T510/W510 Audio over displayport?

Any word on if the new Thinkpads will support audio over displayport? Haven't found any confirmation on it from Lenovo or Nvidia. With the "new" NVS5100 and the 3100 I was hoping that there would be a possibility for it.

 

Good question.

Might be nice if one of the people who have taken delivery of their T410's could give it a test.

 

Audio support in displayport was added on Dec 22 as part of the 1.2 standard. It seems that AMD was able to release a driver update for some ATI cards to enable the feature. However, the receiving device would also need to support it, and depending on what that is, it might be difficult to upgrade it.

 

But would one be able to use a dp>hdmi jack and use standard HDMI equipment with sound a video?

 

This is precisly my question as well. If the new standard will allow units configured with displayport to output sound in the same stream, I'd think a converter should be able to convert to HDMI...right? It's a real drag having these two standards duking it out at the consumer's expense!

 

A guy in the forums.lenovo.com site claims to of gotten audio through display port to work.

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Edit: Sorry the post said nothing about getting audio through display port.

 

I don't read that he got Audio running... just the display.

 

Looks like Lenovo and other manufacturers have done a pretty poor job of explaining to customers what version and what optional display port features their products support. Pretty unfortunate for the consumer.

Looks like the Displayport org gets asked this quite a bit as they put it in there FAQ.
http://www.displayport.org/consumer/?q=content/faq

 

I've read great big technical articles about why DP is better then HDMI, but in reality for average people I think HDMI is much better, it either works or doesn't and you don't seem to have to worry about what version or optional features they did or didn't implement

 

Agreed. DP seems more elegant than HDMI but it's less useful in the short term.

 

Theoretical best doesn't always pan out in real world practicality :\. And of course marketing of different group's standards.

 

Excuse me, but Displayport has had audio output for a LONG time. You should read into DP more...

The biggest advances in 1.2 are doubling the bandwidth (for higher resolution output while retaining deep color support, e.g. 2560x1600 and above) and adding an auxiliary channel for stuff like USB.

There's every indication that the Intel HD integrated graphics can do this, even with bitstreaming audio. For starters, there's an Intel Display adapter device listed in addition to the primary audio in the device manager.

Personally, I can't wait for a BD movie software provider to release a new version that supports this. Hopefully Arcsoft (PDVD is now bloated and sorta junkie)

Looks like PowerDVD supports this. I suppose I should order a DP-> HDMI dongle and test this when I come home in a few weeks?

 

I know DP supports audio, but find me one Thinkpad owner that has it working...

 

I asked this question to Lenovo about a year ago and their response back regarding the T400/T500 was that the chip (Intel?) they were using in did not support audio so there was nothing that they could about it.

Hopefully they have chosen a more capable chip for the T410/T510 series or the chip manufacturer fixed this glaring weakness.

 

IIRC, you are basically right. Someone on the official Thinkpad dug out a PDF of the engineering documents Intel sends OEMs for their chipsets (specs, how to change things, options, etc). It was wicked technical, but the Montevinia chipset had a couple options of how audio was routed through the computer. Some chips, the ones available which were at launch immediately, prevented Displayport with audio. Within weeks the chip shortage was over. Basically Intel showed OEMs how to have Displayport with audio, but it was ultimately up to the OEMs to implement correctly.

 

I suspect the limitation with the T510 was the lack of electrical contacts as their docks didn't have DP or HDMI, just DVI. Plus did its X4500 chip have another audio device in the device manager? My T410 does...

 

It was a pain to find these.

Here was a representative of Lenovo's response (I think he's the blogger) http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Displayport-to-HDMI-with-audio/m-p/75988#M1772

I was referring to this post http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Displayport-to-HDMI-with-audio/m-p/78084#M1879 I applaud the poster doing his homework even if its because he had an ax to grind.

I hope Lenovo's engineers got their act together for the new ones.

 

Looks like they did not fix the audio issue.


http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T5...till-missing-audio-on-DisplayPort/td-p/191530

 

I just got my T510 today and I have tested and verified that the displayport on the T510 with the Nvidia video card carries both audio and video, you just have to change the default playback device from Conexant to Nvidia HD audio

 

This is the first post I've read where someone claims to of gotten audio over displayport on a thinkpad. How did you test it? Were you able use a displayport to HDMI adaptor, hook it up to a TV and get audio through the TV?

 

I have both the T500 with ATI card and the T510 with Nvidia card. The T500 displayport does not carry audio but the T510 does. To test it I used a Displayport to HDMI adapter and hooked it up to the HDMI input on my Pioneer VSX1018 receiver and then manually change the default playback device to Nvidia HD audio. Since its the NVidia audio driver that is carrying audio over displayport I not sure if the T510 with the Intel video card will support audio over displayport.

 

Good news!

 

Sound´s very nice. Could someone confirm this for the T410 too?

 

Would be great if someone could confirm it on the W510 as well

 

I'd like to see these confirmations also, but I'm pretty sure if it is in T510, W510 would be covered as well. What do you think?

 

This is Epic...Thank you!!!

 

I just tried it with my new w510. Audio does *not* appear to be carried through the Displayport. I can get audio using a separate cable: 3.5mm stereo male (goes into the headphone jack) to Dual RCA male (goes into the TV audio input). But if I set the TV to get its audio through the HDMI port nothing comes through. This is using an HDMI cable plus a Displayport-to-HDMI adapter.

On my wife's SL410, which has an HDMI port rather than Displayport, the audio does come through the HDMI cable.

What I don't know is whether the problem is the adapter, but the only way to find out would be with a TV or monitor having Displayport input, which I don't have.

 

Did you set the default audio to be the Nvidia HD device as the previous poster did?

