G965 with Prolink HDMI ADD2 - Page 7

kkrambo,

Glad the audio hack worked for you. Sorry the drivers are still giving you grief. I noticed a couple of registry entries in the .INF file which might help:

[HotPlug_AddSwSettings]
HKR,, Display1_DVIHotPlugWAFlag,%REG_DWORD%, 0 ; 1 - Enable and 0 - Disable

Could be that, though it says DVI, HDMI will detect your TV better. Beyond that:

[HDMI_AddUnderscanSettings]
HKR,, Display1_AddUnderscanPercentageHDMI,%REG_DWORD%, 0 ; 0 - default 7.5% under scan and OEM's can give under scan like 8,9 an 10 ..

You should be able to modify the latter to change your underscan default.

[Display_Priority_AddSwSettings]
;Driver Display Priority in Descending Order
;HKR,, DisplayPriority,0x00000001, 0x08, 0x80, 0x01, 0x10, 0x04, 0x40, 0x02, 0x20

This is based on the following:
" Bit: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
" LFP2 EFP2 TV2 CRT2 LFP EFP TV CRT "

Thus, the ordering listed is LFP, LFP2, CRT, CRT2, EFP, EFP2, TV, TV2. I'm thinking SDVO HDMI (which this is) would be TV or TV2 (the other will be SDVO S-video from the Prolink card), so putting 0x02 and 0x20 at the head of the list would try those first. But I'm making this up as I go along, so be careful.

The prior one might modify which display gets attempted by the drivers; perhaps if it attempts HDMI first it will work?

You shouldn't have to run the computer 24/7 to get it to work properly. I hope the Intel driver guys can resolve this for you.

There's another work around, the issue your having is an EDID issue, to fix that you can use this device:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...ormat=2&style=

this device will feed your pc the required EDID data even with the tv off, so you can put it to sleep still and when it wakes it'll still be able to retain your settings.

- Josh

I've ordered a Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo EV witch comes with an ADD2 HDMI (and more i/o) card. Does anyone know if it will support multi-channel PCM over HDMI? I sure hope so..if not I hope I can swap the ADD2-card...

Spec sheet

It says:

Audio
AZALIA Codec (7.1 SPDIF)
7.1 Audio out (decoded), SPDIF out optical and coaxial,
microphone in, headphone out combined with line out

I have no idea what AZALIA is, but I don't like that it says SPDIF...what I want is LPCM to feed my Pio VSX-AX4ASi amp.

A.

Difficult to say. The Prolink card we're talking about is most likely what's being used in that Fujitsu-Siemens-- simply because it's the only one on the market-- but it's hard to guess what motherboard is being used. If it's one of the Intel boards, or possibly the ASUS P5B-VM, it has an HD Audio header and will theoretically pass 7.1 PCM and SPDIF (but not "7.1 SPDIF"... that doesn't exist, to my knowledge, in any system) if connected properly. As you've seen in this thread, though, software support is spotty at present.

Azalia is the old name for what is now called "Intel HD Audio". It's a bus connected to the southbridge dedicated to audio which connects to "codecs" on board-- essentially, chips that contain devices which convert HD Audio formatted sound into some other format: SPDIF, HDMI, or analog.

Of course, it's always possible Fujitsu-Siemens got their hands on some other ADD2 board than the Prolink. There's a newer revision -B of the Chrontel HDMI chip which supports SPDIF input, but the Prolink board currently available is based on revision -A, which does not. Could be someone is making an alternative board that the general public is unaware of. Molex and Wintec had solutions in the works, but Wintec cancelled theirs; maybe Molex's is available to system integrators but not to the general public?

Sorry I don't have a more useful answer for you. Without knowing what the innards of that system looks like, it's hard to tell what it supports. With the current state of "audio-over-HDMI" even the consumer electronics people aren't all that clear what works. Some drivers guys in Intel's Folsom labs know what can be done. Not sure anyone else does.

Has anyone had a chance to test this setup in Vista yet? Does it show up as 7.1 speakers?

A

@archibael: i'm looking for a ADD2 HDMI card for my DG965OT but Prolink USA does not send to europe. Mailed to Prolink Taiwan with the answer that the card is only for system integrators and OEM's.
So if you have a contact to Prolink, may you get to know how to get the card to europe, thanks

@atta_svg: Have you got your Scaleo EV ? Any chance to get out which ADD2 card is in it ?

Regards Joe

SugoE,

Mine's on loan to some Intel folks so they can make Linux drivers for it, or I'd sell you mine.

