HDMI audio stops when screen sleeps

Same here. Funny thing is that I have MBP 13 (mid 10) connected to a receiver, not directly to the TV. I mostly use it to listen to the music (well I used it, now) while the TV was turned off anyway.

Worked in SL, seems like now when screen goes to sleep the whole HDMI out is turned off, because it disappears on the receiver.

Any ideas, how to keep it alive? Screen going to sleep should not mean other things stop working.

It is very annoying, not that the in-built speakers were not good, but it is not 5.1 😉

Thx

Luke

This sounds like the same issue others have described in a different way and would typically affect all versions of Mac OS X including those before Lion.

If the Mac loses a signal on the HDMI connection when for example the TV is turned off, or goes in to sleep mode, or if you are using an AV Receiver you switch the receiver away from the Mac (which means the Mac again loses the signal) then the Mac will deactivate the HDMI connection. When the HDMI connection is deactivated it obviously cannot carry the audio signal either, therefore the Mac switches the audio back to the built-in speaker or speaker out connection.

When the HDMI signal is restored, the video might come back but the audio will remain on the built-in speaker setting.

This sort of issue most commonly affects people using a Mac with an AV Receiver as a home media center. The best solution requires purchasing a device to keep the signal alive even if/when the TV is turned off or disconnected. See http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8005

I don't think this is the case. My problem is that Mac screen goes to sleep which causes the AV receiver to lose the signal.

Picture the scene.

Your Mac is connected to an AV receiver via HDMI. The TV is and has been turned off before the HDMI connection was established. The receiver recognises the HDMI-in and displays it. At this point, audio plays well, everything is looking normally. After 5 minutes Mac screen goes to sleep (as it should) and simultaneously the audio stops. It does not switch back to built-in speakers. I would like to stress out that after connecting the HDMI (and hitting play in itunes) no further action is done. I do not disconnect anything and neither the receiver does not go to a sleep mode, but simply displays that HDMI-in has no signal anymore.

It looks like Mac is turning the HDMI-out off everytime its display goes to sleep. I used exactly the same setup with SL 10.6.8 (same receiver, hdmi cable, tv... everything) and it worked the same but the audio never stopped playing while the screen went asleep.

Thx for reply

On the Mac end, the Energy System preferences allows you to set how soon or if at all the Mac turns the video connection off. If you tell it to never sleep the screen then it will not power off the video port.

That is what i need to do now. Just wondering if it was put in Lion intentionally or if it was an unwanted side product of sth else, because it worked differently in SL.

Now everytime i want to listen to the music through the receiver i need to reset the Energy Saver and then set it back when i want to use it back normally. I admit that it is not an elaborate task, but gets a bit annoying when you have to do it again and again.

I was wondering, if there were plans to settle this in a forthcoming update.

Thx

bbqchckn wrote:

The limitation is that setting the screen sleep to never means the computer will never sleep as the computer sleep value must be the same or greater than the screen sleep value.

In Snow Leopard, the screen would sleep, and the AV receiver screen saver would be triggered, without interupting the audio playback via HDMI to the receiver.

Evidence from the posts suggest that Lion is terminating all audio/video signal via HDMI under screen sleep conditions.

DW

exactly

Evidence from the posts suggest that Lion is terminating all audio/video signal via HDMI under screen sleep conditions.

Yes, I have the exact same issue and it is very annoying. I hope that Aplle is going to recognize this as a problem soon and fix it. Has anybody found a workaround yet that does not involve never putting the display to sleep?

I just wanted to chime in and say I have the EXACT same issue and it continues to annoy the heck out of me...And yes, didn't happen until Lion.

I'm affected by this issue too, and so is every 10.7.2 user who uses HDMI, an AV reciever, and iTunes to play music. Apple, please address this issue in an update to return to the correct behavior present in 10.7.1 and prior. SO ANNOYING.

I'm SO frustrated. HDMI should not sleep with the display! Apple fix this, I am following this post and set it to notify me with any developments in finding a solution. I have stopped listening to iTunes though HDMi and thats a HUGE inconvenience for me.

I have the same problem on snow leopard. And this mini is loaded with plex and acts as my dedicated dvr, so extremely inconvenient to change power settings every time as there's no keyboard or mouse attached. Also as someone else mentioned, the fact that screen sleep is linked to system sleep makes matters worse, as I do want the mini to sleep when it really is idle.

I upgraded to lion but had to revert to SL as lion has another hdmi issue, which was that I couldn't wake my tv up via remote which was a deal breaker.

Couldn't agree more, same issue and user scenario here. Apple, please fix this right away, must be a high priority issue since so many people experience this problem and are so annoyed by it!!!

I'm having the exact same problem. I'm setup with a receiver and flat panel tv with hdmi audio coming out of a mac mini. Sweat! Except that the audio stops after 10 minutes. It is so annoying. Is there no work around besides increasing the display sleep timout? Help Apple!