Videocards with "Audio for DVI and HDMI" ???

g35x · Feb 13, 2008, 04:09 PM

okay, first off Im not sure if this goes here or not, if anyone feels its not in the right place feel free to move it.

anyway, I was looking at nvidia 8800gts on newegg today, and I see a zotec 8800gt that has "Audio for DVI and HDMI" as a feature. I was intrigued, since I was having problems finding an audio solution for when I have my HTPC (or so is going to be, once I get it setup right) hooked up to my 60" plasma via DVI. I had the DVI hooked up and that was working fine, but for audio, I used a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, then a 3.5mm to female RCA cable, and then an RCA Male to Male cable, and finally into one of the inputs on the TV. The problem is, then I have to put the TV on "input 1" to hear sound, and "DVI" to see the video.

so, what exactly is this "Audio for DVI and HDMI" ? is it like a cable that connects the sound card to the videocard somehow, so that the videocard can send the audio through the DVI?

I google'd for info but didn't really find anything, any help / advice is appreciated, not only on what exactly this videocard does, but any way I could go about getting a good setup going

edit: LOL I refresh and I see a zotec ad on the side of my screen.....nice
edit2: heres the pic of the audio cable

Judas · Feb 13, 2008, 04:20 PM

it's a bit misleading...

however from what i've seen..

Now i can only speak about ati's.. and what i've experienced so far..

The HDseries with the realtek digital onboard connection is only able to transmit audio, digitally through the dvi to HDMI connector, from there it goes into a native hdmi connected hdtv... The hdtv then can decode the digital audio stream.

within windows the extra audio device will be a digital only audio device, it'll have to be set to primary....

As far as another other connection for both video and audio, i've yet to see a single DVI to DVI connection that also transmits audio, all the hdtv satalite and cable boxes that i've seen with dvi required a RCA connection as well for audio.

**dj_stick** · Feb 13, 2008, 04:51 PM

the cable looks like it connects to a digital IO connection on your mothrboards header, or a soundcard with spdif out… not sure exactly how it works, but it should be controlled by the soundcard's control panel

DVI as a standard does not actually support audio - perhaps with that videocard/attachment they've wired the audio pins to unused pins on the DVI port (shouldn't be too difficult if the DVI port is only single link) which will then pass straight through to the HDMI port - but that's all just speculation