BLU RAY PROBLEMS- NO AUDIO ON EXTERNAL TV VIA HDMI

[robbym1]

Guys

just bought a new Sony VGNFW21L which is superb, but only one problem so far.

When I hook the laptop to my Philips TV 32PF9731d via HDMI lead I get the picture which is very good, but there is no audio when the film starts?

i have tried playing around with all the settings, such as playback devices (right click speaker icon) and windDVD settings and still no luck.

Any ideas anybody?

cheers

[RichT1980]

Hi Robby,

I experienced similar problems with my Sony Vaio FZ28M laptop a couple of weekends ago. I tried HDMI to my Sony Bravia TV first and could not get a picture to begin with as I was trying to display the image on the TV and the laptop, after using the F4 key to switch to HD display screen only the picture was okay.

Next problem was as you describe, I was under the impression that the picture and sound went through the HDMI cable to the TV, but discovered that actually I need to connect the sound via the low quality earphones jack to a audio splitter cable (with red and black plugs) and plug these into my audio in ports on my TV, then set up the audio on the TV so the audio in is from hear.

After you have done this you may need a reboot of your laptop for it to recognise the path of audio and sound.

After this I encountered the same problems as every one else seams to have done who has tried to use their Sony Vaio laptop as advertised. The bundled WinDVD BD 8 software is almost worthless if you want to "enjoy hours of uninterupted Blue Ray video playback" as is advertised by Sony in all their literature and online, I experienced lip-cinqing problems, audio break-up (as though the sound was coming from an old gramma phone sat on a bass drum being repeatedly banged, so that every few seconds I get a slight interuption in sound), this was trying to play The Dark Knight, new Batman film on Blue Ray from Warner Brothers.

I am currently trying to update my Win BD DVD 8 software with the updates from Club Vaio (don't even attempt to download Win BD DVD 8 Gold/Platinum updates from the Corel/InterVideo publishers website as it is incompatible with the OEM version of the software that Sony bundle with their laptops across their entire laptop range), unfortunately when I tried the ones from Club Vaio the first time, from the page that was specific to a FZ28M model Windows Vista (Home Edition) informed me that the file is corrupted (I wondered if this was because the file took 1.5hours to download on my 512kb internet connection and it had somehow missed a chunk of data or miss copied it, but after trying again I got the same result).

I have just found Thalamus's link to the updates that are required for Win BD DVD 8 Sony Vaio OEM software

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=59474

and I have downloaded them (at work on a much faster ADSL ethernet connection) for installation on my Vaio later when I get home. If they are successful (crossing my fingers and toes on that, but not holding out much hope!!! I will let the forum know.

I am disappointed with Sony that their product does not do what they advertise it as being able to do. When I came to choosing a laptop I chose Sony over a less expensive rival brand (which had essentially the same specifications except for the Blueray drive) because I thought I was buying the best available from a reputable brand, I have only just started using the BlueRay disc drive for BD discs, I have owned the laptop for 11months now and it works very well for DVD playback; photoediting; internet use and also 3D first person computer games and also office functionality, just the BD player and battery life which are real let downs for the moment.

I was browsing the latest models of Sony Vaio laptops to see if Sony had gone to the trouble of bundling their models with Corel/Intervideo's WinDVD 9 Platinum software which is supposed to have eliminated the problems of the old WinDVD 8 Blueray disc playback but was disappointed to find that they are still bundled with WinDVD 8 (and only a SOny OEM version at that) which means that every user who wants to watch BD discs will have to go through the same process of downloading 2 files at 90Mb, then a further file of 100Mb just to try and get the thing to work.

Interestingly Corel/Intervideo's website for WinDVD 8 BD suggests that the software is incompatible with Windows Vista - I wonder if this is a case of Sony "trying to fit a square block through a round hole" and just not quite managing to pull it off.

I will try the updates this evening, there goes another 2 hours of my life trying to get Sony bundled software to work, well, I'm an eternal optimist, I live in hope that I will be able to "enjoy hours of uninterupted Blue Ray video playback"

[sonypass33]

Next problem was as you describe, I was under the impression that the picture and sound went through the HDMI cable to the TV, but discovered that actually I need to connect the sound via the low quality earphones  jack to a audio splitter cable (with red and black plugs) and plug these into my audio in ports on my TV, then set up the audio on the TV so the audio in is from hear.

Not true,
DVI is picture only, HDMI is Picture and sound.
There is another sound setting which I forget now but will post later as I have it written down somewhere.

[sonypass33]

When you get a chance go into CONTROL PANEL and go to the SOUND applet. RIGHT CLICK on the SPDIF interface and SET AS DEFAULT.

This worked for me but to get sound back on the laptop I needed to change it back.

Gotta love HDMI!!

[heraldicone]

Hi

I too am having problems whereby I can get the visuals but no sound. I hadn't realised this thread was here. My thread is here in case anything helps...

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/viewthread?thread=60205

It's nice to hear that I'm not on my own and digging about there seems to be a few people with this problem!!!


When you get a chance go into CONTROL PANEL and go to the SOUND applet. RIGHT CLICK on the SPDIF interface and SET AS DEFAULT

I had come to the conclusion that that might be worth a try BUT it is always greyed out and I can't click on it-as in figure two of Sandgrounder's post on page 2 of my thread.

I'd be very grateful if you could let me know how you managed to get it to change to SPDIF being set to default?

Thanks for any help.

Have to say that Intervideo WinDVD is, basically, not very good and I'd be surprised if many people persist with it given the problems that lots of peaple seem to have getting it to work

[robbym1]

Hi

Just seen your reply to my original thread and have since seen that other guys are also experiencing very similar probs and also losing the will to live after hours of what is like walking through treacle trying to fix the problem.

However, i just posted a response to heraldicone thread before i saw the replies to my original post on 10th Jan. I did manage to get sound with a little work around that I describe in my post of a few minutes ago, it worked which was well very surpsing for me being a non IT kind of guy.

But I am sure the next time I try a different BR disk i will still have to pxss about for 2 hours or so, so have kind of accetped that there is an issue to resolve with Sony when I get more time.

Have a look see if it works for you, As i say, I think it is all a bit random and an issue Sony have to sort out. To be continued I am sure.....

[heraldicone]

Hi

Have repled on the other thread!

Please can I ask that you raise this with Sony, as if all of us do so that have problems they might actually do something about it!! I've already raised it with them....

Cheers

[RichT1980]

Hi guys,

PROBLEM SOLVED - thanks Thalamus,

I had to uninstall any reference to WinDVD,

Then download the original OEM WinDVD
Then follow the update sequence that Thalamus described
Then found still had lip-cinq problems,
Found the file EP0000171783 - via Sony Vaio update for my VGN-FZ38M. In the update labelled: WinDVD BD -8.0 - 8.0.9.670_2

Installed this one, restarted computer and now my BD player works fine, lip-cinq is great, action sequences much smoother (I would not say perfectly smooth, occasional break up, but a hell of a lot better, quite watchable).

A good result, only took 1.5 hours for uninstall and reinstall and then 4 updates!! Plus all my time downloading the updates at work!!

Thanks for thread Thalamus, worth mentioning that untill you install the 3rd update you won't have a BD drive that works though, and until you install the EP0000171783.exe things don't run smoothly at all. Now all is working though.

Cheers

Richad

[Thalamus.]

PROBLEM SOLVED - thanks Thalamus,

You're welcome, glad I could help Richard..