Rtx 3090 + Samsung Q90 TV and HW-Q90R soundbar issues

[Mambros84]

Hi all,

As mentioned in the title I have an RTX 3090 connected to a Samsung Q90 TV and an HW-Q90R soundbar.

I managed to enable the G-sync connecting an hdmi 2.1 cable to the port 4 on the TV receiver but I am having several issues with the audio.

If I try to pass the audio to the soundbar through eArc I can't manage to get Dolby Atmos for Home Théâtre in Windows (I can get up to Dolby Atmos for Headphones). I always had to troubleshoot the sound after starting the pc to fix it and make it work. It stopped working now since a couple of days and the workaround doesn't work anymore (it use to ask to play a test sound when able to fix it, now it doesn't).

On the other hand I tried to connect the soundbar directly to the to the RTX 3090 through a DP to Hdmi cable, I get the Dolby Atmos for Home Theatre in Windows, but I get no sound.

In both cases, when there's no sound coming out of the soundbar, still, I can see the volume in Windows being displayed (the green lines when playing a test sound) while checking the audio devices.

Not sure why audio is not coming out, any thoughts?

 

[HRL]

Not sure how to resolve your problem unfortunately but AFAIK, DP doesn’t carry audio.

 

[JediFragger]

DP doesn’t carry audio.

Is this a joke? Please do a modicum of research before passing on such rubbish info if you're not sure (ie A quick Google).

Yes it does, common knowledge.

 

[subbytna]

Not sure how to resolve your problem unfortunately but AFAIK, DP doesn’t carry audio.

It does actually

 

[Bill Turnip]

Have you ever had this working before?

I found that it was the encoding that was the issue. I was trying to get sound via HDMI into my TV, which would pass to my soundbar, but it would only do stereo, not surround. It seems that the test sounds on windows are pre-encoded as Dolby digital and will work. But in order to encode live you would either need to adjust the sound driver on your motherboard, or get a dedicated soundcard that encodes "on the fly" (i.e turning sounds from games into Dolby Digital from stereo). I had to connect direct to the soundbar with an optical cable (No HDMI input on mine).

I never managed to get it to work from my GPU, but I think in my case the TV was the issue. Can you connect with a separate cable from the motherboard audi? It's a pain, but it might be the easiest way to resolve this.

 

[HRL]

Is this a joke? Please do a modicum of research before passing on such rubbish info if you're not sure (ie A quick Google).

Yes it does, common knowledge.

Well damn, every day is a school day. Can’t say I’ve ever used DP myself, hence the AFAIK. Pretty sure someone once told me that and I just took it as gospel.

Mind you, the amount of crap already spewed on this forum, my accidental misinformation isn’t going to make much difference so please don’t be too offended!

 

[Bluecube]

Try using DP for the video and HDMI for the sound. I have a very similar set up to you albeit differing generations of hardware and that’s how my set up works.
Having said that, Atmos can be a bit hit and miss. in my case it usually works but sometimes it doesn’t despite nothing changing. Before you start swapping cables, put the sound into 5.1 or even 2.0 and see if anything beeps out and work from there.

Edit for clarity and because I missed some info in the OP: DP to the TV, HDMI to the soundbar. No pass through from the TV to soundbar

 

[z10m]

Have you ever had this working before?

I found that it was the encoding that was the issue. I was trying to get sound via HDMI into my TV, which would pass to my soundbar, but it would only do stereo, not surround. It seems that the test sounds on windows are pre-encoded as Dolby digital and will work. But in order to encode live you would either need to adjust the sound driver on your motherboard, or get a dedicated soundcard that encodes "on the fly" (i.e turning sounds from games into Dolby Digital from stereo). I had to connect direct to the soundbar with an optical cable (No HDMI input on mine).

I never managed to get it to work from my GPU, but I think in my case the TV was the issue. Can you connect with a separate cable from the motherboard audi? It's a pain, but it might be the easiest way to resolve this.

You are limited to stereo and standard DD and DTS most likely because your device/s don’t support eARC and only older ARC version. eARC can transfer multichannel PCM and most if not all other codecs like Dolby Atmos etc.

 

[Bill Turnip]

No, I wasn't even able to get standard DD - Think it was more about my TV not being able to pass through a signal received from HDMI to optical. Definitely need to make sure that an Nvidia GPU can actually output DD audio on the fly however. I couldn't see anywhere that it did.

 

[Bluecube]

Try what I mentioned above. My 1070Ti outputs Atmos

 

[Grim5]

No, I wasn't even able to get standard DD - Think it was more about my TV not being able to pass through a signal received from HDMI to optical. Definitely need to make sure that an Nvidia GPU can actually output DD audio on the fly however. I couldn't see anywhere that it did.

Lol, of course it can

I have no issue getting Atmos from my pc. My 3090 plugs into my lg c9 tv via an hdmi 2.1 cable and the TV is set to pass through (Atmos soundbar plugs into eARC port on TV)

The only issue I've run into is that Windows does not do real time encoding, while Windows will output Atmos, the content needs to be pre encoded - so if you turn Atmos on don't expect to get proper sound from YouTube but if you play a Atmos bluray movie etc or you play one of the handful of games that support Atmos then it works great.


But even though Atmos works for me I hardly use it from the PC simply due to a lack of content - not many PC games have Atmos audio output.

 

[Bill Turnip]

Lol, of course it can

(Atmos soundbar plugs into eARC port on TV)

This may be the point - My soundbar has no HDMI input, only an optical. That's why I said it could be my TV as the limiting factor, not passing DD sound received via HDMI to soundbar via optical. Regardless of converting on the fly, the windows test sound DD sound did not work when connected via HDMI, but does when direct to optical.

Either way, I have a solution to my issue now and am happy with it. I just wanted to present it as a possibility to consider for OP, which is why I suggested a separate connection.

 

[Mambros84]

Try using DP for the video and HDMI for the sound. I have a very similar set up to you albeit differing generations of hardware and that’s how my set up works.
Having said that, Atmos can be a bit hit and miss. in my case it usually works but sometimes it doesn’t despite nothing changing. Before you start swapping cables, put the sound into 5.1 or even 2.0 and see if anything beeps out and work from there.

Edit for clarity and because I missed some info in the OP: DP to the TV, HDMI to the soundbar. No pass through from the TV to soundbar

I tried to do so but for some reason the soundbar is recognised as a second display causing a hell of issues... How did you manage to avoid this?

 

[Bluecube]

Yep, recognises as a second display at my end. Just ignore it! I set that second display to a 640x480 res and left it alone after that. I’ve never had any issues after the initial set up.