Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia LED

[technobhatt]

Hi,

I need your suggestion and help on the problem I'm getting, which occurs during my set-up in getting 5.1 surround sound on my Onkyo home theatre.

I have been using a Sony Bravia NX720 LED TV and Sony VAIO VPCEA36FG(B) since last couple of months.
I use HDMI cable to connect laptop to the TV, which I use mostly for watching movies (BluRay rips).
Earlier I didn't have any Home theatre connection and was happy to use TV's audio or computer's stereo system.
To start with, Recently I bought Onkyo HT-22HDX home theatre system.
And I have made it fully 5.1 system with the purchase of extra speakers.

However, I'm getting a problem with audio when I did my set-up as follows:

1. I connected the laptop's HDMI-OUT to Onkyo's HDMI-IN.
2. Onkyo's HDMI-OUT to TV's HDMI-IN.
3. My VAIO has ATI Radeon 5650 1 GB graphics card (not sure if it is required to provide in this regard).
4. After the above setup; Computer's screen is visible to TV and I can see whatever I play in my computer.
5. To receive audio in Onkyo HT, I have to select the same HDMI port in which I had inserted HDMI coming from laptop. This way I get only STEREO SOUND in HT.

6. Now, to get 5.1 surround sound in Onkyo, I go to the laptop.
Select "HDMI Resolution Settings"--> Sound-->Advanced. There I see an icon "ATI HDMI OUT". I click this icon and then I choose "Configure Speaker" (by right clicking or using 'Configure' button). Then I see 3 options: Stereo, Quadrophonic, 5.1 Surround.
Here I choose '5.1 surround' and then Onkyo HT's display starts showing "HDMI Multi Channel".
So, now I am good to go with 5.1 audio.

7. Now, I play a BluRay rip movie which has 'DTS Audio - 6 channels- 1536K'.
Generally I'm using VLC Media player to watch movies. And I'm getting 5.1 surround sound !!

8. Now the problem starts..... Movie plays fine, but ...audio mutes at random intervals of 15 sec., 30 sec, or 1 min; which is the kind of problem I can't survive with.
I tried searching this problem on internet. Most of the time I could find that either people were not able to listen audio or couldn't see video on TV.
But in my case, audio mutes at random interval.
I tried installing latest ATI HDMI driver and codecs. Also, tried to rollback the drivers to default system drivers. but it didn't help.

I have gone mad on this problem, because the same kind of set-up work with my friend's VAIO (Model - VPCEA490X). And His system uses Intel Audio Drivers.

Is this a problem with sound card or something has gone corrupted in my laptop's hardwares.
Should I go and tell this problem to service center ? I don't think whether those guy will ever be able to understand my problem. Because accroding to them, everything is fine with Audio, but it's not working with HDMI OUT to Home Theatre which they may ignore !! (It's working in fact, but why Audio mutes at random interval?)

Kindly help.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

I only know about stereo sound from PCs, nothing about video, have never used hdmi interface, but still worth suggesting that you check for DPC latency problem.

You can download the dpc ltency checker from here. It's a small exe: you just run it and observe the output: all green, you your are fine; some yellow may be ok; much red and you have problems.

Goggle will help you with more information. I did a thread about my fight with this nightmare. Wish that you may not have this problem!

 

[koushik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Try and change the HDMI cable, signal loss is also a possibility.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

troubleshoot step by step. That is the key. First connect the laptop DIRECTLY to TV and play the same movie with same configuration. If the same audio drop problem is observed then something is wrong with laptop. If it plays fine when TV is connected then there is a problem with you Receiver.
2. Try another player. e.g KMPlayer for playing the same movie. Does the problem persist?
3. with VLC, try another movie with say stereo audio or dobly digital audio. Does the problem persist?
4. Play the movies played in step 3 with another player, e.g KMPlayer. Does the problem persist?
5. While the audio drops, observe the display of your reciever, does it change or toggle between modes like say DD to stereo, DD to LPCM etc?
6. As kaushik mentioned, try another cable,
7. Walk over to your friend who has a similar setup and try it at his place. Does the problem persist?

Let us know the result and i am sure we will have the culprit

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

change the HDMI cable

Check the DPC thing first: it doesn't cost anything!


