I bought an HP Pavilion Media Center PC about a year ago and not until recently was the audio from the HDMI connection working. When I initially connected the computer to the TV with the HDMI cable I could not get the sound to come through. After a couple of hours of frustration I gave up and connected the audio via coax instead. I was helping a good friend of mine with his newly purchased HP Pavilion when I noticed that there was an addendum to the manual that came with the computer. The addendum included with his computer contained the instructions which detailed how to enable the sound using the HDMI connection. His computer was 1 year younger than mine, but I made a copy of the document nevertheless. I went home and followed the instructions, two minutes later I was listening to the audio streaming from my computer using the HDMI connection. I decided to post this with the hope of helping others that may encounter this issue. If you have any comments or questions please post them below.
Note: I used Windows Vista Home Edition on an Hewlett-Packard Pavilion Media Center M8430F. As I previously stated the addendum was included with an HP Pavilion that was 1 year newer than the one I own and the process worked just fine, just make sure that your HP uses the Realtek Audio card.
1. With your computer turned on, right-click on the Sound icon located in the notification area on the bottom right corner of the screen. Click on Playback Devices from the menu.
Note: The icon looks like a small speaker on its side
2. The Sound window will open. Under the Playback tab, right-click on the Realtek HDMI Output. Click on Enable from the drop-down menu.
3. Once enabled the TV icon should have a Checkmark indicating that it is enabled. Click on Realtek HDMI Output again and click on the Properties button.
4. The Properties window will open. Click on the Supported Formats tab and add a check to the 48.0 KHz checkbox. Make sure that it is the only sample rate selected. Click OK to close the window.
Verify that sound is now being output by the HDMI connection on your computer by playing a movie or music. Enjoy.
Troubleshooting HDMI Connections on Your HP Computer
(Added 12/19/09)
I’ve received quite a bit of feedback from readers that they are having trouble with their HDMI connections, particularly with the RealTek Device and driver. After some digging I discovered a torubleshooting page published by HP in their support section, I’ve placed the link below so that users having difficulties can try out some of the solutions. In the near future I’ll publish a How-to Guides for the Rest of Us format for these troubleshooting tips to help those who would like the additional details found with my guides.
Please let me know if you find any resources so that I can publish them here. Thanks to all of you for your feedback and I look forward to helping you with these issues.
Link to HP Website for HDMI Torubleshooting – HDMI Troubleshooting
Article posted on 05 25th, 2009
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Thanks a lot. It was pretty useful
Hey there – thanks for this. I had the SAME issue with the same computer. However, my sound options only include speakers, and the Realtek Digital Output. I wonder if I can get the HDMI Output, and how different it would be. It’s annoying to constantly change my sound defaults every time I plug my laptop into the TV (something I need to do with Realtek Digital Output).
@Julia – So what you’re saying is that the Realtek HDMI Output under Playback tab does not appear?
You say you have the same computer, but you also state that it is a laptop. The article was written for the HP desktops. I’m assuming the laptop you are referring to has an HDMI port.
Please let me know so that I can help you.
Hi Gil – on my second look – it’s not the same computer (exactly) – but similar! I have an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC (laptop). And no, Realtek HDMI Output doesn’t appear under the Playback tab – only ’speakers’ and the ‘Realtek Digital Output’ (no other ‘hidden’ devices appear). I tried to download a driver yesterday from cnet but the download couldn’t complete. Anyway – Yes, I have an HDMI port – and that’s how I connect my laptop to my new TV. So I can get sound through the ‘Realtek Digital Output’ if I enable this as the default each time I connect. It’s just a pain to change the settings once a day!
@Julia: Let’s see if we can make some sense of this.
When you plug the HDMI cable to your laptop and switch to the Realtek Digital Output you are able to listen to the audio using the HDMI cable, correct?
The problem you are having is the switching back and forth of the settings to enable the sound through HDMI?
Please let me know… Thank you.
Can the HDMI interface on HP notebooks be used as INPUT instead of output ? for example, live broadcasting using a cammera.
Thanks.
@Esteban: I’m not sure that it can. I believe that HDMI plug on HP computers is only an output. If you would like to input an HDMI connection I suggest buying a video capturing device. Let me know if that answers your question.
