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Intel HD 4000 HDMI Audio Driver issue?

idata
Employee
8,482 Views

I just changed from an AMD setup to Intel. I noticed that not all sounds play through the Intel HDMI Audio driver.

It seems like shorter sounds don't send the right type of handshake to my Onkyo receiver quick enough.

For regular MP3, WAV files, Windows Media Center, etc... everything is fine.

When playing shorter sounds like Windows Sounds (IE..as your perform tasks in Windows it dings..etc), or playing test sounds in the Windows Control Panel, the Receiver switches modes, but the HDMI port has probably already sent the audio, so nothing plays. I think the AMD/ATI card, kept the HDMI audio port open longer or something so it wasn't much of an issue, although still happened occasionally on shorter sounds.

On the ATI/AMD card, you could replay a sounds again and the audio connection would remain open, so playing it a 2nd time would always work. With the Intel driver, it drops the audio path after each sound.

I tried the latest Video/audio driver on Intel's web-site. I also saw a test driver and tried that. Neither one made a difference.

I am using Windows 7 -64-bit ultimate. Intel i3 3225

I have tried 2 different brands of MB and the same issues (One was Z77, one was H77 chipset).

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24 Replies
Allan_J_Intel1
Employee
4,675 Views
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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Yeah.. I'm assuming that if I hooked the PC directly to a TV, I wouldn't have the issue.

I'm not using a secondary display. I have the PC hooked to an Onkyo NR-809 receiver using HDMI. Then HDMI from the Onkyo to a Sharp 52" LCD TV.

The audio is using built-in HDMI audio driver from the Intel Driver package, which is why I mentioned it here. I have tried motherboards from ASUS and Gigabyte and the same audio issue exists.

I think part of this is the way Windows 7 outputs audio over HDMI, but I do know that AMD/ATI's driver seemed to work a little at keeping the audio open.

Once something plays, it is fine. In Windows Media Center, the audio comes through the same. The audio doesn't drop out in the middle of playing something. It is just when playing short audio clips in Windows.

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idata
Employee
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I did a little more research. I guess this issue is called the HDMI Silent Stream bug. Windows doesn't send a continuous stream of audio through the HDMI port, when nothing is happening. I also found out that Onkyo receivers are a little slower than others at switching audio modes. So when no audio from HDMI is happening, it takes a few seconds for the Onkyo to switch. AMD/ATI did something to keep the connection open earlier or longer. Not sure what.

I found this app, that keeps the audio channel open and seems to fix this for me:

AVR Audio Guard

http://www.marcsapps.co.uk/ Marc's Apps

Here is a link to some posts about it:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1317491/silent-stream-bug Silent stream bug?

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NICHOLAS_F_Intel
Employee
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Are the power settings on your PC set to 'power saver', 'high performance' or 'balanced'? In either mode except 'high performance', the CPU is not functioning at full capacity, which may result in slight delays for on-wake audio quality (such as no sound coming through your TV until the 'small sounds' mentioned above, are repeated). You can check this from the 'Control Panel' under 'Power Options' (high performance is hidden by default. You'll need to expand this bar).

Thanks,

-Nic

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AD3
Beginner
4,675 Views

Silent stream bug is related neither to hadrware, nor to any settings, it's minor intel's audio driver issue.

Currently:

1) Nvidia has the same bug,

2) AMD already corrected it in their drivers about a year ago. (!)

Hope Intel guys are reading this post, and or if not, how to contact them directly? Write to support?

I guess it's easy to correct the bug in terms of coding, only thing that must be done is - output silence over hdmi when there's no sound,

keeping the same sound parameters as were output before (bithdepth,samplerate and number of channels)

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NICHOLAS_F_Intel
Employee
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Our latest Intel® HD Graphics 4000™ driver was released yesterday.http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22023&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20%20*&DownloadType=Drivers&OSVersion=Windows%207%20%20*&DownloadType=Drivers Download Center

Give that a try and see if it corrects the issue. Let me know if it doesn't.

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AD3
Beginner
4,675 Views

 

hi, nic,

thanks for response.

Yes, I installed this version of intel's drivers today, but unfortunately bug is still present.

Is it possible to contact your coding guys? It's a minor bug and I guess it's very easy to solve,

but very important for users who output sound via hdmi,

becouse sound dissapear for 1-2 seconds each time, when you do track change or seek (you can imagine how's it annoing)

I did a lot of research in internet, The bug is easy to understand, and 100% of users experience it no matter what reciever they use, just some recievers works faster and sound interruption is shorter but still present

I'm personnaly use Amd videocard to output sound, which works perfect, becouse they have fixed the bug already, but would be very grateful if intel do it as well

thanks for any help,

and sorry for my english

Alex

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Yeah.. doesn't solve the issue for me either.

I noticed that Graphics Performance score goes from 6.5 (older driver) to 5.9 in this newer driver, using the Windows 7 64-bit assessment.

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Have you tried connecting to a different secondary display? If I'm reading your issue correctly, it could be that the TV you're connecting to is not keeping the audio channel awake and open. Also, if you have continuous sound (like watching a movie) over HDMI, does it cut out as well - and do these small sounds consistently play over the HDMI? (run both the movie and small sounds at the same time).

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AD3
Beginner
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BTW, driver for intel atom doesn't have this issue (!)

i checked it on Acer Aspire One D270 (Intel GMA 3600), it outputs sound to receiver without problems.

hope that intel will correct it for HD4000

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Hi,

I've the same issue with my Asus P8H77-M & Core i3 3225 (HD 4000) and Onkyo TX-NR818.

