DVI to HDMI Adapter with Sound

Question

Is there an adapter to go from DVI to HDMI that also has the provision(pigtail) to plug into a separate audio port and pipe audio through to a HDMI output. If not, why? Are the same pins used in converting DVI to HDMI also your audio transport for HDMI? I've seen the powered media converters on the market but I'm looking for a non-powered solution that doesn't take up as much space.

Solution

This question has a complicated answer...

Can I get a DVI to HDMI cable that has a connector for the PC's audio output?

No. This is because HDMI uses digital audio, which is carried as part of the digital signals between the source and sink. You can't connect an analog audio source (e.g: PC sound card) to a digital sink for obvious reasons.

There are however, audio "embedders" that will allow you to provide analog/digital audio along with video, which are then combined and sent to the HDMI sink. These are active devices that require their own power supply.

For example, BlueStream's HD11AU. Note that this device could probably be powered from a USB port.

Can I get a DVI to HDMI cable that will provide audio to my TV?

It depends... Some graphics cards will provide audio on the DVI port, but in my experience most will not. DVI is really aimed at the computer market, while HDMI is targeted at media. The fact that DVI is electrically compatible with HDMI doesn't change the fact that most DVI ports will not be able to give audio data.

As you may have surmised, this is a feature of the graphics card that needs to be present on the DVI port, allowing it to render audio. While, "yes", the same signals are used for audio and video on HDMI... it is much more complicated than that as HDMI is a packet-based link (think of it like virtual wires inside physical wires).

See this FAQ from nVidia.

The audio can be carried over DVI to HDMI cable depending on the graphics card. For newer GPUs, you just need to set the HDMI audio device in the Windows Sound control panel. Older GPUs need to use a digital audio S/PDIF cable to connect from the PC to the graphics board's on board S/PDIF connector. Please contact your graphics board manufacturer if you have questions on supporting HDMI audio over DVI.

See the DVI Wikipedia page:

Some DVI-D sources use non-standard extensions to output HDMI signals including audio (e.g. ATI 3000-series and NVIDIA GTX 200-series).

I have also anecdotally heard about some DVI to HDMI cables supporting sound on a given setup, while others do not.

It really depends on too much, and is non-standard, so there is no "yes" or "no" answer.

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If you only have a DVI source / output, and need to provide sound to an HDMI sink / input, then the options are:

1. Try it
2. Use an HDMI audio embedder

Comments

[Ramhound]

If you have looked for this adapter in the typical places, you order computer components from and have not found it. It is a safe bet the adapter does not exist.

[Admin]

The thing would need to be powered for converting analogue to digital audio. It's unlikely the electrical specifications for DVI or HDMI would support that. Now, I've heard of some non-standard DVIs that also carry audio and may work with a normal DVI-HDMI adapter.