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Lion Upgrade: No audio via miniDisplayport to HDMI (iMac)

Using the mid 2011 iMac and a (Denon1912) A/V-Receiver. iMac connected via miniDisplayport-to-HDMI-adapter to the receiver.


With Snow Leopard it worked. Video and Audio were always detected by the receiver and sent to the monitors/speakers.


With Lion the video-output of the iMac only gets activated when i put the computer to sleep and wake it up. The audio-output via miniDisplayport/HDMI does not work. The audio-options do not list my receiver - only the internal speakers.


Cables are connected on startup, A/V-Receiver is turned on and set to the correct channels before booting the iMac.


How can I fix this? Downgrade and wait for bugfixes?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 2:40 AM

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Posted on Jul 21, 2011 6:49 AM

If you left all the peripherals connected while performing the Lion upgrade that may have confused the SMC. Do a SMC reset (it may take 2-3 attempts) and see if that helps. Please follow the instructions carefully.


SMC RESET

  • Shut down the computer.
  • Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
  • Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
  • Release the power button.
  • Attach the computers power cable.
  • Press the power button to turn on the computer.


PRAM RESET


  • Shut down the computer.
  • Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  • Turn on the computer.
  • Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
  • Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  • Release the keys.
94 replies

Aug 3, 2011 4:08 AM in response to Kahlzopf

Hello, I am happy to announce that I solved this exact problem I had too (no audio through HDMI) replacing my cabling from miniDisplayPort to DVI-->DVI to HDMI (which worked fantastic on Snow Leopard) with one cable miniDisplayPort to HDMI. Now as I see that others posted before me that they used the same cable and it didn't work, I bought a $10 cable from China, and it worked! I believe that it should work with most of you but I tested it only in my MBP 8,1 13" (Feb 2011). It is listed here.

Aug 3, 2011 6:27 AM in response to Setek

I believe that you should read what I said above that the combination I used was working perfectly under Snow Leopard. Moreover the wikipedia article says exactly that this can be done 😁!!! You obviously didn't read either, nor my post nor wikipedia, please don't manipulate people when you don't know what you're speaking of!! Please read more carefully now the wikipedia article: "However, many devices can output HDMI over a DVI output (e.g., ATI 3000-series and NVIDIA GTX 200-series video cards), and some multimedia displays may accept HDMI (including audio) over a DVI input." Of course in Snow Leopard I meant on my previous post that it worked both with Audio+Video.

Aug 3, 2011 6:33 AM in response to Setek

And the only advertisement is yours for Wikipedia. I just reposted the cable I bought from somewhere in China from e-Bay that worked for me. Try find it wherever you want, but this cable is unbranded and it won't be easy at all to describe it without showing to you from where I bought it. Thanks for your understanding and I accept your apologies for your ignorant comment. I live in Greece and I am not affiliated with anyone in China.

Aug 3, 2011 7:00 AM in response to stickman112

I know, that's why I'm so happy that mine worked, because some people reported that they used already a miniDisplayPort to HDMI an audio didn't show up, and I was using the 2 cables I said above. Now with your case and mine, since we are using the same cables, I believe that it has something to do with the cables only because I read somewhere that some minidp to HDMI could only be capable of sending the video. Maybe since the older miniDP Macs had no support for the audio, the cables were the same.

Aug 3, 2011 7:29 AM in response to stickman112

calm down, guys...no one is advertising anything here! btw: it´s true, that DVI does not transport audio. and it might be true, that everything works fine with this china-noname-cable-thing.


as i wrote in the first post of the tread, the problem is not just "it does not work". it´s complicated - if it wasn´t, apple would have fixed it by now. (why does the computer recognize the audio hardware sometimes and sometimes not; why is video only transported, when waking the imac from it´s sleep function; why am i so disappointed by this issue?)


fact is: the problem persists.


if one or another cable works - that is not a solution. the problem has to be fixed by a lion software update. every cable and adapter i used with snow leopard worked. none of my cables or adapters work properly with lion.

that´s simple "try-and-error-problem-search". there is no hardware failure, because changing the software leads to the problem. (if there is a hardware failure, software is causing it)


so please do not get rude in this thread. all of us are annoyed by this issue. all of us are annoyed, that apple does not talk to us about that problem we have.

Aug 3, 2011 8:03 AM in response to Kahlzopf

Kahlzopf everything is ok until someone comes out and says "you didn't solved it you just bought the right cable that transports audio." But the truth is that my MBP passed audio in Snow Leopard with a miniDP to DVI adapter and a DVI to HDMI cable that I had since my mid 2007 MBP which I used it only for the video part then. Since april 2010 all the macs that were released had digital audio output support through their Mini DisplayPorts. I don't believe that my problem is solved since the combination of the 2 cables I used doesn't work anymore, and it should work since it worked in the previous OS. So the DVI can transport audio and the Wikipedia relevant article does not deny that there could be some DVI out that transports it.

Aug 3, 2011 6:00 PM in response to Kahlzopf

I found a free and simple fix, to the 10.7, no audio from MDP>HDMI, issue. I have only tested this with a 15'' mbp.


1. Connect a 3.5mm audio cable to the headphone jack on your Mac. You do NOT have to connect the audio cable to an output source, such as an audio receiver.


2. Go to Sys Prefs>Sound>Output. Now your HDMI output source should be listed. For me, it was Sony TV (name), HDMI (type). Oh, along with headphones, now being listed as a sound output option.


My testing including the following:

1. Restarted Mac with audio cable, still attached to headphone jack, to ensure the HDMI sound output option, was still listed. Yes, it was still appeared, after a restart.


2. While watching a TV show (using Plex), I removed the 3.5mm audio cable from the side of the Mac laptop. The audio continued to play via my TV.


What I have not tested: someone please test


I have not tested, restarting my Mac with the audio cable unplugged to ensure (1) HDMI is still listed as an output source in Sys Prefs (2) Still have sound via HDMI.


So, it appears HDMI output is there, but it's not being triggered by a connected HDMI cable, but by a connected audio cable to the headphone jack. Also, maybe it was just the files I briefly tested, but the HDMI audio level seems pretty low in Lion. The volume on my Sony TV was at 9, yet it was barely audible. Sounded more like the volume was at, 2.


I hope my fix can help other Lion users.

Aug 7, 2011 3:32 AM in response to Kahlzopf

SMC reset (on a Dec 2010 iMac);

I'd heard of a PRAM reset and had performed that on my old PowerBook a few times over the years but had not heard of this SMC reset, i was dubious. Anyway, I tried it but still had the other issue I've had since Lion with the "wi-fi hardware missing" problem the next day and forgot to try the sound via HDMI since the SMC reset did not resolve any other issues.

But by chance last night a switched over to the HDMI input channel on my TV and the the sound was coming out again, also the menu bar was now at the top of the TV screen and not off the top and the resolution back to what it was under Snow Lep. So it did work! 😁 Many thanks for the suggestion. Also, this morning I did not get the dreaded "wi-fi hardware missing" problem but maybe because I did not turn on the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad until after the iMac got to the login page.

Lion Upgrade: No audio via miniDisplayport to HDMI (iMac)

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