Why can't I get sound to my TV using an HDMI-to-DVI cable?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Does DVI carry audio?

I've got an Acer eMachine running Windows 7 64-bit and I'm hooking it up to my TV using an HDMI-to-DVI cable. Obviously, the HDMI end of the cable is plugged into my laptop and the DVI end of the cable into the TV. I've got a beautiful picture but any and all sounds come out of the speakers on my laptop. I've tried going into Control Panel -> Sounds and clicking "Show hidden devices", but the only thing that pops up is an old TV I hooked up with a normal HDMI cable. Anyone know why I can't get sound through my TV?

Answer 1

The short answer is that DVI doesn't do sound, and HDMI does.

Does your TV support HDMI? Then you should just use a straight HDMI cable.

Does your laptop have an audio-out port? If the laptop has a headphone jack and the TV has RCA inputs you could get a 3.5mm to RCA cable and use that to connect them, then you should get the laptop sound out of the TV speakers.

RCA inputs look like this:

Answer 2

DVI doesn't carry audio.

• DVI = Digital Visual Interface (link)
• HDMI = High-Definition Multimedia Interface (link)

You'll need to run separate lines for audio.

Answer 3

Basically, HDMI cables carry the Video and Audio signal, and DVI cables just conduct Video.

Take a look:

HDMI supports the transport of packets, needed for digital audio, in addition to digital video. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface#DVI_and_HDMI_compatibility )

and also does-dvi-carry-audio-signals-as-well-as-video