I know of one other Forum member who has one (modified properly for Audio) and is looking to sell it. PM me for details if you're interested.

Question for Archibael-

I have a DG965WH Motherboard, and I was looking at purchasing a video card with HDMI out. The trick is that I also want to get my audio going out of the HDMI, too.

I've read through this forum, and theres still something that confuses me: does the yellow HD Audio Header output the spdif protocol? The graphics cards that get digital audio from headers on the motherboard seem to only use two pins. (I was looking at the manual for the Gigabyte 7600GS). If the HD Audio header and SPDIF are indeed two different things, is there an SPDIF header on the DG965WH that I am missing?

Thanks.

No, there is no provision for extracting S/PDIF from any inside connectors on the DG965WH. Nor are there any adapters that would convert what is present, HD Audio, to S/PDIF. Thus your only choice is to use the outside connector on the back, optical S/PDIF, and loop that back into the card. Use an optical to digital converter if necessary.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to a converter... Could you recommend one (preferably one that has a small footprint?)

Thanks,
Michael

Bill beat me to it.

The HD Audio bus (and the accompanying header) is still the unrendered output; it's digital audio data that hasn't yet been converted to SPDIF or analog; it feeds (as opposed to "is fed by") an onboard sound codec, where the conversion to SPDIF and analog takes place. The yellow header is actually the Front Panel Audio header, which plugs into the jacks at the front of some cases; I'll be honest and tell you that I have no clue whether any of the front panel jacks can be configured as SPDIF or not-- Audio Studio Pro might let you convert one of the channels (Audio 1R, 1L, 2R, 2L) to SPDIF.

Other than that, I don't think there is an SPDIF header off the motherboard as such. SPDIF jacks aren't all that complex: two pins, signal and ground; if you're really keen on doing this, you might consider tapping the signal on its way to the optical SPDIF connector. A quick solder job might succeed where Audio Studio Pro fails. 'Course, that would violate your warranty, so I cannot recommend that.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

From what I can tell there's not much difference between the various optical to digital S/PDIF converters. It's only when you want to get into bi-directional or other mixing features that it seems to matter. But I don't know what bitrates the various converters support or if there are any limitations. I considered going that route but decided to stick with the ADD2 card and the internal HD Audio instead. I figure by the time I "need" a better video card for my MCE setup (and this computer is used exclusively for that) the market will be offering better choices. But given the whole clusterf*k of DRM and HDCP restrictions I'm not sure when that will even happen.

There's a balancing act between having something that works "well enough" and falling into the whole "audiophile/purist" trap. Personally, as long as the video playback has enough audio fidelity to fit the shows I'm happy. Even simple stereo is OK since my receiver can 'fake it' for psuedo-surround sound. But most stuff I end up playing back is either broadcast stereo or dolby.

When I want to play back DVDs I use an actual player (oppo 981). MCE is nice and all but for my tastes it's a bit ridiculous to have my thousand dollar+ PC pretending to be a crappy DVD player. All this stuff is supposed to be integrated but we're not quite there yet, STILL!

so i was all pscyhed to build up the DG965 with the Prolink ADD2 card w/HDMI, given the explanation of how to fix the audio offered earlier on this board.

Video displays perfectly, though there was no audio upon initial setup. Still, the OS was recognizing the existence of an audio controller, but forced a standard High Defintion Audio Controller driver, despite my trying to give it the Intel HDMI driver.

So i took back out the ribbon cable to swith the 9,10,11 wires. But the ribbon i received had but 15 wires.

I messed up the first count, then made the correct switch, i believe. Video still works fine, but the OS now finds no audio controller.

Might try to order a 16-wire ribbon (and some new connectors, since the one i've been playing with is now a bit less than secure).

That is, unless someone might be able to offer some advice, for which I'll offer thanks in advance.

They only sent you a 15-wire cable? Sounds bizarre to me, though since one pin is used for the keying it shouldn't matter, I suppose. The cable I got was 16-wire.

The other possibility-- since this didn't seem to work for you on either "version" of the cable-- is that they changed the resistor, as I suggested, but that they moved it somewhere dumber. Can you check the board for the R26 and R27 jumpers, and see which is populated with a component? It should be right next to the HD Audio header on the ADD2.

Of course, it's also possible you screwed up the cable mod-- I did the first time. If you have thin probes and an ohmmeter, you can check the continuity of each pin.

