Arch Linux

anonworldusr

Member

Registered: 2015-12-19

Posts: 20

[SOLVED] HDMI Audio Not Working (PulseAudio)

Completely updated arch system on a Dell Inspiron laptop. Never used HDMI audio output before on this laptop, however, I have used it successfully with another laptop running an updated arch system following the wiki. The speaker and cable are functional, I tested them with my PS3.

I cannot play audio through the HDMI output. Video over HDMI works fine, but only built-in speakers work.

I have read the PuleAudio wiki and tried solutions listed there, as well as read this forum solution but neither of these have helped.

output of aplay -l

$aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: 92HD87B1/3 Analog [92HD87B1/3 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

No audio output is produced when running

$aplay -D plughw:0,3 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

The Front_Center.wav file does exist. Proven by running

$aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

which produces "Front Center" audio through the built-in speakers.

I am using pulseaudio and the pauvecontrol GUI for easy management, no HDMI output device appears there.
Adding

load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,3

to /etc/pulse/default.pa adds a new output device, however, when used it produces no audio.

Last edited by anonworldusr (2016-05-24 03:48:33)

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2<x<1

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: [SOLVED] HDMI Audio Not Working (PulseAudio)

Can you post

amixer -c0 
pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sinks

for some further diagnosis. I'd guess you should have seperate ports for HDMI as opposed to seperate cards. If you don't want to wait for me to take a look at it, you should be able to switch between available ports in the Configuration tab of pavucontrol.

Last edited by V1del (2016-05-23 15:43:10)

JohnBobSmith

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2014-11-29

Posts: 804

Re: [SOLVED] HDMI Audio Not Working (PulseAudio)

In my experience with HDMI, you often have to ensure that ALSA hasn't muted anything, and that the volumes are all up. SP/DIF or whatever it is needs to be enabled there too. Finally, using pavucontrol you have to make sure you are using the "Monitor of HDMI <whatever>" where <whatever> happened to be my graphics card. Set both input, output, and all that jazz to use HDMI. Your master volume also needs to be unmuted and high enough to be audible. To test, I used speaker-test. If you want 2 channels (using more on my setup just crashed things) add a -c2 parameter. So you end up with speaker-test -c2.

Best of luck!

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anonworldusr

Member

Registered: 2015-12-19

Posts: 20

Re: [SOLVED] HDMI Audio Not Working (PulseAudio)

Thanks guys, you were both right. I didn't double check the 'configuration' tab in pavucontrol to make sure that 'HDMI Output' was selected.
HDMI audio works now, can't believe I didn't catch that on my own for how long I was trying to figure this out.

Way overthought this.
Marking as solved.

The only thing that bugs me is that on my other laptop it wasn't necessary to switch between the inputs and outputs in the configuration tab, I was able to switch outputs just through the 'Output Devices' tab. If there is a simple reason for this I would appreciate an explanation.

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: [SOLVED] HDMI Audio Not Working (PulseAudio)

On this system the HDMI and the Analog Output are considered the same card (likely a technical reason in how it is implemented on the board) on your other system they are considered seperate cards and can be accessed independently. If you do a

aplay -l

on the other laptop the two cards should be on different cards (as opposed to just being a different subdevice of the same card)