# Nvidia (specifically ION) HDMI Sound



## BigDaveyL (Feb 1, 2011)

Hi all,

Just curious - for kicks.  Does anyone have sound woriking through their NVidia cards, specifically, ION?  I have a Zotac ION board with a 9400M.

I plugged it into my 5 year old TV and it doesn't 'just work.'  Anyone have any hints?  

(I may buy a reciever with HDMI ports down the road so I'd like to get this to work before I invest the cash.  I can take out my dedicated DVD player and replace it with my ION - and use it to play DVD's)


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## SirDice (Feb 2, 2011)

Have you tried x11/nvidia-driver?

If you have any problems or questions regarding that driver they're probably best asked on the NVidia support forum (there are NVidia developers there too).

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=47


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## BigDaveyL (Feb 3, 2011)

x11/nvidia-drivers are installed.

Doesn't appear to "just work" nor does when I set hw.snd.default_device to the hdmi port.

If I connect to my current reciever via speaker jack, I get sound.


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## SirDice (Feb 3, 2011)

Also make sure the correct audio driver is loaded for the sound chip on the videocard.


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## brianc (Nov 30, 2011)

I have been trying to get this to work also. I posted on nvidia's forum and so far no response, but did see something from a while back stating at this point hdmi sound on ion boards does not work with freebsd FreeBSD.


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## mix_room (Dec 1, 2011)

I have HDMI audio working with a Nvidia GT520. 

Are you sure that you have set the right value? 
I don't have hw.snd.default_device, but I do have hw.snd.default_unit


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## brianc (Dec 1, 2011)

Yeah, I tried all the devices and was never able to get anything through the HDMI port. Had no issues with, front panel, rear panel and optical out. Good to know it works on the GT520 as I was thinking about changing out the ion with a standard motherboard and video card.


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## mix_room (Dec 2, 2011)

What do you mean it doesn't work? 

Does the HDMI pairing work properly? Is the resolution properly transmitted? 

I had troubles with mine, it wasnt performing the handshake properly. This was solved with a firmware update in the TV.


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## brianc (Dec 2, 2011)

Sorry, to be clear... HDMI works fine, just no sound through HDMI and my tv only does sound over hdmi, or regular rca (red/white combo).


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## mav@ (Dec 2, 2011)

HDMI sound depends on two components: Xorg video driver should negotiate sound parameters with your TV and snd_hda driver should play sound via HDMI HDA device. I have no idea about NVIDIA, but I know AMD drivers have special Xorg options to enable HDMI audio. Make sure you have configured everything right there. Looking on Linux code, seems like NVIDIA (unlike AMD) uses nonstandard HDA extensions, so I have no idea whether it works now.


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## brianc (Dec 3, 2011)

As far as I can tell everything is configured properly. I could not find anything in the NVidia docs about having to add anything to xorg.conf like AMD. 

dmesg:

```
hdac0: HDA Codec #0: Realtek ALC887
hdac0: HDA Codec #3: NVidia MCP7A HDMI
pcm0: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #0 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm1: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #1 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm2: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #2 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm3: <HDA NVidia MCP7A HDMI PCM #0 Digital> at cad 3 nid 1 on hdac0
```

`cat /dev/sndstat` 

```
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 64bit 2009061500/amd64)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #0 Analog> (play/rec)
pcm1: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #1 Analog> (play/rec)
pcm2: <HDA Realtek ALC887 PCM #2 Digital> (play)
pcm3: <HDA NVidia MCP7A HDMI PCM #0 Digital> (play) default
```

pcm0,1,2 all work properly.


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## mix_room (Dec 6, 2011)

[cmd=""]>cat /dev/sndstat[/cmd]


```
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 64bit 2009061500/amd64)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <HDA NVidia (Unknown) PCM #0 DisplayPort> (play)
pcm1: <HDA NVidia (Unknown) PCM #1 DisplayPort> (play) default
pcm2: <HDA Realtek ALC885 PCM #0 Analog> (play)
pcm3: <HDA Realtek ALC885 PCM #1 Analog> (play)
pcm4: <HDA Realtek ALC885 PCM #2 Digital> (play/rec)
```

[cmd=""]>sysctl -a [/cmd]

```
... 
hw.snd.default_unit: 1
...
```

It seems as though your settings are similar to mine. I have no extra information in Xorg.conf like I used to have with my Radeon-card. 

Even though you say that everything works properly, take a look at updating your TVs firmware. Mine wouldn't pair at all with my PS3, and only improperly with other things. It did exchange of the picture information, but not audio. It's worth a shot - mine was very easy. FAT32 USB-stick with a single image file on it, plug it into the TV, press power for 5 seconds, click YES-YES-YES-YES, **WAIT**, finished.


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## taliz (Dec 18, 2011)

I have also tried this on my ION platform, a Zotac 330 D mobo, with FreeBSD 8.2 amd64 and the nVidia 285 driver. The ION platform is quite popular for HTPC boxes, and as I have a great FreeBSD install with ZFS, timemachine etc I was thinking I could combine the HTPC and my FreeBSD server into one box. 

So, the goal was to get XBMC working with VDPAU and video as well as audio via HDMI, and a MCE remote to control it, just as I have it working in Linux. 

I managed to get XBMC working with VDPAU and everything via HDMI, except for the audio. I spent all day yesterday googling and trying various things, but it seems to be hopeless right now. FreeBSD finds the card like this on my box:

```
pcm0: <HDA NVidia MCP7A HDMI PCM #0 Digital> (play) default
```

So it looks good, it's the only card and it's the default, but it just doesn't work. I'm going to try it with FreeBSD 9 shortly and the latest 290 nvidia driver, just so that I have tried all options.


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## brianc (Dec 19, 2011)

taliz said:
			
		

> I have also tried this on my ION platform, a Zotac 330 D mobo, with FreeBSD 8.2 amd64 and the nVidia 285 driver. The ION platform is quite popular for HTPC boxes, and as I have a great FreeBSD install with ZFS, timemachine etc I was thinking I could combine the HTPC and my FreeBSD server into one box.
> 
> So, the goal was to get XBMC working with VDPAU and video as well as audio via HDMI, and a MCE remote to control it, just as I have it working in Linux.
> 
> ...



I tried 290 driver and still no go. I posted a message on NVidia's forum but still have no responses.

Brian


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## mix_room (Dec 19, 2011)

Have you tried firmware updating your TV? 
I would give it a try if nothing else works.


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## brianc (Dec 20, 2011)

mix_room, no not yet, but will probably try in the future. Just have not had any time.

Update: Just looked into firmware update for my TV and does not appear to be anything available. Next step is probably try XBMC Live or Ubuntu Live and see if it works.


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## taliz (Dec 20, 2011)

mix_room said:
			
		

> Have you tried firmware updating your TV?
> I would give it a try if nothing else works.



I don't see how a firmware update would be relevant, as it works fine under Linux or Windows. I would think it is something with either the nvidia drivers, or more likely freebsds FreeBSD's sound system and the snd_hda driver specifically. Would be interesting if we could find someone who knows exactly how that driver works.


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