Getting an HDTV soon, need advice on sound output from PC.

[Scotty99]

I just purchased a 32" TV for my room, it works great using my GTX 465 as HDMI out to TV but the problem is that to enable sound i need to go the control panel>sound and set my video card as the default sound device. This is a problem because i will only be using my TV as a display for when i want to watch blu-rays or stream netflix to my TV.

Is there a way to set both speakers and my video card as "default device" or will i have to deal with setting this each time i want to watch a blu-ray?

 

[ssddx]

what seems to be the problem?

you can export just the video to the television and still use your pc speakers for the audio.

you would only need to change the default audio device if you wanted to use the televison speakers which are crap compared to a decent set of pc speakers.

 

[Scotty99]

Eh, was that a serious response?

Anyone else have a better answer? (hopefully one that lets me use simultaneous speaker outputs at once, how can this not be possible in windows 7?)

 

[ssddx]

its a perfectly logitcal answer to your problem.

if you want to swap between your sound systems get used to changing the default audio device.

how else is windows to know which device you want to use? even if you had sound on all outputs you would have to turn on and off your pc speaker set every single time and that would get to be just as infuriating.

the most painfree solution is to use one set of speakers for both. there is no perfect solution.

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remember just because advice isnt what you wanted to hear does not mean you shouldnt at least understand where it is coming from and at least consider what it means.

 

[jcoultas98]

You can tell each application individually what its default sound device is. It doesn't work incredibly well with HDMI for some reason. I use a Sony 40" LCD (as does SSDD) for a PC monitor, and i also have a pair of Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers i use to listen to rhapsody in my den. A few times a month, it reverts back to the LCD as my main speaker set.

You open up the mixer in windows 7's sound panel, and click the icon of the playing application. It takes you to a non global sound menu that allows you to select the playback device for the application.

I do agree with SSDDx, if you want a totally seamless experience, you will probably need a single set.

 

[Scotty99]

if you want to swap between your sound systems get used to changing the default audio device.

how else is windows to know which device you want to use?

You act as if this is common knowledge or something, i havent tried hooking up a TV to a PC since i had windows xp but im about 99% sure windows xp had the capability of outputing to 2 sound devices simultaneously. Windows 7 not having this feature is absolutely mind boggling, surely people have been in this situation, how can this not be a common complaint?

And thank you jcoultas, i am hoping the software that comes with my blu ray player (not sure what it is yet, just ordered it) will allow me to set it up so it outputs sound through my video card by default, as i will never be watching blu rays on my PC monitor. Also, do you know if there is a way to make netflix do this as well?

 

[jcoultas98]

you would have to set your browser to that specific audio output. Though HDMI doesn't like it, you'll probably end up flipping it a lot.

 

[Scotty99]

Ok well that is what i will try. Still amazes me it is not built into windows 7 to have simultaneous audio devices. I looked it up, and indeed you could do this in windows xp like i thought.


Apparently not many people watch blu rays or stream netflix from their PC to a TV? WOuld seem commonplace to me. /shrug

 

[ssddx]

even if windows 7 could export to multiple devices at once you would still have to disable those devices when you did not want sound out of them thereby nulifying the whole point. in any case, pressing a button or swapping a toggle in a menu is bound to happen.

as jc stated you can specify a default audio device for different programs. remember though if you set your dvd software to export via hdmi and end up watching it on your pc you still might have to do some swapping. windows is finnicky like that sometimes depending on if the display is on at the time (autodetected) or not.

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your situation is fairly commonplace, people just deal with the issues normally.

i watch bluerays and dvds all the time from my pc. i export via hdmi to a receiver though and therefore use one sound system for everything which requires me to change zero settings. again, this is the best and easiest setting as long as you have the setup for it.

do as you wish.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The answer you're looking for is a small program called AutoHotKey. You can install this program and have it running in the background. You will need to run a script each time you start your system to enable to hot-key toggle.

Once set up, you can use a hot key combo (like ALT+F12) to swap default audio devices.

-Wolf sends