I'm surprised you got no audio controller at all on the second try-- the OS should still be detecting your onboard audio. That makes me worry that you might be shorting something out with your cable. Did you enable or disable onboard audio in BIOS?

so by "component", you mean which one lacks two pins, no? In that case, it's R27.

And onboard audio is enabled in the BIOS.

Trouble now is, i unplugged the header cable, and i still have no audio devices. And trying to reinstall the Sigmatel drivers results in a device not found error, too.

There are a bunch of Rs... R25, R26, R27... they have two "plates" for want of a better word, across which a component (a resistor in this case) can be soldered. R27 is soldered there in the ADD2 board I have, and it's a design flaw: should be R26.

The fact that you can't get any audio devices at all anymore is worrisome. I hope in messing around with the cable you didn't route power to a signal pin and damage a component of the motherboard!

you and me both.

tried taking out the prolink card, and now i still get no audio.

Did the onboard sound ever work? If you never tried it, perhaps it was defective to begin with and can be returned under warranty. Just a thought.

Just today got my card (kindly delivered specially by Prolink to the UK).

Haven't tried it yet but I too can confirm a 15-wire cable. The resistors across the connector are all populated bar R26, R28 and R29, so I guess that's as expected?

the sound worked before i messed with the cable. strange thing is that a quick search on this board shows a pile of folks who seem to have the same issue.

wouldn't be surprised, though, if i fried something.

by the way, my board looks like yours - the R27 is soldered.

now that i said that, sound never really did work, as the HDMI cable never carried the output. The drivers and the device were there though.

Weird on the 15-pin cable. Mine was 16 (photo included of my modded cable). Are you guys only counting the pins in the socket, or counting the wires on the actual ribbon? One pin on the socket is certainly keyed making it 15 pins, but the cable itself has 16 connections.

R26, R28, R29 are expected to not be populated; the design flaw is still present. Which is okay, as we know how to solve it.

My suggestion is to be very careful with a rerouting of the cable: pin 8 and 10 are both power, and you want to swap pin 9 and 11 at one end. If you do it wrong, you could end up routing power to one of the signal pins, which might fry something and cause problems of the sort mamow is having, though it's possible his mobo was already bad. Check the connections with an ohmmeter to make sure that the only pins which change are pin 9 and 11. If Prolink is indeed providing a new cable, they may have routed it wrong and swapping channels might be harder.

Consider an RMA. Mobos can slip through the quality screens, just like any other component.

Alright ladies and gentlemen I have a Foxconn mobo with G965. I also have the prolink Add2 Hdmi. Forethe life of me I can't get video once I install the intel drivers. from a fresh install i can get video so long as i don't install the intel drivers. if i install the drivers i only get video up to the windows loading screen (the screen with the bars scrolling across the screen). i can hear windows loading to the desktop, but no video. the mobo does not have the intel hd audio link header on the board. since i can't use this audio connection is this the reason i can no longer get video or is there another cause?

Since pins 9 and 11 are right next to each other, opposite the key I believe, I just clipped a small length of wire, bent it into a U shape and pushed it into 9 & 11. Then jammed the connector, with the wire in it, onto the motherboard. Works great. Now, if/when ProLink gets around to fixing the design of this card this fix doesn't seem like it'd harm anything. The second signal line isn't being understood by the chip on the ADD2 card anyway.

indeed - i'd be careful, as i mistakenly swapped 8 and 10 first, then switched to 9 and 11, likely giving me my current grief.

guess it's either a new mobo or a sound card (likely the latter as this particular machine sits in a TV studio, where sound is normally off anyway.

may try to explain my ignorance to the normally helpful folks at Intel anyway.

Audio should have no impact on the video functionality of the card.

What OS and which version of drivers are you trying?

this happened to me as well, fixed by first using two monitors (one via the VGA, then shifting the Intel graphics manager to show the digital TV as the primary monitor.

I'm using Vista 32-bit and latest drivers for mobo and graphics, and the latest BIOS.

Be chatting with Intel through email and the slowness is absolutely killing me.

This is actually my second go around with the card. I used to have a mATX Asus board with G965 and I was using Win XP MCE 2005. I could not get it to work back then either.


I hope this not going to be the case. My tv has VGA input and I'd gladly stick with that. But, I was hoping to install this card and make my machine "blu-ray ready" once blu-ray drives come down in price and I could just totally abandon the VGA input.

It's definitely 15 wires in the ribbon cable itself .


Excellent, I think I'll brave the conversion (carefully).