 

Yippee! My bad, it does work. You have to do things in the right order. First connect the Displayport adapter and HDMI cable between your w510 and your TV. Then go to Windows7 Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> manage audio devices. Right-click "SHARP HDMI-1" and choose "Set as default device." The sound should pop out of your TV. Make sure you have the TV set to take its audio input from HDMI.

edit: It says "SHARP" because that's the brand of my TV. Yours will be whatever your TV calls itself. Or look for the device that mentions NVIDIA.

 

so it's confirmed that display port can now support audio in Thinkpads.
Good to hear.

 

I am interested in hearing if the models with only integrated graphics support DisplayPort audio output as well.

 

Now I wonder how to get the digital audio out of the displayport (to the AV receiver) while passing the picture further to the beamer...

 

Uh beamer? is that what they're called now?

Anyways you could use any AudioVideo receiver with HDMI or a small device like this one that has HDMI in, and seperate HDMI out and digital audio out. It costs around $260 though, a new receiver with HDMI isn't that much more. One thing to watch out for is Bluray HDCP (high def copy protection) if your using it with a stand alone bluray player. I'm not sure if using your thinkpad with a bluray drive and external display is even an option as the display port is not HDCP compliant.



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Update
Found you one for under $50. Monoprice.com is great for this stuff.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=5557&seq=1&format=2

 

Thanks, for reply, it is an overkill indeed. I'll consider USB "soundcard" with S/PDIF / optic out. Thanks Lenovo :-( (currently I'm using T60 + Advanced Mini Dock for S/PDIF).

P.S.: I'm not native english speaker, I thought you guys call projectors beamers see...

 

This is in regards to a W510...

Does Lenovo sell a Display Port to HDMI adapter? (I know they sell one for a Display Port -> DVI adapter, Part Number 45J7915).

Will just any generic Display Port -> HDMI adapter work? And will it pass through audio as long as it's a W510 w/ the Nvidia audio stuff is set?

 

I will be trying Roline DP->HDMI + Roline HDMI-HDMI 10m cable in near future. But without audio. I gave up and bought cheap USB Audio (Sweex 7.1). I can get back with experiences with such a long cable.

P.S.: I'm sticking to Roline as they proved to be reliable for 720p over 10m DVI on my T60. I tried one more expensive cable before but it suffered from dropouts. I wonder if 1080p will work now. If not, I'll have to buy repeater also

 

jpad - will you please post a screen shot of this? I have the NVIDIA HD Audio drivers installed but I don't see anywhere to switch the playback device.

 

I bought a SIIG Displayport to HDMI Adapter from amazon.com. Nothing fancy and it works fine to carry audio and video.

 

Do we know for sure whether the displayport on the W510 (or displayport in general) can carry dolby digital or dts 5.1 signal? I'd like to be able to hook my W510 to a home theater receiver and get both a 1080p signal to my HDTV as well as a dolby digital or dts signal to my receiver.

 

Hi. I've just started a thread on the official Lenovo forum concerning this topic.

It would be great, if everyone who has experience with DP->HDMI-video/audio, DP->DP-video/audio could participate.

I also think that we should now be by far enough people to force some official response/clarification on this topic.

As far as I can see (follow the wikipedia-link in the Lenovo thread), DisplayPort of the new Intel Calpella chipsets supports all one would need for perfect home cinema HD experience (namely "Direct connect to DisplayPort with DPCP as with its predecessor along with legacy support for HDMI (and HDCP), DVI, and VGA.").

Thanks, here's the link:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T410s-T410-T510-DP-gt-HDMI-audio-questions-survey/td-p/203464

 

I have SUCCESSFULLY tested W510 with Roline DP->HDMI and Roline HDMI-HDMI 10m cable, 1080p @ 60Hz. Audio and video worked without any problem. I haven't tested AC3 / DTS passthrough though, just MP3 decoded into PCM stereo.

 

Hi Aleq,

thanks for the reply. The other thread I started focusses on the T-series. Nevertheless feel free to add your information there.

If you don't want to register there as well, I'll gladly do this for you. For this I would need the graphics card of your W510 (sorry if the entire W510 line only has one, I'm not that familiar with the W-series).

 

For T410/T510 with integrated graphics, there is an audio device in Device Manager called "Intel Display Audio". Maybe this is the audio device to use for audio over displayport? I read several posts on the internet where people have to select this device for their HDMI port to have audio.

 

Successfully used audio over HDMI on my W510 using a cheap Monoprice cable and adapter.

However, on connection the nVidia driver crashed and recovered(?). Also, there were blank spots in the audio, where it would just fail to play anything. Anybody know what's up?

 

I ordered the $50 monoprice hdmi splitter referenced earlier in this thread and should have it next week. Hopefully your audio dropout problem is an isolated incident, but I will report back on how well it works with my home theater receiver.

 

Lenovo Blogs has confirmed the audio-over-displayport capability:

http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=406

 

Sorry for the thread bumping, but this is important to how we look at the audio situation. It looks like I/we/others forgot that the graphics card driver has to actually be written for DisplayPort audio capability to work too. Take this tidbit. ATI's upcoming Catalyst release will actually enable DisplayPort audio. I guess this was part of the problem with the T/W500

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3743&p=3

 

My T410 with integrated graphics, Only video, no audio yet. There is an audio device in Device Manager called "Intel Display Audio". But I don't see any option to elect this device for HDMI port to have audio. After connected to TV, there's no new audio device in playback device list.

 

You need to have a proper player, too. I have a version of Arcsoft TMT. The latest update support audio over DP.

I guess I have to go snag a DP->HDMI adapter..

 

I have to decide whether to buy the t510 with nvidia or intel. Can anybody tell me if the integrated graphics support DisplayPort audio output as well?