HDMI audio issues with resume

[Sprinx]

First of all, I'm familiar with many of the issues with audio and WMC. As far as I can tell, this is not the same as any of the other issues I've read about or experienced myself. My system specs are in my profile, and they are current. This issue has only begun happening within the last two months or so.

The audio craps out (there will be a distorted "ding" sound) and then no audio comes out at all, for any program within Windows.

What happens:
TV and receiver are powered off with my Logitech Harmony remote. HTPC may or may not remain on at this point, if it is recording.
If I turn the receive ON, I can arrow up or down with my WMC remote, and I hear the menu sounds as normal
As soon as I turn the TV on, I get the distorted "ding" sound.
If I try to play any TV files, I get the message "Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly. Restart Windows Media Center or restart the computer."

Additional details:
Restarting WMC does nothing, as audio does not work for any program. Restarting the PC does fix the issue.
Audio device in Windows is identified properly as AMD HDMI Audio, and it reports no errors. However, no audio. If I try to "test" with the audio setup, I get the message "The audio device is currently in use" or something similar.
Windows audio and WMC audio setup is set to "Stereo." I already learned that lesson I also have the "Allow applications to take exclusive control" activated. Must be, for DTS-HD audio in blu-ray.

Things I've tried:
Installing official AMD drivers from ASUS website for my motherboard.
Installing newest stable drivers from AMD's website.
Activating "Away" mode
When the issue happens, I tried disabling the HDMI audio in Windows and enabling it again

None of these had any effect.

Anybody had any experience with this? Don't want to clean install, as I just did this with Win 8.1 in December 2013 or so.

[ewtaylo]

I bet this has to do with Windows sensing the TV power event and changing things like resolutions. I am assuming that since you utilize an AVR that you are connected via HDMI.

To fix an issue that I have with the TV power events, I inserted an HDMI A/B switch. That causes windows to be unable to sense that the TV power has changed. I picked my A/B switch up from Amazon for about $10.

My theory is that if Windows cant sense the power event, it will not muck around with the video/audio.

[Sprinx]

You're correct - the PC is connected via HDMI to the Onkyo receiver, and then the HDMI video signal goes to the TV. My TV does not do Audio Return Channel, so the receiver decodes the audio directly. I probably should have provided these details in my initial post.

It seems that the TV coming on is the trigger which corrupts the audio.

I think something like this should work, correct?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=new

Occasionally the resolution will mix up, also, when I switch the TV on while WMC is full-screen. Doesn't happen nearly as much since I got my new TV, and I don't think I've seen it happen at all when the Windows desktop is active. Maybe this will prevent that, also?

Should I configure it like this?
HTPC --> A/B switch --> Onkyo receiver --> TV

[ewtaylo]

This is a link to the exact unit I used to fix my issue:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AQ ... UTF8&psc=1

As for where to place it inline that is a good question. I would begin by placing it between the HTPC and the AVR. I say this because Windows takes internal actions when it sees power on/off events. Addition of this device somehow eliminates windows from seeing those events, therefore windows keeps the output rates the same. I would turn on all your equipment and get everything set up as it should be. Then I would connect in the unit.

The unit I detailed automatically senses which ports are active and switches to the active input. I would place the output of the switch towards the AVR and Input 1 towards the HTPC. Once they are hooked up an on, press the button on the unit to cycle through and back to the Input 1 position. Dont freak out that there is no picture when you first plug it in. Cycling through the inputs gets everything going correctly. Once you have done this you should never have to touch the unit again.

As for your question about resolution the answer is an absolute YES. The problem you detail in that question is one of the reasons I have it hooked up in my setup. For a bit of background I can tell you that when Windows receives a monitor (TV) power off event it takes it upon itself to switch the output of the video to 1024x768. That means if you have any programs up in full screen mode they get squished. When windows sees the power on event it changes the output back to your original setting (1920x1080). MOST of the time the full screen programs will return to their original size, but sometimes they dont. This inline device will help you out if you ever leave WMC in full screen mode when powering off or XBMC as windows will keep outputting 1920x1080 even when the display is powered off.

Please report back if you choose to try this fix. I know it will help your resolution issue and the way you explain the audio issue leads me to believe that it will help there too.

What video card are you utilizing in this setup?

[Sprinx]

I'm going to try this solution first, and see if that fixes my problem before I order the hardware:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1387832/htpc- ... t_22540175

Seems like it might help. I already made the registry changes, and I'll try to cause the issue tonight when I get home.

