Help! Feel so stupid ...

orthodoc • Jul 10, 2012 7:55 pm
I've hooked up everything in my new place - TV, HD box, DVD player, cable modem/wireless router, computers, set up the wireless network - and everything works EXCEPT that I have no audio with the DVD player. Video, subtitles, everything is great, except ... no sound. There IS audio with the TV alone. I've changed out the HDMI cable. No dice. Does anyone have a suggestion?

This is so embarrassing. :headshake:
BigV • Jul 10, 2012 8:05 pm
Pls speak up. I can't hear a thing you're saying.
limey • Jul 11, 2012 2:02 am
Are there multiple remote controls? Have you located them all and used them all to turn up the sound?
ZenGum • Jul 11, 2012 8:47 am
BigV;819376 wrote:
Pls speak up. I can't hear a thing you're saying.


Did you glue your finger in your ear again?
Undertoad • Jul 11, 2012 9:20 am
Is it just HDMI from DVD to TV?
footfootfoot • Jul 11, 2012 9:45 am
"This is the quietest room in the house. No one can hear us in here."
"What?"
orthodoc • Jul 11, 2012 1:28 pm
Undertoad;819422 wrote:
Is it just HDMI from DVD to TV?


Yes, straight HDMI from DVD to TV. I bought a new one in case the first one was defective, but still no sound. There's only one port for HDMI on each component; I can't see how I could screw it up. :yelsick:
glatt • Jul 11, 2012 1:44 pm
that's weird.

Have you played around with the menus for both the TV and DVD to see what sort of sound you have selected?
wolf • Jul 11, 2012 1:49 pm
Did you have or do you now have a home theater surround sound thingy? (what glatt said, only phrased so that it appears to be a different suggestion, so that I have something to contribute here).
orthodoc • Jul 11, 2012 1:56 pm
I'll check the DVD menu when I get home. The TV has sound when cable is used. I don't have any other speakers hooked up, though - I'm just using the TV's speakers.
Gravdigr • Jul 11, 2012 6:11 pm
Are you switching the TV to the appropriate (HDMI) input, i.e., are you on the right 'channel'?

You might count the 'pins' on the cable, and compare that to the number of 'holes' on the TV...or vice versa. They should be equal, btw.
JBKlyde • Jul 11, 2012 9:22 pm
you need a new transfuser combobulator
BigV • Jul 11, 2012 10:07 pm
???

It's not God?
orthodoc • Jul 11, 2012 10:15 pm
Gravdigr;819550 wrote:
Are you switching the TV to the appropriate (HDMI) input, i.e., are you on the right 'channel'?

You might count the 'pins' on the cable, and compare that to the number of 'holes' on the TV...or vice versa. They should be equal, btw.


I went through the inputs - I can label a different 'channel' DVD but it stays on the original input. The only other label is 'composite' - there isn't an input labeled for HDMI. I checked the cable - it's compatible. So I must have the inputs mixed up, but I can't figure out how to change the DVD to a different input.
infinite monkey • Jul 12, 2012 12:01 am
JBKlyde;819603 wrote:
you need a new transfuser combobulator


I actually have two of those. I will sell one. 500 bucks, slightly used.
Gravdigr • Jul 12, 2012 6:10 pm
An HDMI plug/hole, but, no HDMI 'channel'?

Hmm...
orthodoc • Jul 12, 2012 7:03 pm
The TV is HD, 1080p, about five years old. Should I try to connect an older DVD player? Hmm ...

And yes, there is an HDMI outlet/plug. So what am I missing??? :(
BigV • Jul 13, 2012 12:01 pm
Not "channel", but "input". Your tv has a display (the screen) and a sound system (the speakers). It can use these outputs (almost ALWAYS) together, from the same source, the same A/V (audio/video) source. If your dvd player has an hdmi output, the audio and the video are both being transmitted over the same cable. If your tv has an hdmi input, it will get the audio *and* video from that input. The inputs, sometimes called "source" are selectable from the remote for the tv. You might have a range like "cable", "a/v", "hdmi (1/2/3)", "line 1/2", "tv", "antenna", etc. Your tv almost certainly won't have all of these, but it's just like in the olden days when you had to tune your television to channel 3 to watch the tape from the vcr. Or maybe you tuned the tv to "line input" or "line 1". That "tuning" is the is the same as the input selection or the source selection.

You already have this figured out because you can find the video for the dvd player. But, mysteriously, you don't have the audio that you know should be coming out of the tv along with the video. This is a good puzzle.

What I'd do is to simplify the problem. Try to conquer it by dividing it. Does the tv output sound all by itself? Check. Does the dvd player output sound to a different tv? Unknown. Can you check this? Does the given cable transmit audio and video from other known good sources? That kind of troubleshooting will isolate the problem.

I know you know most of this, probably all of it, I was just thinking out loud. The novelty of the sound of my own voice is an appealing change, now that I have my finger out of my ear.
BigV • Jul 13, 2012 12:03 pm
The dvd player sends its audio and video OUT to all outputs all the time. What outputs does the dvd player have besides the hdmi?
Sheldonrs • Jul 13, 2012 2:22 pm
Try turning it off and then back on. lol!
Gravdigr • Jul 13, 2012 5:06 pm
Have you tried speaking to it with a stern voice?
orthodoc • Jul 13, 2012 10:08 pm
BigV;819905 wrote:
Not "channel", but "input".
You already have this figured out because you can find the video for the dvd player. But, mysteriously, you don't have the audio that you know should be coming out of the tv along with the video. This is a good puzzle.

What I'd do is to simplify the problem. Try to conquer it by dividing it. Does the tv output sound all by itself? Check. Does the dvd player output sound to a different tv? Unknown. Can you check this? Does the given cable transmit audio and video from other known good sources? That kind of troubleshooting will isolate the problem.


All right! Thanks for thinking out loud, V, because in practical terms, at least, the problem is solved ...

I have a smaller TV that has HDMI input, and an older non-HDMI DVD player. I checked out various combinations of connections between the two TVs and the two DVD players, and behold: my big, more expensive TV does not get audio via its HDMI input. It does work, on a different input, with an older triple cable from either DVD player. The smaller TV works perfectly, video and audio, via HDMI cable from the HDMI-capable DVD player. I can play the same DVD on the two TVs at once using the two different cables. (I'm enjoying Iron Man II on two TVs right now. :p:)

So my big TV isn't getting audio via HDMI, for whatever reason; my small TV is fine with HDMI input; and I can at least watch DVDs using the older cable on my big TV. It doesn't use the bigger TV's potential to its max, but there's a problem with its HDMI input so I'm not going to get that potential no matter what.

I'm practical. I'll take what I can get ... and now I get audio with my DVDs! Hooray!!! :D

(This is my exciting Friday night ... but hey, I'm happy :) )
Gravdigr • Jul 15, 2012 6:29 pm
orthodoc;820030 wrote:
my big, more expensive TV does not get audio via its HDMI input.


Does it say that in the manual, or is that an observation? Doesn't sound right.

But, at least you're working now!
Gravdigr • Jul 15, 2012 6:36 pm
BTW, any of you suffering from insomnia might want to check out this Wikipedia article on HDMI.

Wow.