From the script I note a 64-bit openSUSE-12.3 with the 1.0.26 alsa version and the 3.7.10-1.4-desktop kernel.
!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------
0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
HDA Intel PCH at 0xfa620000 irq 67
1 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfa080000 irq 17
2 [Set ]: USB-Audio - C-Media USB Headphone Set
C-Media USB Headphone Set at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4.7.3, full speed
!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF100 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
where your HDMI device is likley the second PCI sound card device (ie "1 [NVidia … " )
I note the following alsa kernel modules loaded:
!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------
snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_intel
snd_usb_audio
where one is for your USB device, and two snd_hda_intel instances where one is likely for your HDMI device.
Mother board codec is an ALC892 and ‘Nvidia GPU 10 HDMI/DP’ the HDMI hardware audio codec.
The aplay output is important:
APLAY
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 1**: NVidia [HDA NVidia], **device 3**: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 1**: NVidia [HDA NVidia], **device 7:** HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 1**: NVidia [HDA NVidia], **device 8**: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
**card 1**: NVidia [HDA NVidia], **device 9**: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Set [C-Media USB Headphone Set], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
as from that we can see that your HDMI devices are on card 1 labeled hw:1,3 ; hw:1,7 ; hw:1,8 ; and hw:1,9 (where the ‘1’ corresponds to the card, and the 3,7,8,9 correspond to the device).
Typically of those 4, only one is active. Hence the initial trick sometimes can be to determine which one of those 4 is the active HDMI device, and then tune it with pulse audio.
I also note some dmesg entries :
7.077765] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1304 realtek: No valid SSID, checking pincfg 0x4005e601 for NID 0x1d
7.077766] ALSA patch_realtek.c:1320 realtek: Enabling init ASM_ID=0xe601 CODEC_ID=10ec0892
..........
7.085103] ALSA hda_intel.c:2713 0000:01:00.1: Handle VGA-switcheroo audio client
..........
7.294156] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
--
7.438573] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input15
7.438607] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input16
7.438630] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input17
7.438652] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1/input18
where one can again note the “3, 7, 8, 9” HDMI devices. The VGA-switcheroo gives me some pause as I note your PC has been identified with hybrid graphics which puzzles me, as VGA-switcheroo is nominally for radeon/intel combination and not nVidia/intel combination. By chance does your PC have 3 graphics devices ? The ‘No Valid SSID’ also gives me some pause, and that appears inconsistent with the identified ALC892 and ‘Nvidia GPU 10 HDMI/DP’ hardware audio codecs.
Now before I start with suggestions, NOTE that HDMI has 2 sides to the interface. It has your computer side and your wife’s TV side. If the TV side is not setup/configured wrt settings/volume on the TV side, none of what I suggest below will work. So ensure the TV is correctly setup.
Per the link I provided ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/gpu-hdmi-audio-document/gpu-hdmi-audio.html#_issues_in_pulseaudio , did you go through the steps to check the output of the command to confirm card information is available for your PC, that the alsa driver recognizes the monitor and the general functionality is correct ? That will also indicate which of the hw:1,3 ; hw:1,7 ; hw:1,8 ; and hw:1,9 is functional.
I’m going to assume you did not try that as you could not understand it (apologies if I got that wrong)
and hence I will propose a trial and effort method instead to determine which of the hw:1,3 ; hw:1,7 ; hw:1,8 ; and hw:1,9 is functional. This is important to determine so effort is focused on only ONE of those four and not wasted on all four.
With your HDMI hardware connected, try sending the following two commands once for each of the four hw:1,3 ; hw:1,7 ; hw:1,8 ; and hw:1,9 devices. ie start with hw:1,3 and in a terminal/konsole type:
speaker-test -c 2 -r 48000 -D hw:1,3
and
aplay -D hw:1,3 some_file.wav
where ‘some_file.wav’ is a .wav file that you have selected. Again, try that for hw:1,3 ; hw:1,7 ; hw:1,8 ; and hw:1,9 . One of those should give something different reference sound from the other 3. Hence that is the device you need to focus on with pulse audio. But you need to determine which one of those 4 is the correct one. Please advise us as to which one gave different sound on the TV (it could be noise, static, crackling or even a proper tune/voice) ?
Its possible you may need to add the HDMI devices to pulse (if not already included) but I note you stated :
wrt Pulse audio, can you also please show us the selections in the ‘pavucontrol’ configuration tab so we can give you guidance there. Sometimes doint a ‘screen print’ with the ‘pavucontrol’ settings showing (a pause before the capture may/or-may-not be necessary) and post the image on Fast, Free Image Hosting - ImageBam may be the easiest way to show us the settings.