Monitor Sound Issue

[BulletMagnet]

Here's a personal technological failing I've been sitting on for awhile, hopefully someone out there can lend me a hand. Here's the story:

Some time ago, I bought a monitor (manual can be found here); it functions for the most part, but the speakers I hooked up to it didn't seem to work. Supposedly this soundbar is compatible with it, so I picked up one of those; still no sound. I know that neither the speaker nor the soundbar is malfunctioning, since I can get them to work if I use a coupler to link them to a set of red/white audio cables, but I get no response from either if I plug them directly into the monitor.

After fumbling with this for a bit I took a closer look at the afore-linked manual, and noticed that the audio input for it was SPDIF, a format I'm not very familiar with; I suspect that this might be the source of my issue, but the fact that the more-or-less "official" soundbar didn't work with it either leaves me less than certain. In short, I'd like to be able to hook something up to this monitor with HDMI, but it's not much use if I can't get any sound out of the thing; is something busted internally, or do I just need some manner of converter or the like? Any insight you might be able to offer is appreciated; thank in advance.

[Fudoh]

According to the manual the monitor accepts audio through HDMI and outputs the same signal via coax SPDIF. SPDIF a digital connection that can carry uncompressed PCM signals or encoded bitstream signals (DD/DTS).

Your audio sink (in this case your soundbar) needs to be compatible with the actual audio signal, so you cannot bitstream dolby digital or DTS or higher than standard bitrates. I guess your standard signal needs to be 2-channel PCM with 48khz, 16bit.

Not sure how you connected your non-HP speakers to that monitor and I cannot find any info on which connectors the sound bar has. If the soundbar has analogue inputs as well, I guess your best way would be to connect your mainboard's analogue audio output to the soundbar directly. Unless there's any way you NEED audio from HDMI.

The problem is most likely the bitrate your HDMI audio source is set to. If you have another HDMI source (a console maybe?) I would give this a try. Again set the audio output to digital 2ch PCM.

[gray117]

It should just work; you might be getting a slightly off sound if the audio your passing through isn't decoded correctly...

s/pdif to my limited understanding is just basically a bandwidth cap rather than a specific format, afaik it's not suitable for some high end audio signals - but should be perfectly fine for normal people use (quick google later - yeah should be fine for anything other than lossless surround sound formats and/or higher than cd audio samples/frequencies).


What are you connecting up? If it's a pc make sure you've set your audio to actually output across hdmi.

i) (hook it up all up) windows>control panel>sound>Playback (tab) and in there you'll probably have your actual monitor listed if it's hooked up / a generic screen/hdmi device / spdif interface > set this as default - you can probably output to several sources at once depending on hardware/drivers but setting it to default makes sure you definitely do.

ii) make sure you're just outputting 44khz 2 channel pcm audio - basically uncompressed/nonencoded digital audio - no dolby/dts... but even then you should hear something...
... In the same place in windows you should be able to 'properties' the device you chose as default and check this in the advanced tab (cd quality)... again presuming no wierd/wonderful drivers/config programs in the way.

Consoles will have something similar to set to this audio output/format.

iii) we're definitely hdmi'ing not display port'ing?

[BulletMagnet]

Thanks for the quick replies; short version, I'd originally attempted to hook up my J360 to this via HDMI, but wound up doing so via VGA instead, since I could do the aforementioned audio cable coupler setup with that (though the cable didn't fit very well thanks to the way the monitor's rear is constructed, so it wasn't exactly ideal). Now I'm tempted to try again with my PS3, but figured I'd best try and get a bit more info from more tech-savvy folks beforehand.

I've never spent much time in any console's audio options menu since I don't have any fancy sound setup, but I'll have to poke around and see if there's a box I need to tick someplace to get the bugger to work. Will report back!

[BulletMagnet]

Okay, just tried to hook up my PS3 to the monitor via HDMI; the image displays fine, but still no sound through the speakers (if I turn them most of the way up I get some static, but that's it). Tooled around with a couple of settings on the PS3, as follows:

- Sound Settings > Audio Output Settings: The connector is set to "HDMI", and the output format defaults to "Linear PCM 2 Ch. 44.1 kHz" and "Linear PCM 2 Ch. 48 kHz". There are a bunch of other settings, and supposedly the system will automatically switch to whichever one is supported, but even after checking off the entire list there was still no sound.

- Also under Sound Settings I tried "Audio Multi-Output" both enabled and disabled but it didn't seem to make a difference.

- Accessory Settings > Audio Device Settings: Changed "Output Device" to "System Default Device", though I think this only applies to headsets and the like.

