XPS M1330: Cannot play only digital audio over HDMI

Hi!

I own an XP m1330 and have problems connecting it to my Yamaha RX-V661 receiver. The laptop is connected to the reciver via HDMI and the receiver has an HDMI out to my TV.
When I try to play movies from XPS via HDMI everything works fine. Sound and video. But when I want to just listen to music and turn the TV off (or switch to laptop display), the sound is gone too.
It seems that the problem is not in the receiver, since I can play audio CDs from my Philips DVD player, connected via HDMI without having to switch the TV on.

It looks to me, that the laptop disconnects the HDMI connection alltogether when it looses the signal from TV, not just the video part.

Does anyone have any experience with audio without video over HDMI?

 

IF u play music, just simply use the headphonee 3.5mm jack to RCCA and hook it into your Receiver.

I don't think it'll do Audio only viia HDMI , your dvdplayer can but not this one . this might help

 

Uhh, isnt the frequency that the RCCA 3.5mm jack produces VERSUS the HDMI port a HUGE difference or am I mistaken?

Would the RCCA 3.5mm jack allow the reproduction of lossless audio (DTS,FLAC) rather than just CD quality?

 

I assume you tried changing the audio output to the HDMI... If not, I would suggest doing so and seeing if that works... If that doesn't work, the 3.5mm to RCA is probably the best choice... You could usually find one for about $5-$7 at Radioshack...

 

Yea, you won't notice a difference for music. And I think you're a bit confused, because FLAC is usually losslessly compressed from a CD quality source. Are you trying to play DVD-Audio or something? Because I don't know of anything that uses DTS for music.

Definitely use HDMI for movies though because the RCA jack can't carry surround sound.

 

"Definitely use HDMI for movies though because the RCA jack can't carry surround sound."

So, is the only difference between HDMI and RCA 3.5mm audio is that it can carry more channels or is it in addition that the HDMI can carry a higher frequency? Because as you say use HDMI for movies since RCA cannot carry surround sound like DTS, AC3, 5.1 Surround - wouldnt that also mean that if you want the best audio, go for the HDMI port?

I appreciate your time in helping me, thanks!

 

Thanks for all the replies. Audio is set to HDMI.. movies work perfectly with DTS audio.
Of course theres always jack to RCA cable but thats an additional cable I could really do without. Plus I wouldnt mind digital connection to the receiver that HDMI offers.
I could run it simply with the TV turned on but the TV is a plasma screen, so in this case the static display of desktop isnt recommended.

I wonder if the problem could be sorted with drivers or is it simply the limitation of HDMI standard.

 

Yes, HDMI is higher quality overall than RCA. See below for technical reasons if you're interested.

HDMI is digital so it theoretically offers better quality since the signal will have a better SNR (less susceptible to noise caused by interference and send/receive electronics). And yes, it also has more bandwidth so it can carry higher bitrate audio that's been sampled at higher frequencies--but frequency doesn't really matter, since you can't hear anything above 20 kHz, so "basic" 44.1 kHz sampled audio is all that anyone needs (because the Nyquist sampling rate to prevent aliasing in a signal with a highest frequency of 20 kHz is 40 kHz).