Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

ctown.myth · 2011-07-30 20:54:32

Hello everyone, I have a weird problem. I have a Acer 1410, which has a Core 2 Solo with an Intel 4500MHD. HDMI is detected, video works fine, and audio is detected and works fine when I test it through KDE's System Settings. The problem occurs when I want to switch to HDMI audio, I increase the priority to the top, but audio still plays through the laptops speakers. Headphones work fine.

I found this thread that states there's a workaround, but I haven't the faintest idea what it does or if it will work for me.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=114109

George · 2011-07-30 22:42:00

Are you using pulseaudio or plain alsa?
Have you tried applying your settings changes then restarting the applications which are playing audio?
Which applications have you tested with?

ctown.myth · 2011-07-31 04:15:02

I'm using plain ALSA, and I've tried with both GStreamer (where HDMI audio works), and VLC (where HDMI audio doesn't work) Phonon backends. I've tried to change the settings and then log out and log back in, but that didn't work, and I've tried with all KDE applications that use Phonon (Dragon Player, Amarok, JuK, etc.)

Now just a litte time ago, I decided to test using VLC player, I set the audio device to HDMI in VLCs preferences, and volia! it worked. This just further points to something being wrong in Phonon itself, rather than my hardware drivers.

George · 2011-07-31 12:37:38

Unless you've got some reason to dislike pulseaudio i'd be inclined to install that and see whether it makes a difference. At least you'd then be able to narrow down the problem to either Phonon+ALSA or to a general Phonon problem.

ctown.myth · 2011-07-31 20:41:13

Alright; the last time I had tried PulseAudio, it kept on crashing after playing Flash, so I had strayed away from that. I'll get some time in a couple of hours so I'll give it a shot then.

George · 2011-07-31 20:57:19

I personally haven't had any PA/Flash issues for quite a while so I'd say its worth a try.

ctown.myth · 2011-08-01 05:02:17

I just gave PA a try, and it didn't make any difference. I installed pulseaudio and pulseaudio-alsa, restarted the computer, and got the inteface in KDE right (no problems there). But again when I select my HDMI device, the audio is still played through the laptop's speakers. To be sure, I then installed pavucontrol and it reported the same as KDE multimedia settings.

George · 2011-08-01 11:40:24

Hmm, I'll try and test with an external soundcard sometime today to see if the problem is specific to your system or not. Have you looked at .xsession-errors to see if there's anything phonon related in there?

George · 2011-08-01 23:12:22

right, just tested this with my usb soundcard and changing the priority of the outputs worked fine.
One thing did occur to me, did you try using the "Apply Device List to" button to make sure you preference was set correctly for all the categories?

ctown.myth · 2011-08-02 03:01:38

Sorry for not posting, I've been busy the whole day.

I've done a search for "pulseaudio", "libpulse", and "alsa" in my .xsession-errors, and nothing has come up; a Phonon error did come up, but it was through Nepomuk, so I don't think that it would have anything to do with my problem. Also, yes, the "Apply Device List to" button shows that all the sub-categories have been checked.

I'll be deleting my .kde4 folder and starting from scratch, and if nothing still happens, I'm thinking of filing a bug report on Phonon; should I post it on KDEs bug tracker or Arch's? Unfortunately I won't be of much help after that, this is taking so long I'm thinking of just buying an aux cable and using that instead .

Last edited by ctown.myth (2011-08-02 03:02:44)

George · 2011-08-02 21:25:28

I'd guess that this would belong bugs.kde.org.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-30 20:54:32

Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#2 2011-07-30 22:42:00

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#3 2011-07-31 04:15:02

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#4 2011-07-31 12:37:38

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#5 2011-07-31 20:41:13

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#6 2011-07-31 20:57:19

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#7 2011-08-01 05:02:17

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#8 2011-08-01 11:40:24

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#9 2011-08-01 23:12:22

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#10 2011-08-02 03:01:38

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

#11 2011-08-02 21:25:28

Re: Not able to switch to HDMI Audio in KDE

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