Best option in windows for Audio only HDMI connection?

[TheGreySpectre]

I have my PC connected to two displays via display port and an audio receiver via HDMI. The problem is because HDMI transmits audio and video windows thinks is another monitor. My mouse is constantly going over to a "display" I can't see and sometimes my windows go over there as well. I can't tell windows to "disconnect the display" or I stop getting audio as well. I can't tell windows to use it as a mirrored display as the max resolution it will let me send then is 1080p60hz, so my actual monitor only runs at 1/4 resolution when mirrored.


What's the best solution here? How can I make it so I getting my mouse stuck on this "display" that doesn't exist?

https://imgur.com/DYhzRtD

HDMI is required as Atmos doesn't work over optical or RCA

 

[unsafesteagle]

Use the hdmi to the display ,
Then use arc/earc hdmi from the display to the receiver?

 

[Evilsizer]

what exactly are you trying to do? are you wanting to route your pc audio to the receiver when you watch hulu or netflix?

might as well get this

Amazon.com

 

[TheGreySpectre]

I want to route my pc audio to the receiver all the time.
I want my computer to act like I have 2 displays and surround sound system.
I want my computer to act similar to how it would if I had 2 displayport monitors and my sound was going out the headphone jack, or S/PDIF out (just with higher audio bandwidth and support for Dolby Atmos)


I do not have any displays connected to the receiver. It is sound only. The receiver is older and does not support high 4k at high refresh rates, so I don't want to route my displays through it.





This is how things are physically connected.

The displays do not have eARC. (To my knowledge very few if any monitors have eARC)


Current Problems:
* Problem 1: Windows generates a 3rd display for the receiver (see above) the doesn't physically exist, so if my mouse or windows go there, they just disappear.
* Problem 2: If my displays turn off due to inactivity it also turns off my music. I have to set my monitors to never turn off to avoid having my music turn off.

 

[unsafesteagle]

Televisions have hdmi arc return channel.
Nonexistant problem

 

[TheGreySpectre]

But I'm not using a television and don't want a television in my office?

 

[Evilsizer]

video card is detecting something on the port so it thinks it is a monitor. there is no way to make it not show up as a monitor. best you can do is set the "blank" one to duplicate one of the other ones so your mouse does not disappear. as for the atoms thing, what are you playing that uses it? if your game is only setup to play 2.0 that is what the receiver is going to playback. same thing for any stereo source from netflix/hulu/prime/YT. now if the videos are setup for 5.1+ audio then the receiver will play it back that way. if you want to fake the surround with only a stereo source then that is a option in the receiver menu. now you could run one of the monitors to the receiver then connect back to the video card to use hdmi that way. in the current setup its not going to do what you want. i never understood the atmos thing, it does not add anything to any of the movies i have watched. To solve your problem and you wont like the answer, just use optical connection, if you do not want to run another hdmi/DP cable.

Televisions have hdmi arc return channel.
Nonexistant problem

not all of them have ARC, you need to check the specs for that, even need to check the receiver too. this person's situation has nothing to do with a tv but wanting a pc video card to do something it was not ment to do.

 

[TheGreySpectre]

video card is detecting something on the port so it thinks it is a monitor. there is no way to make it not show up as a monitor. best you can do is set the "blank" one to duplicate one of the other ones so your mouse does not disappear. as for the atoms thing, what are you playing that uses it? if your game is only setup to play 2.0 that is what the receiver is going to playback. same thing for any stereo source from netflix/hulu/prime/YT. now if the videos are setup for 5.1+ audio then the receiver will play it back that way. if you want to fake the surround with only a stereo source then that is a option in the receiver menu. now you could run one of the monitors to the receiver then connect back to the video card to use hdmi that way. in the current setup its not going to do what you want. i never understood the atmos thing, it does not add anything to any of the movies i have watched. To solve your problem and you wont like the answer, just use optical connection, if you do not want to run another hdmi/DP cable.



not all of them have ARC, you need to check the specs for that, even need to check the receiver too. this person's situation has nothing to do with a tv but wanting a pc video card to do something it was not ment to do.

A combination of games and movies. Both of which support sending atmos over hdmi to the receiver when paired in conjunction with the "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" app which is (to my knowledge) the only way to accurately send info for height speakers. For programs that don't support atmos I have windows configured to output 5.1 and I have my receiver do the upmixing to 5.2.1. While I agree atmos doesn't add much in a 5.1 system with equal height, when you add in height speakers of a 5.2.1 system then atmos makes a pretty large difference. With atmos and height speakers I feel much more like things are actually going overhead than I do without it.

I just kind of hate that my video hard has to be tied up in this at all. It seems like there should be some way to send high quality digital audio (Atmos, uncompressed 7.1 channel, etc) without sending video.

As a possible solution, is it possible to edit the EDID of my receiver so that windows thinks it can't output video and only sends it audio?

 

[unsafesteagle]

Displays should have a feature, an hdmi arc return channel

 

[TheGreySpectre]

Displays should have a feature, an hdmi arc return channel

Yes it would be nice if they did, but they do not.

Both of these are inputs. Neither are eARC, nor is eArc listed in the spec.




Or for another quick example, the Samsung Odyssey G9




eARC ports are extremely common on televisions. They are not common in the slightest on computer monitors. I have yet to personally see a monitor with an eARC port although perhaps they exist.

 

[Evilsizer]

if have another cable then, run the video card hdmi to the receiver input then the receiver hdmi output to the monitor. you get the sound from the reciever and not needing to connect it directly to the computer. if you turn off the receiver though the monitor will not display anything.

i have no other suggestions on how to fix this besides what you know already.

 

[QuantumCookie]

No idea if it might help: but audio over HMDI can also exist in PCM mode.
I spent a week trying to get audio off my blu-ray player via HDMI. Finally, there was a setting I saw that turned the audio signal from default to PCM, then the sound went into a DAC and out to studio speakers.
I realize now that PCM is limited to stereo sound I think.

No wait I remember now, it wasn't the HMDI cable I used, I have a SPDIF coaxial for sound (between blu-ray player and DAC) and only video via HDMI between blu-ray player and my monitor. Then USB from PC to DAC sends audio from PC to DAC --> speakers.

Q: When you first set up all of this re. HDMI audio, do you remember if you got sound out be default by just connecting cables, or did you have to enable/tweak the audio settings in Windows?

I take it that your HDMI audio cable is attached back at the motherboard's I/O plate and not the graphics card (I guess it wouldn't work off the graphics card, but who knows).

 

[TheGreySpectre]

No idea if it might help: but audio over HMDI can also exist in PCM mode.
I spent a week trying to get audio off my blu-ray player via HDMI. Finally, there was a setting I saw that turned the audio signal from default to PCM, then the sound went into a DAC and out to studio speakers.
I realize now that PCM is limited to stereo sound I think.

No wait I remember now, it wasn't the HMDI cable I used, I have a SPDIF coaxial for sound (between blu-ray player and DAC) and only video via HDMI between blu-ray player and my monitor. Then USB from PC to DAC sends audio from PC to DAC --> speakers.

Q: When you first set up all of this re. HDMI audio, do you remember if you got sound out be default by just connecting cables, or did you have to enable/tweak the audio settings in Windows?

I take it that your HDMI audio cable is attached back at the motherboard's I/O plate and not the graphics card (I guess it wouldn't work off the graphics card, but who knows).

I do not have integrated graphics so I do not have an HDMI connection on the motherboard. The HDMI connector is on the graphics card. No windows tweaking was required to get sound. I plugged in HDMI and the computer immediately added the receiver to the list of audio devices and allowed me to play sound out of it.