Sony KDL 40W4000 and Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop - No sound.

[admin_exported]

Hi,

Firstly, thanks to all who run this helpful forum.

After reading all the glowing reviews about the Sony KDL 40W4000 in What HiFi mag and all over the internet I ordered it from John Lewis and received it a week ago. Till I buy rest of the pieces of the home cinema (Denon AVR1908 + Panasonic BDP 50 + Tannoy Mercury F1 speakers) I still want to enjoy my HD movie collection on my computer. I have
a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop with DVI-D socket. The laptop screen resolution is 1920 x 1200 @60Hz. I have also bought
a Labgear DVI-HDMI adapter and QED Qunex HDMI Performance cable (7m). I used the
DVI-HDMI adapter on my laptop and then used the HDMI cable to connect
it to HDMI IN 3 (see image below) socket of my telly. I then used a cable from the headphone output socket of my laptop
to the Red and White sockets (see image below) of my telly.

I
am able to get the picture perfectly, so no probs there at all.
However, I am at a loss as to how to get the sound from my laptop to
the telly. I have checked the volume levels in Windows Vista (32-bit) and everything is enabled and double checked to see if no sound output is muted. Maybe I am doing something wrong but I can't figure it out?

Basically, I am
trying to play HD movies (.MKV) with 5.1 sound on my laptop and view
them on my Sony HDTV in full glory. I have all the audio/video codecs
properly installed and the movies play perfectly on my laptop. In the
meantime I have also ordered the Creative's USB Sound Blaster X-Fi
Surround 5.1 so that I will have a long time permanent solution to play
the full surround sound via my laptop. But till I receive it can
someone please help me so that I am able to get the sound on the Sony
telly from my laptop?

The rest of the Sony telly connections are as follows:

TIA.

 

[Anonymous]

You have chosen the HDMI input so the TV is looking for audio coming over that only. You will need to use component video.

 

[Andy Grange]

To me it looks like you've got your video running through HDMI 3 but your audio through AV3, which are surely two different channels? Might be worth flicking over to AV3 to confirm this when you have a movie running

From looking at the second picture you might be able to run a VGA cable into the PC input, and run your RCA cable into the red/white inputs next to the PC in. Check to see if the audio is assigned to that channel in the manual first though, I might be barking up the wrong tree

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for everyone's replies. After reading your replies it seems clear to me that I am obviously trying to run audio and video via separate channels. With the very limited AV knowledge that I have I thought that I can run AV separately! As my laptop has DVI-D socket which carries uncompressed video I wanted to use that to be able to use the telly for full resolution.

I will try the VGA channel with RCA cable and will report my progress here. I just hope that I will still be able to play the movies in full resolution via VGA failing which I just have to wait till I get the rest of my home cinema kit!

Regards.

 

[Andy Grange]

VGA allows for 1080p, so you should be fine with that.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I tried it via the VGA cable. I get the extended desktop on the Sony panel with 1366 x 768 @60Hz resolution. However, I still do not get any sound using the RCA cable from the laptop to Sony panel when playing a movie on laptop. I inserted the RCA cable jack into the Headphone socket of the laptop and the Red & White jacks into the corresponding sockets on the PC IN area on the backside of Sony panel.

When I take out the jack from the headphone socket the sound is just fine on laptop. I also tried to downmix the 5.1 sound to mono in KMPlayer to check if the sound signal itself was the problem but that did not work either. Dunno what else can I do?

Cheers.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

How long will it be before you get your new soundcard and receiver? Coaxial from soundcard to Denon and dvi/hdmi from laptop to screen should work fine.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Hope I can help you a little. First thing I wanted to tell is that, although it may not be a problem for you, VGA conection of the Sony does not go any higher than the resolution you mentioned. If you want Full HD you will have to use the HDMI connection.

As for your sound issue, have you checked with a headphone if there actualy is comming sound from your headphone output? Thatïs the only thing I could think of. And maybe your headphone has a dedicated software volume controle somewhere.

using the PC with your 40W4000 should be no problem, I used it on my own and it works.

Oh, I just think of another possible solution. You said that you where pluging the red and the white jacks in the corresponding sockets on the PC IN area on the backside of Sony. I just remembered that those are no inputs but outputs. The corresponding input for the VGA socket should be of the same type as you hook your laptop up with. Mini jacks.

Hope this helps you solve your problem.

Good luck

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

i cant help but read your forum, but however my problem lies with the dvi - hdmi video connection. I have the exact same equipement (Sony KDL 40W4000 LCD TV and Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop). But for some reason i cannot get my laptop to hook up to the TV via DVI and yet it works perfectly using the PC VGA
connection.

i have tried using a dvi hdmi adapter and hdmi cable (from the sony centre where the tv was purchased) and even purchased a dvi - hdmi cable but both have failed.

I am not sure if there is a setting on the laptop or TV that i need to enable but i would be grateful if you enlighten me on how you managed to connect the two equipment together via DVI-hdmi??

regards

 

[Dave_]

spaceman41:

I am not sure if there is a setting on the laptop or TV that i need to enable but i would be grateful if you enlighten me on how you managed to connect the two equipment together via DVI-hdmi??

regards

with my inspiron 1525 you can either go into "mobility cente" and select the output you want to use in there, or if you press the fn and f8 keys on the keyboard, this enables you to scroll round the outputs