Terrible sound quality through HDMI cable

[asclepius]

I use my laptop (Dell Studio, Vista, Radeon HD 4570) with an external monitor (Dell 2408WFP Ultrasharp) at home. Have been using VGA to the monitor and audio jack (3.5mm) to the speakers. Today I thought I'd grab an HDMI cable to improve the picture. I have to run the audio out of the monitor output (as no speaker on the monitor).

The pic is fine but the sound is terrible, constant hiss and static in the background. I tried different speakers, it is the same with anything I plug in. Had to go back to the old set-up.

Any suggests on why the sound is crap through HDMI?

If not, is there a way to stop the HDMI cable taking the sound, eg. have just video go there, and use the audio output jack from the laptop? I don't have DVI output on the laptop.

If it helps pinpoint the issue, and as a separate problem, with the HDMI cable in most programs (eg. browsers, DVD software) play sound to the monitor output except for Itunes, which plays to the laptop speakers only.

Cheers,
C.

[Todd B. Rexington]

This is a super long shot, but Dell Studios seem prone to retarded sound corruption issues (mine certainly was), with pops, hissing and the like making things un-fun.

Now, again, super long shot, but try this. It resolved my problems, might help you too.

Go into your device manage, locate your Wifi card. Right click and go into the properties. Go to the Advanced tab and scroll to the "Disable Bands" option. Disable 802.11a, apply the changes, reboot and see how it goes.

As I said, long shot, but it solved my audio popping/cracking/hissing issues. Some cock up with the wifi adapter and the soundboard, common to the studio range.

[goof]

So the digital to analogue/audio conversion is now being done by the monitor? Maybe the sound hardware in the monitor isn't the best. Can you try a different HDMI source (ie DVD player) through the monitor and see what it sounds like?

[Magilla]

Yeah, the sound transmission through HDMI is digital, not analog. This means that cable quality means very little - either the bits get through or they don't - either the sound is not working (broken cable/contact), or perfect. The most likely cause is the DAC in the monitor, or poor shielding (or quality) of the sound equipment in the monitor itself.

The second most likely issue is that the computer is screwing up the sound processing for HDMI, in which case you SHOULD be able to just use your laptop headphone/line out jack. Doing so shouldn't affect anything other than DVD software...

[McGoo]

On my Lenovo I have an option under 'Sound Manager' for audio out, it can be HDMI or audio jack, yours might have the same option.