Line Output From Audio Interface Mutes When Connected To HDMI

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Line Output From Audio Interface Mutes When Connected To HDMI

Hello Apple Community,

As my first post to the community, I would like to shed some light on an issue I have found no answer to on the internet or support lines. I have spent a great deal of time self-diagnosing and over the phone with technical support for all devices in question.

Problem:

I have no sound when connected to HDMI. The problem is not exclusive to HDMI, as I bought two Mini DisplayPort adapters (HDMI & VGA) -- neither of which resolved my issue.

Hardware:

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) - Intel i7, 8GB RAM, GT 650M Graphics

Audio Interface - Started out with a PreSonus AudioBox 2-In, 2-Out. Now it's a Yamaha Steinberg UR22 (2-In, 2-Out)

Powered Studio Monitors - Yamaha HS7 (Pair)

External Display - Vizio 37", 1080p TV

At first glance, it may sound like my problem is simply that I'm not set to the correct audio output when I'm connected to HDMI. However, this is not the case. With both audio interfaces, I double-checked that the output did not swap to HDMI when plugging in. Many communities believe this is a ground-loop issue with anything from my interface / speakers, to the HDMI cable itself. When I spoke to an audio specialist from Yamaha, he assured me that grounding issues were not the case. He said that ground-loops will only cause noise (hiss, static, hum, etc.), not a complete mute.

Thank you,

Matthew Morris

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Feb 22, 2015 7:44 AM

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Answer 1

wabuf Author

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Mar 1, 2015 1:11 PM in response to wabuf

Made a video demonstration of the issues for another support community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwCAhRjQ0Sg

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Answer 2

wabuf Author

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Mar 8, 2015 6:19 PM in response to wabuf

Okay, so Steinberg responded after 6 days to set up a call time. Three days after that, I finally received the call. Yes, 9 total days.........

Jeff from Steinberg went over all of my issues and went through a whole diagnosis. At the point where I got rid of the stock Yamaha XLR to TRS and used some unbalanced instrument cables I had laying around, the monitors worked! Jeff and I narrowed it down to either bad cables or (more than likely) bad XLR ports. I believe the ladder because the possibility of receiving 2 bad cables is less likely than possibly a single XLR port having a faulty ground or something--which would lead to the above issues.

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