As to my video card, I'm using the built-in AMD Radeon HD 6550D on my A8-3850 APU. I'm pretty happy with it for the most part, and glad that I was able to buy something AMD for once (instead of Intel / nVidia). I'm pure nVidia when it comes to gaming, but it's nice to support competition when they do a good job, like they have with the APUs.

I'll give an update later on.

[ewtaylo]

That link you provide was the first solution that I utilized for my problem. It works pretty well for controlling the video output size when the display is powered off. I suspect it will have no affect on your main issue with the audio. I say this because with the solution linked windows still receives the power on/off events and it still changes settings when those events are received. I believe it is the changing of settings that messes up your WMC.

BTW: if you feel like you want to reset those keys you can do what I did. If you delete all of the key trees out of the Configuration area and reboot the appropriate keys are created again. That behavior is how I know that windows does not receive the power on/off events if the HDMI switch is in the system. When I have that in and I delete all of those keys windows never creates the "Simulated" key tree. If I connect the hdmi straight through and then power off the monitor the "Simulated" key will be created.

edit 1: One other thing that I did in regards to the registry keys. I determined the name of my main display. I exported its entire key tree to a file. I then edited that file and replaced the name of my display with the name from the "Simulated" key. Now you can double click the created file and the "Simulated" entry will be an exact copy of your main display. This eased my mind that there were no differences when I powered off the monitor.

edit 2: Oh! One other thing you can clarify. When does your audio issue occur? 1) Only when the computer awakes from sleep? 2) Only after the monitor has been power cycled (no computer sleep involved). Your AVR in the system allows you to test the audio while the power to the monitor is off. Is it possible that simply power cycling the monitor causes the issue to happen? If that is true, then I really think the HDMI switch will fix it.

I have my fingers crossed for you.

[Sprinx]

That link you provide was the first solution that I utilized for my problem. It works pretty well for controlling the video output size when the display is powered off. I suspect it will have no affect on your main issue with the audio. I say this because with the solution linked windows still receives the power on/off events and it still changes settings when those events are received. I believe it is the changing of settings that messes up your WMC.

Yes, you were correct - it did not fix the audio issue. It also caused a different issue with the display being aligned improperly occasionally when I power the display back on.

BTW: if you feel like you want to reset those keys you can do what I did. If you delete all of the key trees out of the Configuration area and reboot the appropriate keys are created again. That behavior is how I know that windows does not receive the power on/off events if the HDMI switch is in the system. When I have that in and I delete all of those keys windows never creates the "Simulated" key tree. If I connect the hdmi straight through and then power off the monitor the "Simulated" key will be created.

I'll probably try this today.

edit 1: One other thing that I did in regards to the registry keys. I determined the name of my main display. I exported its entire key tree to a file. I then edited that file and replaced the name of my display with the name from the "Simulated" key. Now you can double click the created file and the "Simulated" entry will be an exact copy of your main display. This eased my mind that there were no differences when I powered off the monitor.

I'll probably try this later.

edit 2: Oh! One other thing you can clarify. When does your audio issue occur? 1) Only when the computer awakes from sleep? 2) Only after the monitor has been power cycled (no computer sleep involved). Your AVR in the system allows you to test the audio while the power to the monitor is off. Is it possible that simply power cycling the monitor causes the issue to happen? If that is true, then I really think the HDMI switch will fix it.

Well, technically 1 and 2. But I am also believing that the monitor power cycle is the main issue. Whether or not the computer has been asleep is probably irrelevant. I'll order the HDMI switch and see what it does.

I have my fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for that, and thanks for all your non-superstitious help, as well.

[Crash2009]

It also caused a different issue with the display being aligned improperly occasionally when I power the display back on.

I've seen that type of mis-alignment screen before. Also those horizontal black bars.

When you mouse-over the black bars, do they sometimes show what's underneath? and/or flicker when you mouse-over

In my case, bad ram was one of the problems I was having. Not sure if the ram was the only offender. I changed out the CPU, Video card, and ram, all at the same time. I was getting BSOD's, all different kinds. (MEMORY MANAGEMENT was the most frequent BSOD).

Also, and I'm not sure if this even applies to your problems, Memtest booted from USB said the ram was OK. Windows memory tester said it was ok too. Ended up testing one stick at a time to find out which one was NG.

[cugolfer33]

I had split screen issue before and was HDMI issue on Onkyo receiver. I unplugged receiver from power for awhile and it went away. Some Onkyo's had HDMI board issues. Also I would try the Gefen HDMI detective as that solved all my sound issues in Windows.