Audio pass through on monitor only uses Nvidia Driver???

jet224presents · December 10, 2017

Right now i have a xbox one, roku stick, and my pc all connected to my monitor via HDMI. my benQ offers audio pass-through so i have hooked up my speaker system into the headphone jack on the monitor and everything is good for xbox and roku, but my pc is then forced to use Nvidia drivers which i believe to sound sub par (plain) to the realtek drivers i used to plug the speakers into (before i had roku i didnt use the speakers for anything but my pc). i have mine specifically setup to let me watch tv and play games over my speakers thanks to the monitor which i really like yet, i want a solution to be able to use realtek drivers for audio via my pc. my monitor also has a pc audio in (3.5mm jack) which i can use for the realtek drivers but there is seemingly no setting that will allow me to set audio profiles to certain HDMI sources. so, when i switch to my pc from my roku i have to go into the settings and change the audio feedback to pc (there is a auto detect but i believe it may only work when moving to VGA). this is for convenience it is a hassle to change settings every time i want to listen to my realtek drivers. to cut it short are there any software changes on windows or my monitor to allow for me to use realtek drivers over HDMI (from GPU) or at least some sort of mixer for the nvidia sound to increase the bass. if you have any solutions what so ever including skipping out the monitor all together that would be help full. i will be buying new equpiment for christmas this year so if there are any affordable options too i may be interested. thanks.

i will most likely not respond tonight.... it be late.

Here is a visualization.

BubblyCharizard · December 10, 2017

since the sound device is the graphics card, then yes, you are going to be using the Nvidia driver

you can get an external device that allows you to switch between multiple inputs, and it should be better quality

Tabs · December 10, 2017

The short answer is no, what you want isn't possible without extra hardware.

If you connect your HDMI cable to your monitor, the audio is handled by the GPU. It passes through *raw digital streams*, usually bitstream or high quality digital to digital passthrough like PCM streams (one per channel). This is also, I believe, a requirement for HDCP, since the entire chain between gpu and output device has to be self contained.

The long answer is: Absolutely not in any way, ever.

There is zero chance that a digital connection like multi channel PCM streams or bitstream through your gpu (which is fundamentally going to be source quality) is going to be worse than a terrible DAC on an onboard realtek solution. What you're basically complaining about here is that the DAC (digital to analogue converter) in your monitor is awful. This is 100% expected.

If you want a good audio experience, you're going to have to pay out for a good HDMI receiver with a quality amp, connected to quality speakers. The DAC is the part that matters for the listening experience in this case, since none of the digital streams your NVidia card can passthrough are lossy unless the source itself is lossy - and even in this case, the NVidia driver isn't making the signal any worse, it's simply transmitting it in the state it receives.

If what you want to do is butcher the quality of anything you listen to by ramping up the lower frequencies only, then unfortunately you cannot do that with the NVidia driver. It's purely a passthrough solution, no more or less. Get a good amp with EQ and HDMI input if you wanna do that.

jet224presents · December 13, 2017

7 hours ago, Tabs said:

The short answer is no, what you want isn't possible without extra hardware.

If you connect your HDMI cable to your monitor, the audio is handled by the GPU. It passes through *raw digital streams*, usually bitstream or high quality digital to digital passthrough like PCM streams (one per channel). This is also, I believe, a requirement for HDCP, since the entire chain between gpu and output device has to be self contained.

The long answer is: Absolutely not in any way, ever.

There is zero chance that a digital connection like multi channel PCM streams or bitstream through your gpu (which is fundamentally going to be source quality) is going to be worse than a terrible DAC on an onboard realtek solution. What you're basically complaining about here is that the DAC (digital to analogue converter) in your monitor is awful. This is 100% expected.

If you want a good audio experience, you're going to have to pay out for a good HDMI receiver with a quality amp, connected to quality speakers. The DAC is the part that matters for the listening experience in this case, since none of the digital streams your NVidia card can passthrough are lossy unless the source itself is lossy - and even in this case, the NVidia driver isn't making the signal any worse, it's simply transmitting it in the state it receives.

If what you want to do is butcher the quality of anything you listen to by ramping up the lower frequencies only, then unfortunately you cannot do that with the NVidia driver. It's purely a passthrough solution, no more or less. Get a good amp with EQ and HDMI input if you wanna do that.

thanks,ill just use nvidia audio out from now on. ha no the on board dac on my msi is actually not that bad (audio boost). if the monitors audio system was skipped altogther the audio would still be plain i have a sub on the speakers so when im blowing cars up it shakes my house, but with these nvidia drivers they just sound bad no loss or anything just plain.

jet224presents · December 13, 2017

On 12/10/2017 at 1:13 AM, BubblyCharizard said:

since the sound device is the graphics card, then yes, you are going to be using the Nvidia driver

you can get an external device that allows you to switch between multiple inputs, and it should be better quality

what is this device?