Dual Monitors - Help Required!

Hello,
I need help setting up my two monitors.
I recently bought Asus VG248 as a gaming monitor, I would like to use 120HZ while playing games, so I get the smoothest performance. I have Sony KDL-46" TV as my "primary TV". I also have a Denon home theater receiver.
What is the correct way to set these up?
VG248 -> DVI-D cable to Radeon 7870
Sony KDL-46" -> HDMI cable to Denon receiver
Denon Receiver -> HDMI cable to 7870
Denon receiver -> optical audio cable

Right now, I think this is the way they are connected.
The problem is, whenever I turn off Sony KDL, I can only get picture on my Asus 248, but no sound. So I have to have Duplicate monitor on and use both of the monitors 24/7, which is very unneccessary.
I would like to be able to switch between monitors, for movie watching or gaming etc.

I am using Windows 7 64-bit.

Thank you in advance for help, it is really needed.

BananaMann said:

Hello,
I need help setting up my two monitors.
I recently bought Asus VG248 as a gaming monitor, I would like to use 120HZ while playing games, so I get the smoothest performance. I have Sony KDL-46" TV as my "primary TV". I also have a Denon home theater receiver.
What is the correct way to set these up?
VG248 -> DVI-D cable to Radeon 7870
Sony KDL-46" -> HDMI cable to Denon receiver
Denon Receiver -> HDMI cable to 7870
Denon receiver -> optical audio cable

The problem is, whenever I turn off Sony KDL, I can only get picture on my Asus 248, but no sound. So I have to have Duplicate monitor on and use both of the monitors 24/7, which is very unneccessary.
I would like to be able to switch between monitors, for movie watching or gaming etc.

I'm afraid your system setup description isn't clear enough.

What is your motherboard and/or brand/model PC?

What speakers are you using, or want to use? Speakers managed by the Denon AVR? Or speakers in your VG248 monitor? Or desktop PC speakers? Or the speakers in your KDL TV? Does it vary with the situation or your mood?? This is obviously critical information for us to know in order to diagnose your current issue and suggest the proper wiring and configuration.

As was already explained in an earlier reply, there is no audio delivered on a DVI cable. So if you connect your VG248 via DVI cable to your 7870 then it's impossible to hear anything from speakers which might be present in that monitor. You'd have to use an HDMI cable going from 7870 to the VG248 if you wanted to have sound coming out of the monitor's speakers (if present).

Furthermore, the most crucial setup configuration mechanism is the "playback devices" which is gotten to by right-click on the "speaker" icon in the system tray and selecting "playback devices". This dialog is where you designate which output path you want audio to be sent out through, and also allows you to configure it, and also allows you to "set as default" so you don't have to manually set it every time you boot. But obviously if you set it to use your HDMI output (e.g. going to the VG248 via an HDMI cable, if that's what you are using and the monitor is where you want sound to come from) then you're not going to be sending audio to your Denon via optical from your sound card or out to PC speakers connected to the speaker outputs of your sound card/chip. Audio goes out only one of the possible outputs shown in "playback devices", depending on whichever one you've got currently selected.

I'm guessing that you have real multi-channel loudspeakers supported by your Denon receiver, and that one of your configuration goals is to be able to watch video on your KDL TV or your VG248 and also listen to sound from these speakers. This could be accomplished by (a) using an optical audio cable output from your PC's sound card (assuming it has optical S/PDIF output) going to an optical input of your Denon AVR. You'd check "Realtek digital (optical)" as the output in "playback devices". Now you would ALWAYS get audio from your Denon receiver and real speakers, no matter what you're watching for video.

Note that optical supports DD5.1 audio, but you need to "enable" that in order to get it. When you select "Realtek digital (optical)' in "playback devices, then push the PROPERTIES button to get the properties dialog window. On this properties dialog window select the "supported formats" tab and check all of the multi-channel options. This will now cause true multi-channel digital audio to go out over your optical connection from sound card to the Denon, to feed your multi-channel speaker setup.

Now... for the video. You should continue to use the DVI video cable from 7870 video card to the VG248 (knowing that this will produce NO SOUND from the speakers in the monitor, but that's fine because you probably want to get your multi-channel sound from the speakers managed by the Denon). And you should send HDMI directly from the 7870 video card to your KDL TV (not going through Denon at all, because you don't need to since you're sending optical digital audio from sound card to the Denon).

Or, if you also have ordinary desktop speakers connected to the analog speaker output(s) of your sound card, you can select "speakers" in "playback devices", and then that's where sound will come from.

Again, you will NEVER get sound from the VG248 using a DVI cable. But you don't need it, and you don't want it. Your real speakers from the Denon AVR are most likely what you want to be listening to when gaming, and that will happen via the optical connection from sound card (not video card) to the Denon with all multi-channel formats checked ON in properties dialog for optical output.

If you want to get sound from your KDL TV you can do that (since the HDMI cable from 7870 to the TV supports audio and video). But to activate that you must now check the "HDMI" output in "playback devices" to make it active. Now you will not be getting audio delivered over optical to the Denon, since you've essentially un-checked it when you checked the HDMI output instead. So you won't have sound from your Denon and real speakers, but instead will be getting stereo sound from the TV... if that's what you really want.

Otherwise, leaving the optical audio output checked, you can still get HDMI-delivered video (but no sound) to the TV while getting optical-delivered audio to the Denon. Or, selecting "speakers" gets ordinary analog sound from your desktop PC speakers. Whatever you check in "playback devices", that's where you'll be getting sound from.

Lots of options and choices. But you should have an optical audio connection from PC sound card to the Denon, and run HDMI direct from 7870 to the KDL TV, and run DVI from 7870 to the VG248. Then you use "playback devices" to select audio out of the Denon (via optical), or audio out of the TV (via HDMI), or audio out of your desktop speakers if you have them. Turning off the TV to have video from the VG248 only should be accompanied by optical output (to the Denon) or "speakers" checked, to get sound from your real Denon speakers or desktop PC speakers.