[jingo_man]

hi guys

i have a cambridge audio A1 Mk3 amp (yeah, i know old & crappy! but it still makes a noise and am saving up for that proper new AV reciever as we speak!!)

anyway - back to my problem. i had this setup so that i never needed to get up and manually switch the "Source" dial to the appropriate source when changing between AV and HDMI sources on my TV (all devices' audio is routed to the amp via stereo cable). i had the following plugged in:
Humax FOXSAT-HDR
Nintendo Wii
AppleTV
Samsung TV

i had issues with the Humax box though, so got rid and replaced it with an HTPC (Ubuntu running XBMC & MythTV). however, now i have to flick the dial whenever i change source.

does anyone know why this may be happening? is there a way i could get it working as it did before switching that 1 appliance, i.e. by cabling in a different order?

regards

jingo_man

[Jamie]

How was it setup before and how is it all wired together now?

You've told us your problem but no details on connections used and how it all fits together.

I would guess you have an audio feed from your TV to the amp. How is your new HTPC connected to the PC? Id it a DVI-HDMI connection because as a rule DVI doesn't carry Audio hence the need to switch the amp to the PC input. Some Graphics cards can use a specific adapter in the DVI port to provide a HDMI that includes audio or you may find a specific HDMI on your TV is designated for PC use and also has a socket for a seperate audio feed, normally a 3.5mm jack socket

[jingo_man]

apologies, i should have put some description of my current setup.

attached is a pic, as for most its easier. red lines are audio, blue is video.

basically, all lines into the amp are stereo, cos its old and crappy and only handles stereo inputs.

the audio outputs from all devices goes to the amp, except the Wii.
the video outputs from devices go to the hdtv. although they do all carry the audio too, the volume on the tv is set to 0, as i want all sounds coming through the amp, not the crappy built in speakers of the tv.

this is which "port" the devices are plugged into on my amp:
HTPC --> Video
AppleTV --> Aux
HDTV --> Tuner

devices plugged into HDTV:
Wii --> Component
AppleTV --> HDMI
HTPC --> HDMI

(again longer term, all devices will have hdmi into an av reciever, then 1 single hdmi up to the tv. but not yet...)

hope clarifies a bit better...

jingo_man

[Jamie]

Getting there but theres still quite a lot of information missing on that diagram

So when you said you could switch source on the TV and not need to do anything at the amp I suspect the amp was on whatever input the TV is connected to. The extra direct audio connections from your sources to the amp are unnecessary

So sound is going to your TV and the amp is simply playing whatever sound is on the TV (The volume is irrelevant as the TV audio out will be a line out and unaffected by the volume)

So it goes back to my original theory and question. Your TV is not getting an Audio signal from the HTPC for some reason

If your HTPC does have a HDMI I suspect the sound isn't set up correctly on the HTPC. If its a DVI on the PC then as stated above DVI in general doesn't support audio, so DVI-HDMI will be picture only, you'll need a seperate Audion connection.

Some TVs designate one of the HDMIs for PC use and include an additional sound input, usually a 3.5mm Jack plug, take a lead from the audio line out to this socket and you should be good.

[jingo_man]

ahh, i think i get you. so in my previous setup, even though i had run separate audio feeds into the amp for each device, the audio was actually being carried from the tv audio-out source, so as long as my amp was set to the audio-in source for the tv, then all devices would have played.

this would also have the effect of making the additional audio cable runs into the amp pointless, as they werent actually being used? (or i could have switched the amp's source and got access to a 2nd audio feed)

the htpc is capable of hd-audio and is also capable of 7.1 from numerous 3.5mm sockets (depends on which are actually cabled up as to what sound config you get)
as i only have 1 "3.5mm to stereo" cable from the green audio-out connector, for front speakers, i have the simplest setup.

i tried unplugging the 3.5 cable (though not sure this was entirely required!), so hoping that all audio would be routed through the hdmi connection to the tv and turning up the tv's built-in speakers but still did not get any audio. do you know how to set this up, or am i best raising separate ticket on appropriate forum(s)? i am running ubuntu linux. i dont think i have the audio cable connected into the hdmi-audio connectors on the motherboard either - will this need switching?

cheers again

jingo_man

[Jamie]

TBH I'm not up with HDMI in PCs.

As I see it you have 2 options to get PC audio to the TV and hence to your amp

If your TV has an HDMI with a corresponding PC audio input (some do, I think my Samsung LCD does) then a 3.5mm single jack for stereo into this socket will do the job. What model is your TV?

OR

You need to get the HDMI setup so its carrying 2 channel stereo audio, Might be better asking in the PC section about this