Hi Gil – Yes, I can watch a DVD from my laptop but hear the audio on the TV when I change my Sound Settings to make Realtek Digital Output as the default device. And yes again – the problem is that I have to keep switching to this as the default for anything on the TV, and back to Stereo to hear anything from the laptop when not plugged in to the TV. Any ideas?
I’m having a HDMI problem with the audio on my HP pavilion pc as well. I installed a new video card (ATI All-in-wonder HD) Although I now get beautiful video and video speed I never thought possible, I now have no sound. Going to the sound control on my control panel shows me only one choice of sound output now and it says it’s working. It says Digital Output Device (HDMI) but no sound at all. I have tried every outlet possible to both my monitor and my speakers but have no sound at all…….any ideas?
@Julia: Unfortunately I’m unaware of an automatic switching between one and the other. The reason for the difference in devices available stems from the fact that the desktop has additional audio/video inputs and outputs.
That should explain this difference. If you ever find something, either software or a new driver that automatically sense the connection and performs the switching I would love to hear about as would other readers, thank you.
@Siren: Did the audio work prior to the card being installed? Is the HDMI device a Realtek device or an ATI device. Any more information would be helpful. Thank you.
Hi Gil,
I’m looking at all the posts here, it seems like you are quite familiar with the HDMI Audio… I have a serious problem that noone has resolved by now… Wonder if you could help me.
I have an ASUS Laptop, NVidia 8200M, Azalia (Realtek) HD Audio running on Win 7 x64. I try to connect the laptop to the TV through a VGA cable and additional audio cable that goes from my laptop headphones to the TV.
At first everything was ok, I was getting video and sound, but after an update from Win 7 I stopped gettign the audio when connected to TV
When I go to the sound manager I dont seem to have any HDMI Audio Output device although I have tried reinstalling the audio drivers and downloaded the latest Realtek Drivers. In the sound option I get only Digital Audio – High Definition Audio Device (which dispplays as Ready but it won’t work when selected) and Speakers – Realtek High Definition Audio.
Thanks in advance
@Yordan: In your comments you mentioned connecting to the VGA port on your laptop along with the audio cables. You made no mention of connecting to HDMI, have you tried that? Also with regards to an update messing up a driver, it is quite possible. Are the drivers certified to work with Win7. Also Windows 7 has not officially released to the public so don’t expect everything to work out of the box.
I would also try rolling back the update (not recommended because of security updates) to see if it resolves the issue. Good luck and keep us posted.
I have followed the steps you outlined to get sound through the HDMI cable and out the TV but the sound is choppy. I have tried different frequencies and they don’t help. There aren’t any updates for my driver and I’m using the codec that came with the machine (HP pavillion)
The guys at the store say it works fine there so there’s something in my set up that is a problem.
any ideas for me to try?
@Ky – Did the guy at the store test it with a TV using HDMI? How are you setting up? Thanks.
When i connect my laptop to my tv with a hdmi cable I get video fine but the audio is all scratchy sounding. I dont have ‘realtek hdmi options’ under the playback tab either. Is there a way I can get realtek hdmi options to come up? Do I need to change any other settings?
@laura – What options do you have? What is the sound card that appears? Do you have an HP machine? Is the sound you hear the sound from the movie you are attempting to watch (but scratchy) or is it just scratchy noise period? Sorry for the questions, but it will help me answer you questions. Thank you.
the options i get are ’speakers’ and ‘realtek digital output’, i have a hp machine it is a dv6500 entertainment pc, the sound i get is nothing to do with the movie its a really loud static sound.
@Laura – You made sure that the Realtek audio was selected as the default and it was enabled?
I am currently using hp dv2899ea and sony bravia T series LCD. i connected my laptop to my lcd via HDMI cable. The video works fine but it says “Unsupported audio signal check your device output” and i do not get any sound. Also when i connect hdmi cable i do not get the HDMI audio in the audio device. I only get the speakers and the SPDIF, both of them are working. I have tried all that i could but no luck. please help
@Shez – Check your TV manual to make sure that you are selecting the correct frequency for the Realtek Audio device on your computer. It could be that the frequency setting is unsupported so you need to modify it to match your TV’s. Try that and let us know how it went.