<crossposted with vaibhavyagnik's good trouble-shooting advice>

 

[baijuxavior]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Since your AVR shows multichannel, the decoding is done by VLC and the signal is sent as PCM. Set the player's audio settings to bitstream and try again.

 

[spirovious]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

It can be HDMI cable issue OR Onkyo is not accepting it correctly.Also check that you get DD/Dts logo on Onkyo.If you are playing aac files,then the SW uses CPU to decode audio & send to AVR.This may interrupt.

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

My sincere thanks to everybody who tried to assist me on my problem. Please see all my answers in BLUE.

Try and change the HDMI cable, signal loss is also a possibility.

I tried and changed the HDMI cable, but stilll it didn't work. I have the same problem of audio muting at random intervals.

troubleshoot step by step. That is the key. First connect the laptop DIRECTLY to TV and play the same movie with same configuration. If the same audio drop problem is observed then something is wrong with laptop. If it plays fine when TV is connected then there is a problem with you Receiver.
2. Try another player. e.g KMPlayer for playing the same movie. Does the problem persist?
3. with VLC, try another movie with say stereo audio or dobly digital audio. Does the problem persist?
4. Play the movies played in step 3 with another player, e.g KMPlayer. Does the problem persist?
5. While the audio drops, observe the display of your reciever, does it change or toggle between modes like say DD to stereo, DD to LPCM etc?
6. As kaushik mentioned, try another cable,
7. Walk over to your friend who has a similar setup and try it at his place. Does the problem persist?

Let us know the result and i am sure we will have the culprit

I followed all your steps and unfortunately it didn't work.
The problem is that it works fine if connect the HDMI directly to TV, but starts giving problem when I connect to HT.
But I think this is not the problem with Home Theatre because the same set-up is working smoothly with my friend's laptop.

Since your AVR shows multichannel, the decoding is done by VLC and the signal is sent as PCM. Set the player's audio settings to bitstream and try again.

I think audio settings were already correct. However, may I know how I can change the VLC settings to BitStream in VLC 2.0.0 version. ?

It can be HDMI cable issue OR Onkyo is not accepting it correctly.Also check that you get DD/Dts logo on Onkyo.If you are playing aac files,then the SW uses CPU to decode audio & send to AVR.This may interrupt.

Works fine with same cable on my friend's laptop with same set-up; hence I think there is no problem with Onkyo !!
I'm playing .MKV files to play all my BluRay movies.

Check the DPC thing first: it doesn't cost anything!

I checked the DPC at the very first instance and it showed the following results:

I tried to disable and enable each drive recommended one by one, but all in vain. Still the same problem persists !!
I went to service center and the guy there was hardly able to understand my issue. He assumed that if sound is coming fine is sytsem then no problem.
But I tried to explain that this is the issue with HDMI out only !!
He asked me to format the system so that all the system drives can be restored. That too I have done now. Formated the window and restored everything.
Again I'm seeing the same issue

Now please suggest what can I do?
Do you think my sound card has got corrupted ?
What exactly I need to do now ?
Kindly help !

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

troubleshoot step by step. That is the key. First connect the laptop DIRECTLY to TV and play the same movie with same configuration. If the same audio drop problem is observed then something is wrong with laptop. If it plays fine when TV is connected then there is a problem with you Receiver.
2. Try another player. e.g KMPlayer for playing the same movie. Does the problem persist?
3. with VLC, try another movie with say stereo audio or dobly digital audio. Does the problem persist?
4. Play the movies played in step 3 with another player, e.g KMPlayer. Does the problem persist?
5. While the audio drops, observe the display of your reciever, does it change or toggle between modes like say DD to stereo, DD to LPCM etc?
6. As kaushik mentioned, try another cable,
7. Walk over to your friend who has a similar setup and try it at his place. Does the problem persist?

Let us know the result and i am sure we will have the culprit

How did the setup respond to configurations that i have mentioned. Answer individually towards each question. One line answer wont give us a clear picture. One more thing, have you ever got this setup to work correctly, i mean the problem is there right from the start or it was working fine and suddenly started giving problems?

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

How did the setup respond to configurations that i have mentioned. Answer individually towards each question. One line answer wont give us a clear picture. One more thing, have you ever got this setup to work correctly, i mean the problem is there right from the start or it was working fine and suddenly started giving problems?

