For now I will assume the graphics card decides which output to use.
How it does this is unknown to me. Does anybody have some references/docume ntation ?
I am particularly interested in nvidia's GT 520.
I believe this device works as follows:
- If an HDMI cable is connected it will try to use it.
However this procedure overlooks the possibility that HDMI is only used for AUDIO connection and thus this procedure is flawed.
- If an HDMI cable is connected by the HDMI device is off it might assume the monitor is off or it will probably use the DVI output.
- Only if HDMI cable is disconnected and possibility DVI cables will it fa ll-back to VGA output.
So basically as far as I know it's impossible to instruct the GT 520 to alw ays use the VGA output ?!?
It seems this graphics card has some "auto-detect" logic which in my case i s flawed and does not do what I want.
I want it to always use VGA, but do enable HDMI audio.
It is possible to boot as follows though, a re-boot is required, pulling ou t the hdmi cable will not fall back to VGA.
Boot process:
- Attach VGA cable only.
- After boot is complete attach HDMI cable, make sure HDMI device is off.
This is ofcourse a bit risky to do this every time.
The BIOS has no option to select which display output to use.
To me it's clear this is a short coming in the design of these electronics.
I do not know if newer hardware/bioses/uefis and such have selection/guis t o configure which output to use.
In case HDMI was auto-selected then using an HDMI monitor or HDMI-to-vga c able does offer some possibilities of getting GUI back on monitor though it looks very weird... scan line issues.
But it's clear enough to re-boot the computer and pull out the hdmi cable a nd re-attach vga-cable to system.
It's clear to me that this setup of using GT 520 for VGA and HDMI audio is not a viable solution and only viable for experimenting with nvidia's audio driver, which I suspect might have an audio-channel swapping issue with SL /SUB or it's my receiver, maybe later though.
Quite a weird experience this auto-display-selection tech failing.
If you like weird electronics behaviour this one tops many others =D and I highly recommend you try it out to get that x-files feeling ! =D
(Is there a way to force VGA on GT 520 ?)
Part 2:
Damn, I forgot to test out DVI-FULL to VGA + HDMI AUDIO.
I forgot I have these DVI-TO-VGA cables and I forgot the GT 520 has DVI-FUL L.
I should have tried that out... but the main problem was the NVIDIA drivers failed to install properly.
Could also be a windows 7 issue, perhaps same as with creative drivers.
Hope not.
So I pulled out the GT 520 and replaced it with GT 1030.
I will now download latest GT 1030 driver and try to install that.
Kinda suxxx... how the older nvidia driver failed to install... this kinda ruined my audio experiments...
I might have thought of the DVI option or maybe not.
But at least now I write this note to myself to perhaps try this experiment in the future.
For now I have no idea what would happen if the following situation occurs:
- VGA monitor connected to GT 520 via DVI-to-VGA cable.
- Receiver connected to GT 520 via HDMI cable for audio only.
Which devices would the GT 520 prefer ?
The fake-DVI or the somewhat-fake-Receiver (since it's only hdmi-audio) ?!?
Though graphics card doesn't know it's only half a receiver lol.. doesn't e ven know it's a receiver, graphics card thinks it's a monitor =D
Perhaps some day in the future when I do a fresh install of windows 7 or ma ybe XP I will re-try this experiment.
For now I am not doing it cause I have no idea how to get the drivers worki ng again.
After reboot the driver complaints that some Wizard is already running.
Perhaps it's adobe reader service/startup crap/check that causes it... so I have disabled that for now.
Bye for now, Skybuck.