I have the HP Pavilion DV71175NR laptop, which has the hdmi output and I used it yesterday and had to manually set the audio to output thru the hdmi but today, I can’t switch back to the laptops Speakers because its not showing up in the list of audio devices. It has it set to independant dual headphones, which are not connected to it. I tried to set up through media center and its still not working. HELP!
@Kristy – I’m assuming you have unplugged the HDMI cable…have you restarted the computer? Try disabling the audio device (Relatek and the regular device) and re-enable to see if that solves the problem. Let me know if you need help with that and I can walk you through it.
I have a slightly different problem and hope someone can help me.
i have a HPDV6 1355dx running Windows 7. I cant seem to get any Audio or Video thru the HDMI output to my TV. The input on the TV is correct and the resolution within windows is correct. The Laptop seems “stuck” on VGA output (I confirmed this by hooking up another monitor I had at home)
My question is How do I change the default output from VGA to HDMI?
Again thanks for any help, Ive been dealing with HP’s tech support via phone and email the last couple of days and its been very frustrating.
@Ed – Very good question, I have not updated my HP to Windows 7 yet…so I can’t help here. As soon as I get it on the Media PC, I’ll let you know. If you found a solution, please share with us via comments. Thanks.
I’m trying to hook my HP Pavillion laptop with an HDMI port to a TV that has S-video and RCA jacks. What is the easiest way to do this??
@AmyJ – So your TV does not have an HDMI port. I think you can get a cable for the HP Laptop that will allow you connect to the laptop and then output to the correct connectors. It’s an accessory.
Check the link below for a cable that should work.
Link
Hi Gil. I recently had this issue with my HP Media Centre desktop and resolved the issue following your instructions above, however, I did a clean install of Windows 7 and since then, I again have no sound from the HDMI cable. I think the same process will fix it but when I get to step 3 above, I don’t have the option to de-select sample rates, they are all just listed without check boxes. Updating to latest and original drivers from HP/RealTek does not fix the issue nor did a new total clean install of Win 7. Any ideas ?
@Keith – I wouldn’t reinstall 7…it sounds like a driver issue. Have you searched the HP forums to see if there is a solution? Also you say that the sample rates are listed, but you cant select them….are they grayed out? Have you disabled the audio driver and then re-enabled it? Let me know if any of these help…keep us posted if you do resolve the issue so that others can benefit from your experience. Thank you.
My realtek HDMI output is missing when I right click the speaker icon. Now what?
@Dave – You should have it as an option on your computer. Is there another audio device listed? It may be a different audio device. Which HP model do you have? Thanks.
Hi Gil
The solution in my case was retuning the HP DV6-1355 to HP. They wound up replacing the MOTHERBOARD and the THERMAL PAD.
The Laptop’s HDMI output works flawlessly now with every TV in my house except an older JVC ( HD52z585). The funny thing is that that TV’s HDMI works with a Playstation 3’s HDMI output but will not work at all with the laptop….. Any thoughts?
Thanks
@Ed – I think someone else was having a similar problem and I recommended that he make sure that the frequency match that of the TV. It’s possible this may be the issue. Keep us posted. Thanks.
I have an HP Pavilion DV9930us and no sound is coming out of HDMI when I connect to a TV.I too have no HDMI Realtek device listed under playback and I have installed the latest soud drivers. How can I get it?
@Ben and all of you with issues using HDMI – I found this link buried in HP’s website regarding several things you can do to try and troubleshoot the issue, see the link below;
Link to HP site
hi
your article looks great but i stumble on the first item, i dont seem to have “Realtek HDMI Output” under my sound menu, i only have speakers and “Realtek digital output”. How do i add “Realtek HDMI Output” to the list?
I have a HDMI output on my laptop, it is a HP DV6000 and my driver / sound card is a “Realtek High Definition Audio”.
Many thanks in advance
Phil
@Phil – I’ve updated the post with links to HP support pages that highlight some troubleshooting steps to help with this problem. I’ve included the link in this reply.
HDMI Troubleshooting
I would like to connect my HP pavilion dv5 to TV. But, I dont know how??
@Gouarty – What connections does your Pavilion DV5 have? HDMI/VGA/Composite? Also what kind of TV are you trying to connect to?