oS 11.2: no sound from HDMI

Hi all.

When I plug my HDMI cable to my TV, I have the image but no sound. I read somewhere on this forum that this may be caused by the fact that my s/pdif channels are muted. I have been to alsamixer and there is no way to unmute s/pdif.

Can you help ? Thanks in advence. :slight_smile:

I provide you some basic info :

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC889 Digital [ALC889 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L
default:CARD=Intel         
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    Default Audio Device    
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, ALC889 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, NVIDIA HDMI
    HDMI Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=23f16ff767daf909b5d5ea9717b80429bc9e9ed8

rpm -qa '*alsa*'
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.17-25.2.x86_64
alsa-oss-1.0.17-25.2.x86_64
alsa-utils-1.0.21-3.1.x86_64
alsa-1.0.21-3.2.x86_64
alsa-plugins-32bit-1.0.21-3.3.x86_64
alsa-plugins-1.0.21-3.3.x86_64
rpm -qa '*pulse*'
libpulse0-0.9.21-1.2.1.x86_64
libxine1-pulse-1.1.18.1-1.pm.37.2.x86_64
rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.21-3.2.x86_64
uname -a
Linux linux-q26h 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf

options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.c5VPFxTP8V8:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

I suspect you are a gnome user ? In KDE one can use “kmix” to unmute. Note IEC958 is likely your digital audio control for the s/pdif.

You could try using the unfriendly command line program amixer. You can learn more about it by surfing on ‘amixer’ and also by typing ‘man amixer’.

I’m not a gnome user (where gnome also has pulse audio enabled) so I can’t be of help here.

Good luck.

Hi oldcpu,

No, I am not in GNOME. I am in KDE. In kmix, I don’t see the s/pdif channels. So, if I go in alsamixer, I see them, but I am unable to unmute them.

Note it is possibly called IEC958. In Kmix under the kmix menu you can go add extra controls/channels. I am not at a Linux PC right now so I can not give you the exact GUI sequence. Just take a look at kmix and you will see it (how to add the extra controls).

Oki, if it’s called IEC958, I have those in kmix. In kmix, I can unmute them, but I don’t have any slider to adjust volume. If I enable them, in alsamixer, the volume display OO.

Do I have to mess with something in the kde system settings->Multimedia ?

I have absolutely the same problem (11.2 x64, KDE 4.3.4, GeForce GT 240M). GeForce GT 240M.

DaaX, did you find a solution?

One caution 'bout nVidia graphic hardware. Sometimes installing a nVidia proprietary graphic driver will break audio permissions, and in cases like that one needs to add their regular user to group audio. That is unlikely to be relevant here, but I thought I would mention this just in case.

Thx a lot for the reply oldcpu, but unfortunately it doesn’t help.

I noticed that I have only one device “5 series/3400 series chipset hight definition audio” in yast sound configuration. No entry for nVidia HDMI, is it ok? Also do I have to change something in KDE sound settings?

Thanks a lot in advance.

You should see something wrt HDMI if it is supported.

The diagnostic script:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

is very good at providing one lots of information. Don’t directly post the content of that script here though, as it is much too large and it will flood this thread with a series of unwanted massive posts.

Aplay output:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC272 Digital [ALC272 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
tovarish@calcifer:~> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC272 Digital [ALC272 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L
default:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC272 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

Thanks a lot in advance.

You are right oldcpu, there are a lot of information (about 900 strings), but how can I understand what part is related to my problem, or how can I share it? Thx in advance.

I don’t use HDMI on my PCs.

Problem resolved by updating alsa to the last version.

I was having the same HDMI video no sound problem.

My solution has not been listed here yet, so I think it won’t hurt to add it.

In 11.3 KDE menu there’s “Multimedia” application that gives a lot more information and options than “Sound” in Yast.

There were two audio devices listed there, Analog and HDMI, all I had to do is to move HDMI up the list for Video and the sound magically appeared.

It’s the third of the fourth Hdmi sound problem thread I’m reading and I was expecting a lot more fuss with terminal and alsa commands and scripts.