Thanks for the response. Please find my answers in BLUE on each.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

troubleshoot step by step. That is the key. First connect the laptop DIRECTLY to TV and play the same movie with same configuration. If the same audio drop problem is observed then something is wrong with laptop. If it plays fine when TV is connected then there is a problem with you Receiver.

Audio plays fine with TV audio. but doesn't work with Onkyo.
However same set-up work fine with my friend's VAIO laptop with same configuration in both TV and with Onkyo.
My friend has VPCEA490X and I have VPCEZ36FG model.

2. Try another player. e.g KMPlayer for playing the same movie. Does the problem persist?

Playing with another player doesn't help.

3. with VLC, try another movie with say stereo audio or dobly digital audio. Does the problem persist?

I have tried playing multiple movies in various players with all kind of audio streams (stereo/DD/DTS/DTS-MA). But the problem remains same.

4. Play the movies played in step 3 with another player, e.g KMPlayer. Does the problem persist?

Problem still persists.

5. While the audio drops, observe the display of your reciever, does it change or toggle between modes like say DD to stereo, DD to LPCM etc?

Onkyo doesn't toggle the display of audio streams. It remains same.

6. As kaushik mentioned, try another cable,

Tried another cable, but it didn't seem to work.

7. Walk over to your friend who has a similar setup and try it at his place. Does the problem persist?

The summary is that, same set-up works fine with my friend's laptop and there is no audio drop and it is an awesome experience of 5.1 sound. But it doesn't work with my laptop.
The set-up never worked with my laptop but it works well with friend's laptop.
Hence I assume there shouldn't be any problem with HDMI cable or Onkyo or TV. My guess is that problem is in my laptop. If it is so... how it can be resolved ?

Please let me know still there is any workaround I should try.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Thanks for the response. Please find my answers in BLUE on each.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

troubleshoot step by step. That is the key. First connect the laptop DIRECTLY to TV and play the same movie with same configuration. If the same audio drop problem is observed then something is wrong with laptop. If it plays fine when TV is connected then there is a problem with you Receiver.

Audio plays fine with TV audio. but doesn't work with Onkyo.
However same set-up work fine with my friend's VAIO laptop with same configuration in both TV and with Onkyo.
My friend has VPCEA490X and I have VPCEZ36FG model.

2. Try another player. e.g KMPlayer for playing the same movie. Does the problem persist?

Playing with another player doesn't help.

3. with VLC, try another movie with say stereo audio or dobly digital audio. Does the problem persist?

I have tried playing multiple movies in various players with all kind of audio streams (stereo/DD/DTS/DTS-MA). But the problem remains same.

4. Play the movies played in step 3 with another player, e.g KMPlayer. Does the problem persist?

Problem still persists.

5. While the audio drops, observe the display of your reciever, does it change or toggle between modes like say DD to stereo, DD to LPCM etc?

Onkyo doesn't toggle the display of audio streams. It remains same.

6. As kaushik mentioned, try another cable,

Tried another cable, but it didn't seem to work.

7. Walk over to your friend who has a similar setup and try it at his place. Does the problem persist?

The summary is that, same set-up works fine with my friend's laptop and there is no audio drop and it is an awesome experience of 5.1 sound. But it doesn't work with my laptop.
The set-up never worked with my laptop but it works well with friend's laptop.
Hence I assume there shouldn't be any problem with HDMI cable or Onkyo or TV. My guess is that problem is in my laptop. If it is so... how it can be resolved ?

Please let me know still there is any workaround I should try.

What i understand
1. Your laptop works fine with TV
2. Your friends Laptop works fine with YOUR HT (was it the same HDMI port?)
3. You have not connected your Laptop to your friends HT. Assuming that your friend has same model HT, do it. Tell us the result
4. Have you got another HDMI source like a BD player? connect it to your HT. Tell us your result

Primarily what i think is its some kind of handshake issue between your HT and Laptop. But i can only be sure if the problem persists when you connect your laptop to your friends HT and same problem continues. I am ruling out laptop at this point as there is not issue of sound when you connect laptop to your TV. If there was a problem with your laptop, it should have been replicated with the TV

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

What i understand
1. Your laptop works fine with TV.
2. Your friends Laptop works fine with YOUR HT (was it the same HDMI port?)
3. You have not connected your Laptop to your friends HT. Assuming that your friend has same model HT, do it. Tell us the result
4. Have you got another HDMI source like a BD player? connect it to your HT. Tell us your result

Primarily what i think is its some kind of handshake issue between your HT and Laptop. But i can only be sure if the problem persists when you connect your laptop to your friends HT and same problem continues. I am ruling out laptop at this point as there is not issue of sound when you connect laptop to your TV. If there was a problem with your laptop, it should have been replicated with the TV

1. Your laptop works fine with TV... Yes Absolutely
2. Your friends Laptop works fine with YOUR HT (was it the same HDMI port?)
Yeah it was same HT and same HDMI cable that worked with my friend's laptop.

