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[Magic_Randy]

I'm trying to connect my notebook PC to my Home Theater system. I have an HDMI output on the PC. I want to connect this to my receiver, again with HDMI.

The goal is to use MC Theater View on the PC to display on the Home Theater system for audio, video, pictures, etc.

I found two devices that may do the trick. Anyone have experience with either one for this purpose? Or any other suggestions?

ASUS WiCast

http://www.amazon.com/WiCast-EW2000-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver/dp/B0042JST4E/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_2

brite-View HDelight

http://www.amazon.com/brite-View-HDelight-BV-1222-Uncompressed-1080p/dp/B00435EXNI/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3M9UFGF9YV9VC&colid=TG7ECC5AR6A2

Thanks...

[Magic_Randy]

I ordered the brite-View HDelight. I'll provide feedback on if it works after I get it set up.

[raym]

I'd be interested to hear how this goes for you. I could use one of these myself. Does the receiver (tv end) require AC power or can it run on batteries?

[Magic_Randy]

I'd be interested to hear how this goes for you. I could use one of these myself. Does the receiver (tv end) require AC power or can it run on batteries?

I received it, but don't have it working yet. I was able to connect it up in a few minutes and everything works except I get no audio thru my HDMI output. I don't think it's related to the brite-View HDelight. If I connect the PC directly tru HDMI I also don't get audio. It may be due to my upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 but I'm not sure. And I never tried the HDMI output under Vista, so I have no reference point.

The concept of the brite-View HDelight is simple. There is a transmitter and a receiver. Both need power. On the transmitter side you can power it with an AC adapter or via a USB cable. On the receiver (TV) side there is an AC Adapter.

[glynor]

Not all HDMI outputs on computers support audio, particularly those on laptops with Intel GPU chips.  Are you sure your laptop can do this?

Audio over HDMI works fine on Windows 7 on my HTPC with an AMD GPU, and works fine with currently shipping (and last-gen, I believe) Nvidia GPUs.  I think the Sandy Bridge CPUs are the first Intel chips that support audio over HDMI, but there may have been some manufacturer-specific "hacks" done with the older Intel GPU chips.

What laptop do you have?

[Magic_Randy]

Hi glynor,

I have a Fujitsu N6460 notebook PC. Any idea if audio thru the HDMI output works with this?

Randy

[glynor]

In theory, that Notebook should support HDMI audio.  The AMD Mobility GPU it has (Mobility HD 2600) does support HDMI audio.  You just need to get drivers for it.

Laptops can be a pain in the butt.

The best thing to try FIRST, is to install the AMD-released Catalyst driver package:

Win7 32-bit: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-32.aspx
Win7 64-bit: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

If this works, then it will likely fix your problem.  What that will do is essentially add a new "sound card" to your computer, which is the HDMI output.  You'll want to select this as the output device in MC, or set it as the default output in Windows (probably best to do it in MC or you won't have sound out of the laptop speakers ever unless you switch it back).

Unfortunately, not all notebook manufacturers support using the "official" AMD drivers.  If yours does NOT, the Catalyst installer won't install.  Your choices then are:

1. Hope that Fujitsu puts out a working driver with Vista/Win7 support on their website.  If so, there may be multiple drivers.  You'll need BOTH the GPU/Graphics driver and the HDMI driver.

2. Use Driver Heaven's Mobility Modder tool to modify the official Catalyst drivers to work on your laptop.  This can be a bit flaky, but you can usually get it going.  The basic process here is that you download the DESKTOP Catalyst Drivers from AMD (I'd probably use a slightly older version, like 11.2, to avoid incompatibility flakiness), extract them but don't install them, run the modder program to modify them to "hack" them to work with your laptop, and then start the installation and proceed normally.

I've done the Mobility Mod thing before plenty of times.  Sometimes (but not always) you have to try a few different versions of the Catalyst drivers to find one that works right.  If you look around on the Driver Heaven forums, you can usually find some details on what versions work with which GPUs.  Usually once you get it though, it'll work fine from then out.

[Magic_Randy]

Hi glynor,

Thanks...

I will give this a try when I get home. I assumed (had hoped) that it did support HDMI audio and all I needed to do was get the correct drivers. But I did not know if my assumption was correct, so your feedback gives me tangible things to try.

Randy

[Magic_Randy]

Some testing done.

Unfortunately the easy solution -  install the AMD-released Catalyst driver package - did not work.

Unfortunately the next best thing, getting updated drivers from Fujitsu, does not work. They do not have any Windows 7 drivers for this PC. Not surprising as they no longer sell it in the US. It's a high end multi-media notebook ($3k+) and the market was too small.

So my plan is to use Driver Heaven's Mobility Modder but I think I'll wait for the weekend to do that. Never tried this before so it's best to do it with no time pressure.

Thanks for the help

EDIT: I was going to 'attach' an image listing the Vista drivers available from Fujitsu but for some reason the 'attach' is not enabled in this sub-forum.

[glynor]

It isn't too hard, and it does work pretty well in most cases, especially with the newer GPUs (which I'd include the HD 2600 in, just barely).  The biggest part that is a pain, but I do recommend doing it, is completely disabling UAC before you start.

Follow the guide on the Driver Heaven page I linked and you should be good.  Like I said, though, I'd probably skip back a couple of Catalyst versions.  AMD does let you have access to older builds.  There's a link somewhere in their driver downloads section that takes you to the archived versions.

[Magic_Randy]

Thanks again. I'll provide feedback this weekend.

UAC is already disabled, so I guess the biggest pain is already over.

[Magic_Randy]

Thanks for the help glynor, but I still can't get it to work.

I spent most of the day on this.

I tried Driver Heaven's Mobility Modder with various versions.

I even uninstalled all ATI software/drivers and re-installed everything (various versions).

So my conclusion is it either does not work on my PC, something is defective on my PC, or I just can't figure it out. In any case I think I'll just give up on this project.

Thanks again...

[glynor]

Bummer.  It is possible that Fujitsu didn't enable the functionality, I suppose.

One last thing you can try, if you want is to install the ATI HDMI Audio Device drivers from RealTek (on their download page for "High Definition Audio Codecs", I can't link to it directly because their site is stupid).  I was never totally clear on which AMD/ATI devices they supported and which they don't.  It shouldn't hurt (you can just remove it if it doesn't work), and it might work!

[Magic_Randy]

I installed the RealTek HDMI output. It does install, I can select it, but it does not output audio on my PC. My guess is Fujitsu does not have my PC built to output audio via HDMI.

Thanks again

[Magic_Randy]

Well the project failed and is now officially over.

I guess I should have worked on a Wooden Sink or a Chicken Coop