As already mentioned the problem is really frustrating on a HTPC !

I tried the above drivers, but the problem still exist.

Previously I used a nvidia Geforce 450GTS on the old mainboard. One of the last nviadia drivers fixed the

issue.

When will it be fixed by Intel?

 

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NICHOLAS_F_Intel
Employee
4,675 Views

Hi all,

If you're still having this issue currently, remove the receiver from the equation and see if you get HDMI sound directly from the system to the HDMI display. If it's working, it might be the case that your receiver needs a firmware update.

If you are using an Onkyo receiver, visit this page here and perform the latest firmware update (latest firmware update includes all previous updates) for your respective system; http://www.intl.onkyo.com/support/firmware/index.html http://www.intl.onkyo.com/support/firmware/index.html

Keep in mind this may/may not fix the issue you're having, based on whether they released an HDMI-related firmware update.

Thanks,

-Nic

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AD3
Beginner
4,675 Views

hi nic,

no, it's not receiver issue at all. Behavior of receiver is 100% correct.

Receiver has to detect parameters of audio stream when it changes or interrupts for a moment, and of course it takes a time.

That's why videocard has to output digital silence instead of interruption of sound like it does now.

No matter what receiver is used, onkyo, denon, pioneer etc , tv or even dac, all of them have to detect paramers of hdmi sound stream, when it interrupts and starts again, becouse hdmi can transfer any samplerates. And this detection takes some time (0.5..1..2 seconds, depends on device), and device attached to hdmi will cut a part of sound. Inevitable.

When using bitperfect ouput ( I mean Wasapi/exclusive) this lacks of sound is real problem because they are exist on every seek or track change.

thanks.

ps. hope I'm clear enough becouse my english isn't perfect

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Hi nic,

My receiver is connected to my home network and has direct access to the internet (e.g.: for internet radio).

It will prompt me if any Firmeware update is available. I checked it and the receiver stated that the actual version is installed.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I changed the hardware from an old Core II Duo mainboard with an PCIe nvidia graphic card to the H77 board with i3 3225 using the HD 4000.

Nvidia solved this problem in one of their latest graphic card driver updates in the early summer time this year.

Old Nvidia drivers had the same issue like the current HD4000 Audio driver:

No sound output = No HDMI Audio stream

Result: My Receiver (ONKYO TX-NR818) is showing in the display: No Signal

Which means no Audio signal, because I can see the Windows desktop on the TV

connected to the Receiver Monitor Output

After starting any audio playback on the PC, the message "No Signal" on the receiver display is deleted and it took ~2 to 3 seconds until the receiver identified the audio stream and its conntent. At this point the receiver is showing its current activated audio configuration depending on the audio stream content.

If the length of the audio signal is less the time the receiver needs to identify the audio stream and its content, I hear nothing, but I can see in the receiver display the change from "No Signal" to nothing shown (during the stream identification) back to "No Signal".

I hope this helps to understand what is the problem on my side.

Thanks

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AD3
Beginner
4,675 Views

I describe problem very short:

1. When Intel HD sends no audio signal - it's not correct. It causes unwanted behavior of hdmi devices and shorten their life when audio signal switches on/off

2. Intel HD must always send audio signal: either actual sound or silent stream (sequence of zero bits with the same parameters as last played sound). Like AMD HDMI driver does. And like Realtek HDMI driver does

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idata
Employee
3,920 Views

Surprisingly, for me it turned out that the sound only works on HD 16:9 resolutions.

I payed with a Raspberry Pi (XBMC, Raspbmc project) yesterday and connected it to my Acer 4:3 (1024x768) projector over Yamaha RX-V663 AVR. It turned out that the HDMI sound is only present on 720p and 1080p resolutions. Afterwards, I switched over to my laptop (Intel HD Graphics 3000) and - voilà, the silent sound issue is also not present on 16:9 resolutions!

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AKani
Beginner
3,920 Views

Shame that intel doesn't solved that problem yet. For such big company it shouldn't be a problem. What is to do someone exactly wrote here:

1. When Intel HD sends no audio signal - it's not correct. It causes unwanted behavior of hdmi devices and shorten their life when audio signal switches on/off

2. Intel HD must always send audio signal: either actual sound or silent stream (sequence of zero bits with the same parameters as last played sound). Like AMD HDMI driver does. And like Realtek HDMI driver does

AMDget rid of that problem very fast. Why INTEL doesn't do anything with this?

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

Hi,

Had the same problem and has been solved by uninstalling the latest version of the driver and installing

version 9.17.10.2875 from the intel website. Hope it works with others

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idata
Employee
4,675 Views

That is odd because I have experienced this issue with every (x64, never tried x86) driver revision since May, including the one you mention...

In fact the audio driver in that package is I believe exactly the same I'm using (6.14.0.3097 dated 19/06/12)

Oh, and that doesn't mean driver releases prior to May did not have the bug, it just means that I was using a different solution (AMD APU) before that.

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NICHOLAS_F_Intel
Employee
4,675 Views

I'm attempting to reproduce the problem described. I've tried using older and newer drivers with HD 4000 using a Sony STR-DHS520 AV/R, and the issue is not occurring. However, using the same setup with Windows 8* instead of 7 is resulting in an issue, but only when the WASAPI is in use at the same time.

Can anyone who is still experiencing this issue give me some detailed steps for reproduction?

Thank you,

-Nic

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