HDMI Headphones

[BigDaddyKong]

Why have we not seen any companies design a headphone that plugs into an HDMI port on our GPU. This could let the video driver do all the heavy lifting, and would not need a separate driver and program running in the background. If needed they could get power from a USB or use a wall plug. It will make a much more stable system without the extra software running in the background.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Although we haven't seen any headphones do that, a lot of speaker systems have an HDMI input. But then you would have to rely on the internal DAC of the speakers/headphones
Want something that will have nearly 0 impact on the system? Get an external DAC+amp. The drivers are built in windows no need to install additional software... Most of the USB powered headphones (that have included an amp and dac in the usb) work with the built in drivers, no need to install the 3rd party utility
Besides it's not about the software running in the background, it's about how much resources they need to do stuff.

 

[Feronix]

If they're going to need USB for power anyway, you might as well get... USB headphones? The Realtek drivers are barely taxing or unstable on any system. Do you have an example of what makes you say that?

I guess the reason is compatibility. What if you only have an on-board GPU? You can also only use the on-board sound. But oh, you're already using the HDMI port for your monitor. You can't plug an HDMI cable into the front of your case.

Also a lot of laptops (ultrabooks) don't have full-size HDMI out anymore as it's too big. You wouldn't be able to use your headphones on them either, let alone on a phone.

As a manufacturer it is a much more viable option to make headphones with either a 3.5mm jack or USB connection from a business standpoint. As basically everyone is able to use them on nearly any device of their choice and so you will sell a lot more units than something that only 10% of the people can really use on their specific system.

 

[BigDaddyKong]

Say, using Logitech cans and having an AMD card installed. Unless you tell it not to install the HDMI audio drivers, it will. You also have to run the Logitech software.

I would like to see a set of cans that will leverage the AMD drivers, and does not take up an additional USB port.

 

[Kilbane]

There are a few HDMI audio splitters out there that support 3.5mm jack connection. They are not a popular choice due to 99% of HDMI enabled devices already having an audio out connection.
As mentioned by Feronix, manufacturing a device for such a small market has no profit margin available.
Plus, why would you want to use the AMD/nvidia HDMI audio drivers? They are not that good!

 

[BigDaddyKong]

Just something different.