NVIDIA HDMI Audio says "Not plugged in"

[petsorre]

I am wanting to play Bluray DVDs on my Sony Vaio AW21-M/H laptop through my Panasonic Viera TV, TH-37PX60B, using the HDMI connection.

The picture on the TV is fine, but I cannot get any sound through the TV speakers.
When I check the properties for the audio output device it says "NVIDIA HDMI Audio - not plugged in".

Obviously the HDMI cable is plugged in or Ither would be no picture!

One of the reasons for buying this particular model was its ability to play Bluray discs through the plasma TV, so at the moment I am a little disappointed.

Can any body please help?

[petsorre]

The only sound settings that I can find on my TV are the usual bass, treble, balance etc.
The only reference to HDMI is on the systems settings and it is "Control by HDMI" and is enabled.

Incidentally, I have just installed Vista service pack 2 and I notice that in Control Panel / Programs there is a new entry for NVIDIA Drivers, although I don't know to access or install them.

Any more suggestions?

[Blencogo]

At your own risk I suppose you could try a newer driver - but be prepared to 'roll-back' to the original version if there is no improvement.

I think you have this driver installed for your NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS GPU at the moment. It is 176.05 (not 176.76 as I thought before: -

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista/176.05

and you will see it is on page 22 - so there have been about 180 newer driver versions over the last 12 months!!!

The latest WHQL BETA driver that generically supports your GPU is 185.70 (08/04/2009)

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista/185.70

It looks like the .INF supplied does support the 9300M GS without modification so it should just install. If there are any problems installing the driver then look at the 'Quickstart Guide' here but you shouldn't need it: -

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997

As I said, unless this driver fixes your problem, be prepared to roll-back your driver to the original version because 185.70 is a BETA version. The decision to try this has to be yours. All I can say is that I would try it if I were in your position but I have to point out to you there are risks although these can be minimised as you can always roll-back to 176.05.

[petsorre]

Before downloading any driver upgrades, I thought I'd try something else.

I went into Control Panel / System / Device Manager / Sound / NVIDIA HDMI Audio, then selected "Update Driver Software".

The system searched online for a while, then informed me that my driver was up-to-date.

If there is a newer driver available, why couldn't Windows find it?

[Blencogo]

Probably because it is a Beta driver.

Have you tried phoning Sony Support to see if they have a fix?

[petsorre]

Yes, I think phoning Sony support is a good idea.

First I'll try it with another TV and HDMI cable, just to rule these as a possible cause of the problem.

[petsorre]

SUCCESS AT LAST!

I had another play with my TV sound settings and noticed that when the HDMI cable was connected, another menu option appeared, "HDMI Input". The options are Analogue, Digital and Automatic. I selected Digital and guess what? HDMI sound through the TV now works!

After all my efforts I am now looking forward to relaxing in front of a few Bluray movies.

Thanks to Blencogo and MarkJ2008 for your contributions.

[Blencogo]

Hope you enjoy your Blu-Ray movies. I bet you feel you have earned it.

Good Luck and enjoy your Vaio.