Ferrari 5004, HDMI to TV sound issues

Hey guys.

I have a Ferrari 5004wlmi running vista business and have just bought a Sony KDL40V4000 40" LCD TV. I had great plans of plugging the notebook into tv with HDMI cable to watch movies etc. I can get picture on the TV but no sound. I did a bit of hunting round the web and found this is a pretty common problem. But, for me i am yet to find a solution.

I tried updating my audio drivers from the Realtek website but i wasnt really sure which one to install, they have just updated their website with quite a few and i dont know the correct one for this notebook. I emailed them asking for help but they have not replied. I have emailed Acer but got a reply that did not help at all.

In my readings i see that by right clicking on the speaker icon in taskbar then 'playback devices' I should be able to select HDMI cable but i do not get this option; only "Speakers" and "Realtek Digital Output". If i select the digital output option and cross my fingers, touch wood and hold my tongue in the right position i do sometimes get sound coming through the TV.

Seems to be quite a process for it to work though; i turn tv and notebook off, plug hdmi into notebook, turn on tv, turn on notebook, then about 15 seconds before vista finshes starting up i select HDMI on tv and if i am very lucky the sound will work, if it doesnt i restart notebook and then it may work or it may not.

This seems really fickle to me which makes me think something needs fixing. Even if everything is plugged in and working but then i leave it for awhile or watch normal tv then try the notebook again the sound will be gone again.

I see there was a HDMI update on realtek which i installed but it said no driver was supported once it had finished installing, i had the hdmi cable plugged in at the time.

So my questions which i hope someone can help me with;

What are the correct drivers to download from Realtek for a Ferrari 5004?

Why do i not get the option for HDMI cable on 'playback devices' do i need it?

Should i really have to go through the above procedure for things to work correctly or should i just be able to plug notebook into tv at any stage?

Yup thanks for any help guys, i am running out of hair to pull out over this one!!

Cheers
Mike.

 

Realtek drivers from the Realtek site are universal, they are not for a particular model. Some people here on NBR says that for some ACER models the drivers are "modded" but I have no idea. No need for "custom" sound drivers for my laptop.
Anyway I found a possible solution. It's for 5920G but it should work for you too.

Yes, you have to select the Realtek HDMI output. This is the only option you need to activate sound via HDMI as far as I know. Make sure you hit "Set Default". If this doesn't work for you, double-check the TV...or test the HDMI output with a external monitor or something..

 

Thanks for the reply ATG. After more fiddling i have gone back to the realtek driver from Acer. If i download from the american acer website the driver is actually a newer than the one i would get from the New Zealand acer site (where i live).

I still do not get the option for selecting HDMI as a playback device so the Realtek Digital Output device will have to do.

Its really strange to me that sometimes the sound will come through the TV and sometimes it doesnt, the cable is new and works fine with the DVD player so i dont think a buggered cable is the problem.

If i cross my fingers, touch wood, sacrifice a goat in the honour of Zeus then change the TV to the HDMI source as soon as my desktop first appears on the notebook the sound seems to work. Yup im still scratching my head over this one!

Just out of stubborness i will try to keep using the HDMI as i like the idea of just using one cable instead of a vga and audio cable but its annoying things dont seem to work as well as they should.

Cheers
Mike.

 

You tried the drivers from http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/ferrari5000.html ?

 

Yep, the european one was version R1.53 and the american one was R1.61 so installed what i thought was the newer one. I didnt try the european one tho, might give it a go just to see...

 

Actually you can get R2.08 directly from Realtek site...
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3