windows 7: Can't get HDMI audio - the hdmi device does not appear under the playback devices

What's the point of this Microsoft??? No one has replied to our repeated postings only to whine that it's someone else's fault again. Its NOT the hardware - repeatedly people have told you that their hardware worked with XP and Vista, as did mine, then bang! Win7 kicks out the audio but leaves the video on HDMI. I have tried everything on my machine and recently did a brand new build using the the rtmf Win 7 Professional download - SAME PROBLEM - downloaded the latest nvidia drivers, no change.

You think I'm going to buy a copy of Win7? not likely. Why don't you investigate properly your customer complaints instead of passing it back to us or the hardware vendors?

When will you change into a customer oriented company - when ____ freezes over I guess.

Robin J Castree

a genuine MS evangelist who has been worn down into a cynic by this **** company

Robin, to whom are your histrionics directed?  I have no association with Microsoft, but I'll answer your question with a question.  My laptop (Dell w/ nVidia 8400GS) and my desktop (homebuild w/ nVidia GTX260) both work just fine with HDMI audio.  If the problem is with Windows 7, and not your hardware, then why does HDMI audio work flawlessly with my computers?

It's easy for one to assume that, since they updated from a previous version of the OS to the new version, and things stopped working, that it's Microsoft's fault.  Well...  It partly is.  Windows XP, Vista, and 7, all use slightly different driver models.  When the way the OS interacts with hardware drivers changes, this can make the drivers not work properly.  Therefore, it is on the hardware manufacturers to update their drivers to work properly with the new OS.  It'd be great if the grand vision for the original WDM were to hold true:  "This is our driver model, and it won't change."

But it doesn't.  The driver model gets updated, and now drivers are broken.  Some manufacturers are better about updating their drivers than others. Since Win7 isn't even officially out yet, HW manufacturers are not really on the hook yet to have their drivers working flawlessly. 

I'm not saying that my posts are the pinnacle of edification, but if you read over them, I've repeated ad nauseum the different ways I've gotten things to work with my systems. 

If you can post some details about your system (notably the mobo model, video card model, etc.), and steps you've taken to get it going, maybe I can help guide you.

What's the point of this Microsoft??? No one has replied to our repeated postings only to whine that it's someone else's fault again. Its NOT the hardware - repeatedly people have told you that their hardware worked with XP and Vista, as did mine, then bang! Win7 kicks out the audio but leaves the video on HDMI. I have tried everything on my machine and recently did a brand new build using the the rtmf Win 7 Professional download - SAME PROBLEM - downloaded the latest nvidia drivers, no change.

You think I'm going to buy a copy of Win7? not likely. Why don't you investigate properly your customer complaints instead of passing it back to us or the hardware vendors?

When will you change into a customer oriented company - when ____ freezes over I guess.

Robin J Castree

a genuine MS evangelist who has been worn down into a cynic by this **** company

Update your laptop's audio driver to the latest Vista/7 driver.  Most of them come with some sort of control program/mixer where you can choose which output device you want to use.  The internal S/PDIF connection between the audio and video devices probably is one of the options on that list, even if "HDMI" doesn't show up.

Good news!  I talked to a friend that worked in the Windows 7 development at Microsoft and he had the same prob with 2 of his computers and figured out the solution.  While it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the HDMI Audio comes from the video card drivers.  I went to Intel's website and chose my video card, and they had Windows 7 RC drivers up, I downloaded those and installed, rebooted and my HDMI audio is now back in the soundcard list and I tested it, worked great! So to all of you above, go get the latest video card drivers and try again. Worked for me!

I had the same problem!!! The HDMI works well in xp but couldn't find the hdmi audio in Windows 7!!

It seems your video card is intel's card and you can find the updated driver, but my video card is nvidia 8600mgs, i downloaded several driver versions from nvidia but still cannot fix the problem!! I'm going to give up and roll back my laptop to xp or vista. Windows 7 disappointed me!!