buzzzzzing

tres · 15 Oct 2009 at 12:54

Dear all,

In-law's have a basic PC connected via 5m VGA & 3.5mm phone cable to a 32" Toshiba LCD.

Picture is great, but the tv buzzes (only with PC sound input) Using VLC player to boost the volume to 200% does help a bit, but it's still there.

Might this be the rubbish on board sound? too long a cable? rubbish quality cable? interference on cable?

Many thanks

PistolPete · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:01

tres said:
Might this be the rubbish on board sound? too long a cable? rubbish quality cable? interference on cable?

Could be any of these, I'd try a different, better quality cable as see if that works.

MikeHunt79 · 15 Oct 2009 at 13:15

sounds like a ground loop, try an optical input if possible

does your TV have a ground lift switch?

tres · 16 Oct 2009 at 09:56

TV doesn't have an opitcal in unfortunately.

What's a ground lift switch?

MikeHunt79 · 16 Oct 2009 at 18:02

tres said:
TV doesn't have an opitcal in unfortunately.

What's a ground lift switch?

some amps have a switch which isolates the power earth from the audio ground... Can be useful if you have a ground loop...

If your onboard sound has some form of digital out, pick up an external DAC, as the onboard DAC will leave a lot to be desired. This should fix things. It does not have to be a high end one, as TV speakers aren't exactly amazing, in fact picking up a cheap tripath and and cheap 2nd hand bookshelve speakers would give much nicer sound, but you may not have the space for this... If you do, you could maybe get the DAC/amp/speakers for under £100 if you want to save some dosh, or spend £1000 if you're feeling flush.

Caged · 16 Oct 2009 at 18:18

5 metres shouldn't be a problem for running unbalanced audio unless you've got a lot of RF around. Try something like an iPod at the other end of the cable and see if you still get the problem, it could be noise being picked up inside the PC.

AtaRo · 19 Oct 2009 at 13:56

If the pc sound does not make this noise when using a pc speaker then its probably the 5m audio cable is causing it picking up noise along the way.Try a quality properly shielded audio cable.