Is there an HDMI to 3.5mm stereo converter?

Asked by victord66 (201

) February 4th, 2010

I just installed a new video card (Sapphire HD 5870 1GB PCI-E) and in addition to the DVI-I output it also has HDMI. I’m currently using the DVI output to my monitor and have an old Audigy sound card. In addition to using the DVI for video, can I use the HDMI output for the sound only? What I mean is will it give me better sound quality than the Audigy sound card? If so, how can I attach it to my amplifier? I’m using Windows7 btw and the drivers for the Audigy sound card still are not the best.

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2 Answers

HDMI only transmits the signal and does not do the processing. I think having the sound card in will give you better quality sound, as old as it is.

I do not know of a way to get only the audio out of HDMI, and I don’t think there is a way. Someone correct me if I am mistaken.

ShiningToast (2108

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HDMI carries audio but it is digital; it needs to be decoded on the receiving end; that is, if your receiver has HDMI in, it will decode the audio stream and output it; however, most receivers can’t tune video on one input and audio on another simultaneously. So video and audio would have to “ride” on the HDMI cable.

Unless, you are feeding video to another device (for example a projector or plasma), then the HDMI audio stream into the receiver, tune the receiver to the input receiving HDMI, and then you can hear the audio from that.

sndfreQ (11739

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