- Music Settings: "Output Frequency" set to 48 kHz, though I think this section applies to audio CDs.

Didn't see anything that looked relevant under System Settings.

I should note that the HDMI connection and speakers work fine with both my PS3 and PS4 when hooked up to my other monitor (this one, I believe), without me having to have adjusted anything much that I can recall; any further ideas to hopefully allow me some use of the HP model are appreciated.

[gray117]

I would presume the speaker bar does no digital to analogue conversion whatsoever... no manual/docs from hp on it.... I get the sneaky feeling when they say compatible they just mean physically fits or something.

Something like this in between should do the trick... Google images suggest soundbar has only 3.5 mm headphone style input, the usb being just for power (sorry should have probably started with googling this)...?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mudder-Digital- ... alog&psc=1
Kind of defeats the all in one solution.

Otherwise, there are lots of other speakers/soundbars with coaxil spdif in.

(And in both cases you could probably side step the monitor pass through altogether, and use the the optical out of the ps3 plugged into the optical in of your new device...)

I suppose there's an outside chance something to do with HDCP compliance might stop the audio pass through, but since you get an image, I'd be surprised if that was an issue. I think the most likely thing is that you've probably been screwed over by whom/whatever said the soundbar was compatible... It sounds like the signal your feeding on hdmi is certainly spdif compliant.

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm..so it sounds like I'll either need a converter like the one you linked (is "SPDIF to RCA" the phrase I ought to use?), or a speaker that specifically supports SPDIF...I figured it might come to something like this, but at least now I've tried out a few other things first to narrow it down. Time to do a bit of searching...thanks again for the help, folks.

[Guspaz]

S/PDIF is a digital audio format, while RCA is a connector. S/PDIF connections typically use TOSLINK optical connectors or RCA.

What you need is an RCA S/PDIF to stereo analog RCA converter, such as this:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6884 ($23.57 USD)

Alternatively, you can pull the audio off HDMI before going into your monitor:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=10251 ($46.21 USD)

S/PDIF and HDMI basically carry the same digital audio formats, with the caveat that S/PDIF only has enough bandwidth for PCM stereo or compressed 5.1/7.1. Furthermore, most simple digital-to-analog converters, like the one I linked to, only support stereo. As such, you will need to ensure that your HDMI source device (such as a Playstation 3) is set to output digital audio in a 2-channel PCM format only. Otherwise you won't get anything.


Random acronym definitions:

S/PDIF: Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format
RCA: Radio Corporation of America
TOSLINK: Toshiba Link

EDIT: The soundbar that you linked to supports either analog stereo audio or USB digital audio: it is not appropriate for use with your monitor's S/PDIF audio output.

[BulletMagnet]

Hey folks, remember me (and my stupid problem)? As it happens I, with the help of an IRL acquaintance or two, have been tinkering with this on and off for awhile, and have come up with a setup that ALMOST works, involving one of these, some standard male-to-male AV cables, and a coupler and adapter to make them fit together: it looks pretty much like the following (rendered in excruciating detail by yours truly):



The thing is, while I do get some sound out of the thing now, there are still two problems: 1) I have to turn the volume knob way up for it to come through, and 2) More importantly, the sound is badly muffled and distorted; it's more or less recognizable, but has a "spooky" quality to it, for lack of a better word.

As such, I'm presumably in the ballpark when it comes to finally solving this, but I don't know which part of the equation needs fixing in order for the sound to come through properly; anyone have any guesses?

[Fudoh]

Can't you directly feed the D/A converter box with a digital signal from either your J360 or PS3 ? This way you can rule out the D/A converter. The audio signal from the SPDIF port of the PS3 or 360 is identical to what's embedded into the HDMI stream.

[BulletMagnet]

Can't you directly feed the D/A converter box with a digital signal from either your J360 or PS3 ?

Apologies, but I'm not tech-savvy enough to know what you mean by this offhand; what would this kind of setup look like?

[Guspaz]

You connect a TOSLINK (optical) cable between your PS3's TOSLINK output port and your converter's TOSLINK input port.

[BulletMagnet]

Hm, never had to use one of those before, will have to pick one up and give it a try...even if it works, though, it'd presumably only do so for the PS3/PS4, I don't think my model X360 has one, and know my PSTV doesn't. Still, that'd be a definite improvement.

[BulletMagnet]

Okay, freakish update time: earlier today I fired up the setup to test something entirely unrelated, and lo and behold, the sound is working without a hitch. I left everything exactly as it was in the posted image, so I honestly have no idea what happened: maybe a connection was loose or something? In any event, I am thoroughly confused, but all's well that ends (and hopefully remains!) well; thanks to everyone for their assistance.