Audio Systems: HDMI Splitout, hp laptop, hdmi to dvi cable

Question
Hi Wayne! I have an HP laptop with only a HDMI output. It outputs digital video and audio. My big TV is older and has only a DVI input. I can plug my HDMI to DVI cable into the TV and laptiop and the video is fine. But I need some kind of HDMI splitter where I can take the digital sound out and convert it to Toslink or RCA and plug that into my receiver, which does not have HDMI but does have coaxial, Toslink and RCA. HDMI Y's are available but the HDMI digital to analog or HDMI digital to Toslink converters are impossible for me to find. Any suggestions? Thanks

Answer
Hi Stan,

Unfortunately, you'll never find a mere cable to separate the audio from an HDMI to another type as it is not possible. The only way you'll be able to get to your TV would be an HDMI to DVI-D cable, and then a separate audio line (which type is dependent on the audio output types available on your computer).

Briefly, the reason you can' just split it from the HDMI is that the video and audio information traveling through HDMI is embedded into each other. You'd need a separate decodomg device between the computer and TV to "strip" the audio data from the video and then send it out via another cable type.

You can possibly find a device like this at www.markertek.com, but it could be quite expensive, and not work any better than just running an additional line for audio from your computer to the tv.