Dual Display, Dual Audio configuration conundrum

[Wemperer]

Ok I am trying to set up dual monitors (HDTVs) but heres the problem: One of the TV's only has a DVI input. My graphics card has 1 HDMI, 1 DVI and 1 VGA port so I know i can connect both TVs but the DVI TV wont have audio. I need help thinking of a solution to this.

Use: I intend to use one TV to play games and the other to allow my kids to watch movies on (the DVI). The only possible solutions I can think of are to A) Sell the DVI TV and purchase a HDMI tv and another graphics card or B) find some way to make hte graphics card output audio to the HDMI connection and a different audio signal through the PCs headphone audio jacks. I have no idea how to do this though.

Any other suggestions or advice on how to implement plan B?

 

[gumbi]

Nobody biting on this one very interesting problem i cant really see a way to get both both audio streams separate a game and a movie will both play and output to the same soundcard but how do you make it say one stream go to headfones and the other go to tv perplexing mebbe dual soundcards ? and get a dvi to hdmi convetopr with a 3.5mill jack so it passthrus the audioi to the tv

 

[Wemperer]

Nobody biting on this one very interesting problem i cant really see a way to get both both audio streams separate a game and a movie will both play and output to the same soundcard but how do you make it say one stream go to headfones and the other go to tv perplexing mebbe dual soundcards ? and get a dvi to hdmi convetopr with a 3.5mill jack so it passthrus the audioi to the tv

I think VLC media player has an option to select which interface to send audio (head phone jack) ill have to confirm this later but I think I could also get around it using a virtual machine somehow. As for the DVI to HDMI converter, does this allow a HDMI audio signal to be passed through the DVI? The problem with the dual sound cards is that I may eventually move this TV upstairs and I'd find it much easier to run a lengthy HDMI cable rather than a lengthy DVI and audio cables.

 

[photonboy]

DVI INPUT:
This is video only. Unless there is an AUDIO INPUT that is grouped with this then there's no way to input audio to this "TV". I've never heard of an HDTV with no HDMI input. Are you sure there isn't:
a) one HDMI input, and
b) a DVI input for the PC, with a 3.5mm audio input?

*A different approach and possibly much better is to hookup a media device like the Western Digital TV LIVE to watch movies on instead of a computer.

I gave my sister one (the model with a hard drive) and copied a lot of movies to it. She can watch them but the kids ended up just using NETFLIX.

You can get a Western Digital TV Live without a hard drive for probably $100 or so and an $8 per month Netflix subscription.

*BluRay/DVD/Netflix:
Another really good option is a BluRay player which also supports Netflix.

Summary:
- switching as you propose is probably a hassle
- DVI can't input audio. You need an audio input grouped with the DVI input.
- Consider a media device like a Netflix BluRay player or Western Digital TV LIVE
- *I could likely help more if I knew what TV's (Monitors?) you have.

 

[photonboy]

Netflix:
I just thought I'd add that the default VIDEO quality is "MEDIUM" and it looks horrible. If you get an account, you need to login on your computer and change this to "HIGH"; this will use up to 2GB per hour of internet bandwidth so keep that in mind as well depending on your internet account (most max at 60GB per month last I checked which averages 15 hours of HD Netflix per week not counting web surfing and Downloaded files.)

 

[Wemperer]

I didn't know netflix had a bandwidth cap. Thats some z38ness. Anway I checked the TV and it DOES have a group of audio ports (RW) with the DVI port. My PC obviously has these so i just need to figure out how to split audio signals which I THINK could be done by running whatever media the kids are giong to watch through a virtual machine and assigning those ports access to the actual hardware as a resource. VLC probably has a built in option for that too. I'll do some testing.