3. You have not connected your Laptop to your friends HT. Assuming that your friend has same model HT, do it. Tell us the result

We both friends are living in the same house..Bachelor accommodation...
So everything is same. HT, HDMI Cable, TV.

4. Have you got another HDMI source like a BD player? connect it to your HT. Tell us your result
I don't have the BD player yet. So unfortunately I am not able to do it currently.

If you see 'Thad E Ginathom's suggestion. I tried latency checker and it mentions some driver problems in my system which couldn't be resolved even after formatting the system. Please see the results posted in my earlier post. Awaiting Thad's reply what he says on this.

Please let me know if I can try something more.

 

[baijuxavior]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Did you upgrade the HDMI drivers? If not download the latest ATI catalyst and upgrade.

Use a player like Potplayer or KMPlayer and try.

I don't know how to bitstream in VLC as I don't use it. You can set bitstream in potplayer by opening the Preference (F5) > Audio and in KMPlayer under Preference (F2) > Audio Settings.

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Thats me with music playing and dpclatency checker running. My computer is connected to HT via coaxial SPDIF (No HDMI on HT). I do not hear any clicks or misses. Every thing works fine. With todays modern processors, i dont think you have to worry about that. Just to be sure, run dpclatency on your friends laptop. I am sure he too will have red peaks. Personally i wouldn't worry about that. I have a very strong doubt that its a handshake issue between your HT and Laptop.

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Did you upgrade the HDMI drivers? If not download the latest ATI catalyst and upgrade.

Use a player like Potplayer or KMPlayer and try.

I don't know how to bitstream in VLC as I don't use it. You can set bitstream in potplayer by opening the Preference (F5) > Audio and in KMPlayer under Preference (F2) > Audio Settings.

I have already installed all the latest ATI drivers/softwares, but it doesn't seem to help.
Using Potplayer and KMPlayer also doesn't help

Thats me with music playing and dpclatency checker running. My computer is connected to HT via coaxial SPDIF (No HDMI on HT). I do not hear any clicks or misses. Every thing works fine. With todays modern processors, i dont think you have to worry about that. Just to be sure, run dpclatency on your friends laptop. I am sure he too will have red peaks. Personally i wouldn't worry about that. I have a very strong doubt that its a handshake issue between your HT and Laptop.

I checked my friend's laptop. His computer doesn't show red peaks. May be because his computer is brand new and it hasn't gone through any misbehaving nature so far.
Have you tried playing any HD video on your computer by connecting it to your HT ? Please let me know if you see any difference.
I also think now that it's really a handshake issue between my HT and laptop.

Moreover, may be I'm not technically right !! But what I observed that my laptop has ATI Radeon 5650 Graphics driver and My friend's laptop has Intel Graphics Driver. Can it be a case that Onkyo is not compatible with ATI hardware/drivers ?
If yes, who is the culprit..Onkyo or ATI or my laptop's motherboard or something else ?
I'm completely clueless now.
I have already written an email to Sony AsiaPac support on this.
Do you think still there is a chance to resolve this issue ?

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

I have already installed all the latest ATI drivers/softwares, but it doesn't seem to help.
Using Potplayer and KMPlayer also doesn't help



I checked my friend's laptop. His computer doesn't show red peaks. May be because his computer is brand new and it hasn't gone through any misbehaving nature so far.
Have you tried playing any HD video on your computer by connecting it to your HT ? Please let me know if you see any difference.
I also think now that it's really a handshake issue between my HT and laptop.

Moreover, may be I'm not technically right !! But what I observed that my laptop has ATI Radeon 5650 Graphics driver and My friend's laptop has Intel Graphics Driver. Can it be a case that Onkyo is not compatible with ATI hardware/drivers ?
If yes, who is the culprit..Onkyo or ATI or my laptop's motherboard or something else ?
I'm completely clueless now.
I have already written an email to Sony AsiaPac support on this.
Do you think still there is a chance to resolve this issue ?

