Play laptop through a TV

beachguide
beachguide Member Posts: 18 New User
in 2013 Archives

I have connected my Acer Aspire  E1-531 laptop to my Sony Bravia TV with a HDMI cable and can see the laptop screen on the TV but I cannot get sound. I managed this once but cannot repeat it. The first time I found that the TV appeared on the Sound Playback tab together with the laptop's speakers but I cannot reproduce this.  Can anyone help me?

Best Answer

  • Dsurian
    Dsurian Member Posts: 63 Troubleshooter
    Answer ✓

    Protip: What OS are you running on the laptop? - if W7 (W8, vista, and XP should work too), there should be a volume control on the bottom right of the taskbar. If you right click that, you can select 'playback devices' from there. Jfyi...

     

    Anyways, with the HDMI unplugged, open up playback devices, right click in the area and 'show disabled devices'. Enable everything, including the laptops speakers. Make sure the default is back with the laptop speakers. Then, hookup the HDMI - try hooking it up before you turn on the tv, then turn on the tv (make sure the correct input is selected through the tv, and make sure both the laptop and tv have nominal volume and aren't muted). If the device doesn't show up, try the opposite; turn the tv back off, unplug the HDMI, turn on the tv, and plug the HDMI back in while the tv is on. If neither of these work, try resetting the laptop with the tv still on and the HDMI still hooked up.

     

    Give it a good 30-90 seconds to detect the sound each time. What should happen is, once it's detected, it will auto-default and everything should be good - though you may have to manually change the default, don't disable anything.

     

    That's all I can suggest, aside from the very basic instructions (ex: make sure you arn't plugging the laptop into the tv's output (if it even has one)). If it still doesn't work, I wouldn't even know what your next step should be, as you said it worked fine the first time, and presumably nothing significant has happened (no significant laptop software changes?, no rat nibbling through part of your HDMI cable?).

Answers

  • Dsurian
    Dsurian Member Posts: 63 Troubleshooter

    Where are the speakers that you wish to use? - assuming that there is a seperate amp/receiver driving them, I'd try plugging the HDMI up to an input on the receiver (which presumably has a general video output to the tv?), and then select whatever input you plugged the laptop into on the receiver.

     

    Not sure how to duplicate your past experience. Assuming the tv doesn't have onboard speakers, you theoretically could still use your laptop to produce the sound, as its playing whatever is on the tv - could try hookin up some 3.5 speaker system to the audio input on the laptop.

  • beachguide
    beachguide Member Posts: 18 New User

    Thanks for the reply. I have connected the laptop to the TV which has its own speaskers. The last time I managed to get this to work, when I went into Control Panel, Hardware & Sound, Sound, Manage Audio Devices, the Playback tab showed both the Laptop speakers and the TV. Having disabled the laptop speakers and made the TV default, the sound from what was playing on the laptop came through the TV speakers. This time the TV didn't appear on the Sound tab at all. I've tried different sequences of the procedure but nothing works. Any other ideas for me? All gratefully received.

  • Dsurian
    Dsurian Member Posts: 63 Troubleshooter
    Answer ✓

    Protip: What OS are you running on the laptop? - if W7 (W8, vista, and XP should work too), there should be a volume control on the bottom right of the taskbar. If you right click that, you can select 'playback devices' from there. Jfyi...

     

    Anyways, with the HDMI unplugged, open up playback devices, right click in the area and 'show disabled devices'. Enable everything, including the laptops speakers. Make sure the default is back with the laptop speakers. Then, hookup the HDMI - try hooking it up before you turn on the tv, then turn on the tv (make sure the correct input is selected through the tv, and make sure both the laptop and tv have nominal volume and aren't muted). If the device doesn't show up, try the opposite; turn the tv back off, unplug the HDMI, turn on the tv, and plug the HDMI back in while the tv is on. If neither of these work, try resetting the laptop with the tv still on and the HDMI still hooked up.

     

    Give it a good 30-90 seconds to detect the sound each time. What should happen is, once it's detected, it will auto-default and everything should be good - though you may have to manually change the default, don't disable anything.

     

    That's all I can suggest, aside from the very basic instructions (ex: make sure you arn't plugging the laptop into the tv's output (if it even has one)). If it still doesn't work, I wouldn't even know what your next step should be, as you said it worked fine the first time, and presumably nothing significant has happened (no significant laptop software changes?, no rat nibbling through part of your HDMI cable?).

  • beachguide
    beachguide Member Posts: 18 New User

    Thanks for the suggestions. Tried connecting HDMI to TV withTV off and then switchinng onn - it worked. Thanks also for the tip about the volume control

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