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I connected my Surface via HDMI to watch some movies on the home theater system, but I'm only hearing sound through the Surface speakers. How do I get audio to go through HDMI so that I can use my nice home theater sound system?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi all.
I found probably a solution. When I connected the HDMI I only heard the sound in the surface and at the sound devices box the HDMI option won't appear, so I get in into Device Manager and Right click on my Surface and Scan for HW changes, then the sound starts to listen on the Home Theater. I expect this probably works in most of cases like me.
Regards.
Greetings all,
Please contact the manufacturer of you television for furthers support and possible firmware updates. This feature works with other TVs.
Use the Sound applet in control panel to check what audio devices are installed. If you have a choice make sure the right one is selected.
With 11 pages on this thread and it is already answered few are going to see your question and have you read it through and looked at the possible solutions? If you have then it might be better to start your own question.
Detail what you have tried and what your hardware is, with laptops because everything is on the motherboard getting audio onto the HDMI is normally inbuilt but with desktops it could be different. Even with a desktop if you are using an integrated HDMI/sound card then that is the same as a laptop but if you have a discrete graphics/sound interface then that requires different settings.
After spending some time with microsoft tech support on the phone and in store. Here is the reason why HDMI audio is not working for everyone.
First, there is nothing special about the hdmi plugging on the surface. The source of the issue comes from the angle of the plugging. Because the side of the surface is angled at 22°, most of the hdmi cord wont be plugged all the way resulting in the loss of sound. This is where microsoft accessories comes in for only $39. it is an adapter that transform a 22° angle into a regular 90° one.
What other solutions do we have? Either find a lucky hdmi cord or force you way in. I personally gave in and got Microsoft accessories in order to preserve my surface.
Welcome to business 101. We dont make money with tablets, we make money with accessories and apps.
HDMI does not have separate conductors for audio which forms an integral part of the data stream so it should not matter what cable is used. The data is actually SPDIF.
In desktops some graphics cards with HDMI have their own sound card which appears in device manager. In a few cases those without a sound card have a small 2 pin header to allow the sound card SPDIF data to be added to the video data stream and quite a few motherboards have the matching header to allow the on-board audio to be used.
If WhyJoe has audio on his system then it is hardwired inside the Surface and should work on all of them but I have found considerable variation with how TVs use the audio. Some have the ability to turn off the HDMI audio in case the source is actually connected to a HiFi system.
I have a TV at home that has no HDMI just a DVI port but when I connect a device to it via a HDMI to DVI adapter I get audio, clever seeing as the DVI spec does not include audio.
