No sound in XBMC over HDMI w/ 12.1

English Multimedia
1

I know this is an XBMC issue and the conventional wisdom is to address those in the XBMC fora or with a Google search but I’ve had no luck either way. Hopefully some fellow openSUSE user can help.

After a long struggle I finally got sound to work over my HDMI connection with 11.4. Now I’m using 12.1 and it took even longer to get it working again but now it is… that is it works with aplay & VLC etc… not with XBMC. When I use XBMC all sound still comes from the laptop speakers.

I’ve gone into XBMC>System>Audio Settings and set “Audio settings” to HDMI (I also tried all other settings too just in case) and I’ve set “Audio Device Settings” to each option icluding “Custom”. The custom settng I’ve tried so far have been “plug:0-3” “plughw:0-3” and “hdmi:CARD=Nvidia”.(Note: the comma key is dead on the KB I’m using to type this. The “-” above is entered as a comma in the XBMC settings)

The PC is a Toshiba X205 laptop
The video card is an Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT
The HDMI is the third entry below:

~> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC268 Digital [ALC268 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: ALC268 Digital [ALC268 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

here’s more data:

~> aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC268 Digital
    HDMI Audio Output
2

So I am no expert with XBMC, but are you running it like a desktop (selected at the SUSE login which you can do) or from within a running desktop and if desktop, which? I have heard it can make a difference in how it works. On my HTPC I run it like a Desktop, but with my Sound Blaster sound card, the optical output seems to always work OK with everything, but the built-in Realtek motherboard sound did not work OK in XMBC or with iTunes movie Trailers sound. So the sound device can make a difference as well.

Thank You,