etc).

[Halibutt]

It looks like the AAFP connectors. I believe the current SPDIF you are using is not the right one, because it is for external device pass through (e.g. DVD ROM, video capture card, etc).

Which means I should connect the cable to pins no. 1 and 2 of the AAFP, that is left channel and ground, right? Will try that, thanks.


EDIT/ okay, connected. What now?

EDIT 2/ I might have connected the wrong pins. Here (page 54) is the AAFP port schematics. I connected the two lefternmost pins (Port1L and Ground) to S/PDIF and ground respectively. However, perhaps instead of Port1L I should have used some other port. Any ideas before I once again reinstall the Nvidia drivers (like 20th time in a row...)?
Cheers