"1. Two-second handsake delay: Thanks christiaanb for the link to AVR Guard (http://www.avsforum.com/t/1317491/silent-stream-bug). Although I consider it a temporary fix, the little utility did eliminate the loss of the first two seconds of audio via HDMI. I wish Microsoft would implement a similar fix natively for their OSes or that the BIOS and / or audio drivers would address this annoying issue. For now, people should definitely try AVR Guard and make sure to select "Run from Startup" via the program's taskbar icon."
Yeah, this utility has also helped me, but in a secondary way, as the Lenovo BIOS update has fixed the primary problem. The secondary issue is as follows.
Given that my computer has two audio devices, whenever I happen to turn off the monitor that I have the HDMI audio running into, the HDMI audio device in Windows will effectively disappear, and Windows will then choose the second audio device (a built-in speaker) as the default device. However, whenever I turn the monitor back on, Windows DOESN'T re-set the HDMI audio device as the default, but, instead, only leaves it as the default communication device. Because of this, sound will remain coming out of the built-in speaker, instead of re-routing back to the monitor.
Using AVR Guard, and then explicitly selecting the HDMI audio device there has fixed the problem for me. Now, when I turn my monitor off and back on, I don't have to go and reset the HDMI audio device as the default.
