HDMI Cable: Audio doesn't work with WD TV Media Player?

Legacy Products WD TV
1

Hi all, I just setup my WD TV Media Player last week on a new TV and when I use the 3 cables which are red, yellow and white I have sound and video no problems. So, recently I bought a new HDMI cable from KMart and I only have video, but no audio…?

What can I try?

2

the obvious things are …

  1. Check the WDTV audio setting is set to “Stereo”
  2. Try another TV
  3. If no other TV, then try a different input eg. HDMI 1, HDMI 2 HDMI 3 etc
  4. Check your TV Settings (consult the TV user manual)
  5. If all of the above are no go … Try another HDMI cable (return the cable you bought to K-Mart for an exchange)
3

I’m doing as you recommended now.

Also, does it matter what type of HDMI cable I bought? I paid around $10 for it and it’s a very short cable.

4

Apparently there’s no real difference between cheap and expensive hdmi cables, so don’t worry about that.
http://www.tested.com/tech/3329-the-difference-between-cheap-and-expensive-hdmi-cables/

5

i’ve bought cables for a low as $2.95 (china, of course) and they worked ok

but, being “cheap” … there’s always the very real possibility of getting a “dud” one … or two :wink:

(but the only problem i’ve had with dud ones is “sparkles” or pixelation … no audio problems)

1 Like
6

I have had this, video and no sound (I remember it was quite frightening), but it fixed itself in my case after, certainly; / checking my hdmi was ‘seated’ correctly / switching off and back on / almost certainly followed by pulling WDTV cable out whilst on (to jolt it); and, perhaps (too long ago to remember for certain); a factory reset. (All of which I know is no help in your case, sorry).

7

I’ve done a lot of Googling, but I haven’t found a concrete answer. It seems that this issue of not having sound fixes itself…???

8

Elusive, yes. As someone with a fairly well behaved unit, nevertheless I feel that the only thing that is certain with these units is that they change. Change through time! Maybe sounds weird, but as I say, even with my relatively good one, I see minor changes, or shifts, every now and then. I’m just fortunate that these glitches aren’t ones that render it unusable. It seems to revert to itself, a usable standard (sooner or later) with no trace of the prior glitch! What I’m driving at is that yes, maybe it will fix itself, even though I realise that saying this, is far from objective.

I have had, in my WDTV’s two year life, about 10 “shifts” of one kind or another for no apparent reason. And an equal amount which are the result of faults at the pc end (mostly shifts in sharing settings), A large example of how my unit is cranky sometimes, is that periodically (it seems to be be happening less and less) I have to crash (I mean that) my WDTV’s media library because it seems to refuse to update itself so that it becomes a poor mirror of its media source and in these situations it will not respond to all the normal library-rebuilding commands whatsoever. (Believe it or not, my WD causes my pc to corrupt one piece of data in its registry, which now I know what it is, is easy to fix).

Perhaps you can just “meddle” with your unit from time to time - in the right way of course. Do anything and everything you can think of (reset, etc.) that isn’t going to compromise it, because it’s as if the darned things operate not on a straight timeline, but in a warped timeline! Sorry to be so non-specific, but speaking as someone who gave up on my first unit and chucked it in the bin to my cost, I now think that for all its multitude of faults (pink screen, and and numerous inconsistencies), had I known how, it was probably retrievable!
Apart from these things, all you can do is use the searchbox here again sometimes, racking your brain to think of different search terms - and same thing on Google (which led me to find a post for kicking my unit’s butt back into gear for refusing to respond to media library rebuild commands). Very time consuming, but frustrating as well because I feel sure there’s a fix for your problem. Also repost the problem here maybe monthly, remembering the more info you give, the more it will be likely people here can help you. (I can’t shake off the feeling I’ve seen this problem you describe posted on here some time back).

9

personally speaking … i’ve never had a HDMI Video only / No Sound fault … ever

and i’ve been using WDTV’s since Gen 1 days (over 10 Years)

(have a Gen 1, Gen 2, Live Hub and 2014 WDTV)

1 Like
10

Yes Joey. It’s opaque. One is reduced to responding with one’s own experience.