Tech question hopefully someone has an answer for. I recently got a new computer which i hooked up to an HDTV and have run into the problem of losing sound whenever i switch inputs. So if say, im on the computer and then want to flip over to the ball game on tv or boot up my playstation or something and then go back to the computer i get a message saying that the display device that is capable of sound has been deactivated. do i want to configure, which opens up a screen showing me that the tv is plugged in but then won't let me re-establish the sound.

anyone have experience with this?

I have my PC hooked to TV and Display and if I boot the PC while the TV is off, there is no sound. I found the quickest solution is to win+p switch to monitor only and then win+p back to TV only. At this point the sound is re-established. With older drivers for my soundcard there was no problem, but for whatever reason it's messd up like this. Also, check your sound device options in windows and/or soundcard.

How is your sound connected? If you can, might try a HDMI cable 2.0 think its called? Transmits picture and sound. That or just run the sound threw PC speakers.

@John1912: I think all HDMI transmit both sound and picture (thats whhy it's called HD Media Interface).

I have a similar setup and a similar problem. I have my PC / xbox / ps3 hooked up to my tv. The pc is hooked up to the speakers and the TV is hooked up to the speakers. The PC will drag voltage from the speakers when its on so it will effectively mute the other devices. I just put it on sleep when i run my ps3 or xbox.

@Quipido: I ened up hooking up my HDTV and monitor to my PC. One of the HDMI cables wouldnt get sound out of it. Got em both off Amazon. The original was a HDMI 1.0. After I couldnt get sound with it. I looked at some of the comments they said to get the newer one which I guess is 1.4 not 2.0. That one would get sound threw my video card to the TV useing just the HDMI cable.

@John1912: It sounds like that one cord was just defective. HDMI cords transfer audio signals if audio signals are sent. You probably just upgraded to a better cord that actually worked properly.

I have a problem with text looking awful on my HDTV when I plug my PC into it. Games look fine when I play them, but text looks really really pixelated and shitty.

Oh I had this problem! I updated my graphic card program. The program needed ro be install with the graphic card. Then that fixed that issue.

@TruthTellah: Hmm, yea did all that about a year ago. Now that I think of it, might of been and issue with converting DVI to HDMI. Needed an adapter for my GTX 465 as it only had 2 DVI ports and one of the super small HDMI ports.

from what i hear, monitors are the way to go. but i still don't get whyyyy

I technically have three audio devices on my computer. I have the one that's built into my motherboard (which I don't use). I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi. And when I installed my graphics card (a Radeon HD 5870), I installed an HDMI audio driver with the rest of its software.

Assuming you're on Windows 7, go to Control Panel > Sound. Here you'll see a list of playback devices. If you want to output to your TV, make sure that the HDMI device is set for default playback. If you want to re-enable sound on your computer, make sure your sound card is set for playback.

From my experience, Windows will set up a default profile of sorts for every hardware configuration (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong) you run into. So if your PC gets connected to your TV, that configuration will have a default sound device. If your PC is not connected to your TV, you'll have a different configuration with possibly a different default sound device. But if you want to force something to output somewhere, regardless of what's hooked into what, opening up that screen and setting a device as the default should get the job done.

Sounds like the PC is loosing the connection to the audio interface on the PC when you change channels, defaulting to another source and not switching back when you turn back over. Try disabling the other play back devices so there's only once place to go.