Do I set up HD audio?

I am new to HD audio. Just to make sure.... I have my HDMI cable plugged into my graphics card and my speakers plugged into my monitor audio out. Did I set it up right? I get audio but I cannot control it threw my realtek audio manager. No eq control, no volume control and no environment control threw the Realtek audio manager. Is it possible to use it with HDMI audio?

Depends on the Graphics cards, older ones with HDMI often required you to attach an Spdif cable from the Mobo to the card.

Newer cards do it via pci express, I use just an HDMI to connect to my tv and audio is sent through the cable to the tvs speaker (no additional audio cable needed)

It sounds like us are using the Mobo's built in audio, if your monitor is HDMI compatible with speakers it should do it with out the additional cable.

Wait re read post, yea it sounds right, ON my tv i control it via the TV not the computer.

Hmm Maybe my motherboard does not support it because my cards do not have SPDIF connection. I have GTX 460 and 680i LT

reply to post by Infi8nity

From what I can make out you are using a HDMI cable to get the sound to your monitor and then connecting some external speakers to that monitor? What kind of connection are you using from the monitor to the speakers?

From a vague memory I don't think it will work because part of HDMI is about copy protection and/or digital sound output. If the monitor ---> speaker connection is analog, I don't think it will work. I'm sure someone else will have an idea better than mine though.

Audio doesn't work with HD like Televisions do. If you're looking for top quality HD sound you could either buy a good internal sound card and a 2.1 or higher speaker system with subwoofer. Or you can go on the more expensive side and purchase a USB or Firewire audio interface (external sound card) and buy some nice monitors to hook up to your audio interface. It'll all come down to what type of audio you plan to work with. If it's just for gaming and entertainment purposes, you can stick with the first option. If you're gonna be working with audio and editing audio, the second suggestion is a must. Hope this helped.