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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.
It worked for me when we watched Nikita over the internet. The sound was a little delayed though.
Oh, I did not plug into the TV but my Pioneer Receiver which has HDMI.
UPDATE:
After trying it again, and after checking the "Sound" applet in Control Panel, it's now working for me.
Interestingly, there was a "Digital Audio (HDMI)" listed as a playback device. I thought I'd hook up the Surface again and choose that if it played again through the Surface speakers.
But when I plugged it in again, and then looked at the Sound applet, I actually didn't need to change anything. No, it hadn't chosen the HDMI digital device for playback in my case, rather, it created a new "High Definition Audio Device" -- my Toshiba TV -- and selected it for playback. And that's exactly what happened -- the sound came through the TV speakers.
I'm still curious how the OS got a driver for my TV. It seems likely that it downloaded it automatically over the Internet. But I have at least confirmed (in my mind) that the best means of troubleshooting this issue is through the Sound applet in Control Panel on the Desktop.
To get there, go to the Desktop first. The open the charms menu and choose "Settings", and "Control Panel" will then be the 2nd option listed from the top. Once you're in Control Panel, it's practically identical with the Windows Control Panels of yesteryear, so you should be in familiar territory at that point.
Cheers!
