Audio over HDMI on an Nvidia GTX 260
Getting this to work was a long odyssey of wading through outdated information and misinformation, so I thought I would share what I did to put some actually useful, up to date info out there. I already had HDMI video out to my TV working using the DVI->HDMI adapter that came with my card. All I wanted was some audio to go with it. I could successfully use the headphone jack -> RCA audio splitter I had in my wire box, but that solution is kind of ghetto and my wires would cut out if I poked at them wrong because they’re old, so I set about doing it right and proper over HDMI. Why use 3 wires when I can use 1, after all?
First of all, on NVidia cards in this age range, you need a cable connecting the audio out on your sound card (or motherboard, for integrated sound) to the GPU. There’s a spot on the GPU next to the power connectors with a square of rubber over it that has a speaker icon. That’s it. If that’s not plugged into something, it’s not going to work. You need to buy (or find, if it came with your card) a 2-pin internal SPDIF connector. They’re like $5 shipped on Amazon or you can go get one from wherever else. Some people wire their own or cut up an old CD-Rom audio cable but I’m not that adventurous. Hook that thing up before you start messing with any of the software.
Once you’re sure that wire is hooked up, it’s time to start messing around with drivers. There are a lot of pages out there telling you to set the audio device in Windows to “Realtek HDMI Out” or “NVidia HDMI Out” or some such, but I don’t have this device listed there and never did. In fact, what works for me is setting it to “Realtek Digital Output”, contrary to much of the Internet that specifically says it’s incorrect. In the NVidia control panel, you also need to go to the Change Resolution menu (yes this is a dumb location but that’s where it is), select your television or whatever, and make sure the “Connector” dropdown says “HDMI (audio enabled)”.
Finally, the last and most critical part of the puzzle for me was finding one isolated message board post on the Nvidia forums suggesting that if your card has two DVI Outputs you should try the other one, as sometimes the audio pass-through only works on one. Bingo; that was it. After all my troubleshooting, I just had to plug it into the other otherwise identical jack and it started working. Good thing this info of it only working on one jack is almost impossible to find, right?
Also be sure to check your TV settings to ensure that it’s trying to get the audio over HDMI (might be called just “digital”) rather than one of the other jacks.
Summary:
- Yes, audio over HDMI is possible and works fine. All the posts about the HDMI spec not including audio are irrelevant. CAVEAT: If you have DVI outputs, do use the adapter that came with your card. Generic ones may not support audio.
- Get an internal 2-pin SPDIF connector and hook it between the GPU and the sound device. Newer cards may not need this. ATI cards may not need this.
- “Realtek Digital Output” was the right output audio device for me. All the posts saying that’s wrong and you need an HDMI-specific option there were incorrect for my system.
- If the GPU has two video outputs and it doesn’t work, try the other one
- Check your TV Audio/Input Settings
Good luck!