[ronbaby]

I will soon be taking delivery on a brand new Foxconn A3700. (As you probably all know this has an AMD E-450 which itself includes a Radeon HD 6320.)

Of course, the HDMI output port on my new Foxconn box will get wired up to my big flat screen. However the thing also has a DVI output port, and I've been thinking of wiring that one up to a small monitor+speakers combo thingy that I've got my eye on, so that I can diddle with the Foxconn box even when I don't feel like turning on the big flat screen.

So anyway, the monitor+speakers combo thingy that I've got my eye on only has HDMI in. So obviously, I'll have to get a little DVI->HDMI adapter. No problem there. They are a dime a dozen.

The only problem is that I'm a perfectionist, and I was thinking that it would be Nice if I could route both video and sound out of the Foxconn via the DVI output port, and thence into the DVI->HDMI adapter and then out to my little monitor+speakers combo thing.

In general, DVI isn't supposed to carry audio... just video... but there are quite a lot of comments in various places online that suggest that some (many?) flavors of Radeon are actually capable of routing both audio and video out via their DVI ports, you know, so that then, with the correct adapter, you can send both (audio+video) out to an HDMI connection.

So, does anybody here have any direct experience with this? I mean with routing audio over DVI with Radeons? Apparently there was a time when ATI was selling very specialized DVI->HDMI adapters (which seem to be impossible to find for sale anymore anywhere) that were specifically designed to support this, but I found one dude online who went on a bit of a triade, saying that in fact these "special" ATI DVI->HDMI adapters were really just pretty much a scam on ATI's part and that there was just a chip inside them that would tell Windows drivers, in particular, that it was OK to send sound out via that DVI, but that in fact, when using Linux and open source drivers, you could just use any old el-cheapo DVI->HDMI adapter and sound output via the DVI out port would work just fine.

So does anyone here have first-hand experience with or knowledge of any of this? It is possible with any of the Foxconn boxes, under either Windows or Linux?

[Ned Scott]

I'd be surprised if it didn't work. It's very common for GPUs (on-board or not) to support audio over DVI-to-HDMI.

[ronbaby]

Well, I am hoping to find out for myself, one way or another, very soon.

I already have everything necessary to do a test... the necessary cables and adapters, together with an everything-capable HDMI A/V Receiver, and, as I mentioned, a shiny new Foxconn A3700 nettop box with an E-450 and DVI output. The only thing I'm waiting on is memory for the Foxconn A3700. That should be here tomorrow or the next day.

I'll post here when I have some actual test results.

I hope that you're right, and that it will just work, but we'll see.

[Harro]

Before I built a dedicated HTPC, I had used a Radeon 4800x2 graphics card on my main rig with a DVI-HDMI adapter to my Onyko receiver which passed the audio just fine. But not all DVI adapters are the same, so beware. I could only use the DVI adapter that had come with my graphics card in order to pass the audio.

[IsleOfMan]

Are the adapters standard across chipset lines? I.E. will a HIS brand adapter for Radeon cards work with another brand Radeon card? If so, NewEgg has an HIS DVI-HDMI adapter for $10.