Stryder
02-07-2009, 01:41 AM
While it's been reported that the updated that rolled out on the 3rd of February was to fix peoples issues with audio over HDMI, it's cause a number of new problems ranging from losing HDMI sound to RRoD. While there has been a lot of comments on the internet that the RRoD are permanent and people have lost HDMI sound they originally had, I think I've worked out why and might have a way for people to get their consoles up and running again (So don't send off for a Microsoft repair box just yet.)
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/hdmi.png
Before the update I was running 1080p with a HDMI cable
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/digiaud.png
my audio was playing through both the HDMI cable to the television as well as the Phono outputs located on the Digital Audio connector.
After the update, I lost the sound through the HDMI cable but continued to hear the Phono output from the Digital Audio Connector.
I hunted through the console settings to see if there had been any additions to the audio settings that might compensate for this bizarre problem, however there was nothing.
It wasn't until I decided to swap my actually HDMI screen resolution did I fix the problem. I swapped from 1080p to 1080i and gained sound through HDMI, I then swapped 1080i back to 1080p and sure enough I still had sound.
I extrapolated that the problems people are having (Both RRoD and loss of sound) is the new update alters the drivers (and possibly DRM wrappers over the HDMI), however it's internal versions aren't synchronised to be compatible. To make them compatible it requires the system to be configured differently from how it was operating when updated, this could mean changing the HDMI resolution or actually using a Composite connector to your television.
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/composite.png
[For those of you that mess with Linux, I guess you can say I based my reasoning on trying to update from one FreeBSD version to the next Major Version. This has to be done in a particular way to make sure that the Kernel is rebuilt to be the same version as the "World". If it's not done correctly, then the operating system crashes and requires that a backup kernel is rolled back to. I guess that without reconfiguring the resolution after the update, there is a mismatch and that changing the resolution forces a "re-detection" getting the build syncronised]
After the reconfiguration, you should find that you have both the ability to operate the Xbox and hear sound, then you can then configure it back to your HDMI setting to test that you have both visuals and sound.
This fix will work for some people, others will have problems with older HDMI Screens/Television because of the "prototype" nature of the original HDMI protocols. This can't be fixed through the XBOX unfortunately and will either require Microsoft to write a patch for those particular television types or the owners of those televisions to realise those screens are now "obsolete" models.
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/hdmi.png
Before the update I was running 1080p with a HDMI cable
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/digiaud.png
my audio was playing through both the HDMI cable to the television as well as the Phono outputs located on the Digital Audio connector.
After the update, I lost the sound through the HDMI cable but continued to hear the Phono output from the Digital Audio Connector.
I hunted through the console settings to see if there had been any additions to the audio settings that might compensate for this bizarre problem, however there was nothing.
It wasn't until I decided to swap my actually HDMI screen resolution did I fix the problem. I swapped from 1080p to 1080i and gained sound through HDMI, I then swapped 1080i back to 1080p and sure enough I still had sound.
I extrapolated that the problems people are having (Both RRoD and loss of sound) is the new update alters the drivers (and possibly DRM wrappers over the HDMI), however it's internal versions aren't synchronised to be compatible. To make them compatible it requires the system to be configured differently from how it was operating when updated, this could mean changing the HDMI resolution or actually using a Composite connector to your television.
Http://www.chatsoba.com/images/xbox360/composite.png
[For those of you that mess with Linux, I guess you can say I based my reasoning on trying to update from one FreeBSD version to the next Major Version. This has to be done in a particular way to make sure that the Kernel is rebuilt to be the same version as the "World". If it's not done correctly, then the operating system crashes and requires that a backup kernel is rolled back to. I guess that without reconfiguring the resolution after the update, there is a mismatch and that changing the resolution forces a "re-detection" getting the build syncronised]
After the reconfiguration, you should find that you have both the ability to operate the Xbox and hear sound, then you can then configure it back to your HDMI setting to test that you have both visuals and sound.
This fix will work for some people, others will have problems with older HDMI Screens/Television because of the "prototype" nature of the original HDMI protocols. This can't be fixed through the XBOX unfortunately and will either require Microsoft to write a patch for those particular television types or the owners of those televisions to realise those screens are now "obsolete" models.