The driver difference is due to the fact that your computer has a ATI graphics card and your friends laptop uses the graphics processor built in the processor itself. You will not be able to use intel HD audio drivers on your laptop because your laptop uses ATI graphics card.

HD movies are also sound flawless for me even when there are continuous peaks in dpc latency checker.

I will let sony support have a say on this. meanwhile connect you laptop to your tv via hdmi and connect optical/coaxial out of tv to ht. you wont get HD audio but atleast be able to enjoy 5.1 till then.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Wow, I see a lot of red on your dpcl check! Mine was like that, and audio would drop out all the time. Unlistenable.

However....

1. I didn't have any problem, despite the large amounts of DPC latency, when playing from the built-in sound card, only when using my PCI card.

2. About a year after building my new machine, I gave my old one away to a student. After complete reinstallation of WinXP and Ubuntu, I gave the DPC-latency check a run and the problem had gone away!

Hope this is not a "red herring"

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Wow, I see a lot of red on your dpcl check! Mine was like that, and audio would drop out all the time. Unlistenable.

However....

1. I didn't have any problem, despite the large amounts of DPC latency, when playing from the built-in sound card, only when using my PCI card.

2. About a year after building my new machine, I gave my old one away to a student. After complete reinstallation of WinXP and Ubuntu, I gave the DPC-latency check a run and the problem had gone away!

Hope this is not a "red herring"

Hi Thad, Thanks for your response.
In last 24 hours, I have formatted my system and re-installed everything, but the problem still persists and DPC latency check is also running bad.
If you see my posts, I have tried all the workarounds suggested.
Could you please let me know if there is anything I can still try and get it resolved.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Well, as I say, the resolution on my machine was accidental and unintended .

If it is a DPC latency problem (repeat: I do not know about video, I don't even watch TV! Others can give much better advice) then google is probably the best suggestion I can give. Actually, I now remember that updating video is one of the things that sound can get interrupted for, as, for instance, the system reasons, "hey! Mouse movement! Hold the music, we have to display a mouse movement!" That is the sort of logic one is up against, and, sometimes, PCs are not our friends.

 

[technobhatt]

Re: Audio Mutes at Random Intervals :: VAIO>HDMI>Onkyo HT-22HDX>ATI HDMI Out>Bravia L

Hello friends !!

Here is a great news !! My problem seems to be solved now. Touch Wood.

(Admin/Moderators can add a tag 'Solved' to the thread title.)

First thing first. Many Thanks to everybody who assisted me with their posts and suggestions.
Special thanks to "Vaibhavyagnik" who came forward, did a troubleshooting on my system, spent time to analyze each aspect of problem on my system, finally his great suggestion came to my rescue.

The Audio mute/drop problem got resolved with the use of XBMC Player.
I simply installed "XBMC Windows Version" from xbmc.org and then I followed the below steps to configure surround sound.

1. Installed XBMC windows version from xbmc.org and ran it.
2. Did the settings of '5.1 surround sound' under ATI HDMI Out.
3. Played a '.MKV' file (BluRay rip which has 5.1 DTS Audio).
4. Under Audio settings, I chose 'HDMI' option. My Home theatre was able to detect the actual Audio codec "HDMI - DTS".
Earlier, when I was using VLC or any other player, HT was showing 'HDMI Multi channel'.
5. With HDMI option in Audio settings, everything worked perfectly

Wow...last night, I enjoyed watching "Fight Club" in 5.1 DTS surround first time. What a new experience !!
===============================================================================================================

Now to have look on few more aspects of my problem, I would like to highlight few points. Anybody can think upon these points and reply.
1. My friend's laptop which had Intel HD graphics, was able to detect Home Theatre Model Name as "HT-22HDX" and the setup worked fine on his system.
2. My laptop has ATI Radeon 5650 graphics card. ATI HDMI out was not able to detect HT Model name and was simply showing "ATI HDMI Out" and then it didn't work well with other player such as VLC, KM Player, PotPlayer, Power DVD.
VLC, KM and Pot players don't have option to select HDMI in audio settings.
Power DVD has HDMI option in audio settings, yet it didn't work well.

So, my question is... what can be the reason that XBMC player resolved this problem ?