Can HDMI be used for audio when using displayport for video?

[TechLife]

I have a NUC8i7BEH and a Sonos Beam I would like to use as a soundbar for it. The Beam has an DMI audio input designed to be connected to the ARC output of a TV. On my last PC, I split the HDMI (one to the monitor, one to the beam) and it worked great. Now I am using the Thunderbolt out to go to a 3440 x 1440 monitor so I can't do that anymore. I plugged the Sonos into the HDMI, but the NUC doesn't show that port as active so I can't use direct audio to it. Any ideas of how I can make this work? TIA!

[n_scott_pearson]

Why don't you continue to use a HDMI splitter? You could, for example, use a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter (like this: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-QGeeM-Thunderbolt-Compatible-Pixelbook/dp/B07JW7GT7H) and then your existing HDMI splitter.

Hope this helps,

...S

[TechLife]

Thanks for the reply!

I’ll try it again, but yesterday I couldn’t get above 1920x1200 resolution when using either an HDMI cable or the USB->HDMI I have for my Surface. If I can get to 3440x1440 over HDMI, I’d be all set

[n_scott_pearson]

Always, always look for one that says 4K@60Hz and Thunderbolt compliant. If you want an adapter that can get you support for two displays (alas they'll be 4K@30Hz), also look for MST Hub in the feature set.

...S

[TechLife]

It's the splitter. Even though it's a 4K splitter, it won't support 3440x1440. I'll look for one that does. I hoping there's a workaround otherwise, but I'm guessing there isn't. Thanks!!

[TechLife · Accepted solution]

I got it!

So I got to thinking, why do I need the 3440 video to pass over HDMI when I have it on DisplayPort? I can just plug the NUC->Splitter->Display which will let the NUC think there is a display on the HDMI out and it should recognize it, right?! Wrong. That part worked fine, but when I connect the Sonos to the second port on the splitter, it says there is an issue with the signal and doesn't work. BUT at this point, I had most of the issue solved so I removed the splitter, grabbed a HDMI audio extractor, put it in-line between the HDMI out on the NUC and the monitor then used the Sonos HDMI to Optical adapter to connect the Beam to the audio extractor, set the display output in graphics manager to mirrored, selected the HDMI as the default audio output and voila! Works like a charm. Thanks for getting me thinking!