Audio from my Dell OptiPlex 7050 sounds very thin and tinny when the computer is connected to my Vizio 40-inch VFD40M TV over HDMI. I've already tried changing HDMI ports and cables, restarting both devices, restarting the Intel graphics driver, reinstalling and updating audio drivers, updating the TV, changing the TV's audio format, changing Windows' output frequency, disabling Fast Startup, and disabling Link State Power Management. Some changes temporarily improve the sound, but the problem returns. The PC uses Windows 11, an Intel Core i7-7700, 16 GB of RAM, and Intel HD Graphics 630. This has also happened with a personal laptop, but not with other devices connected to the TV.
1 Answer
Since the TV is already showing only Stereo in the speaker configuration, the channel-count setting probably isn’t the issue. HDMI port and cable changes can force a fresh handshake, which may temporarily reset the audio format, but a genuinely bad cable would usually cause dropouts, visual artifacts, or a lost signal rather than consistently tinny audio. On the TV, try disabling surround processing, volume leveling, and TruVolume, and set the equalizer to a flat or neutral profile. Then reconnect the HDMI cable and test again. If the sound still changes after each handshake, the problem may be an HDMI audio negotiation issue between the Intel graphics driver and this TV model.
The only speaker configuration option Windows gives me for the TV is Stereo. I went through the rest of the sound settings, but it didn’t change anything, and the Supported Formats section doesn’t show any Dolby or DTS checkboxes—just a list of formats.