<solved> can't get HD sound on HDTV

[Nish]

Running 2010.12 fully updated and I just noticed that in Windows, the sound is playing through the HDTV's speakers only whereas in PCLinuxOS, it is always through the little external speakers only I have hooked up to the green jack in back.  Also in Windows when I connect headphones to the front green jack the sound it will shut the sound off TV speakers but in linux I have to power off the speakers myself. Could be something to do with the windows driver but if I could rid my desk of those  cheap little speakers I got would be nice.

This Samsung HDTV is my monitor and is connected to computer by DVI cable from my nVidia card to HDMI port on the TV.  Kind of surprised that windows is picking up the sound that way and I only noticed it because I was forced to use windows to play Thor DVD on Powerdvd.

I have had a go at the long list of different output options in Phonon and nothing I have tried there plays through TV - they all play but through the external speakers only. I vaguely remember when I first installed on this machine a message coming up on first boot about having two sound devices and I should disable one. Thought it odd since I am using the onboard sound chip and have no sound card in there.  Microatx mobo in a micro case with a big video card, I am not going to be putting a sound card in there

mobo: BIOSTAR A785GE AM2+/AM3 AMD 785G
sound onboard Realtek ALC662
has a radeon onboard but I am using an nVidia card Geforce 220 http://www.evga.com/products/pdf/01G-P3-1225.pdf

  What did I shut off - if that is the problem - and where do I turn it back on again?

[menotu]

Do you have PulseAudio installed  Nish as that may give you greater control over speakers

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,98309.msg832987.html#msg832987

and

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,98309.msg833109.html#msg833109

[Just17]

You need to direct the sound out to the video card HDMI for it to play on the TV.
So you do have two sound 'cards' ....  one with speaker sockets and another for HDMI.

Easily done through PulseAudio as menotu mentions.

[Nish]

Pulse is installed but when I went to check it to use it in control center it wanted to install something else.  Backed out - afraid of losing the sound I do have. I have a little fat32 partition on this disk where I can put an install to try this out on.  I am sure this has something to do with me disabling whatever it was on first boot.

 Yes, there are a couple of posts here about the nvidia cards and sound but not following this one - where he says he is disabling other audio device in bios, I should only have one audio device, what is he disabling in the BIOS?http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,98309.msg833109.html#msg833109   I am not seeing where he is solved.  He seems to be where I am at, has sound.  The more I look at other posts re: HDMI sound the more confused I get.  It seems most everybody wants to disable it.  I think I am trying enable it.  In linux, anyway.  In Windows I can't get it to use the darned little speakers (no loss there, the tv sounds better)

In phonon, I do have an option in drop down for nvidia and when I make a tab for it there are no options in the tab.

[menotu]

What happens if you switch to hdmi in

Configure Your Desktop >> Hardware >> Multimedia > Phonon

as shown in the image from the first link (posted again below)

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,98309.msg832987.html#msg832987

[Just17]

Pulse is installed but when I went to check it to use it in control center it wanted to install something else.

 

Not very informative!

Install task-pulseaudio from the repository and pavucontrol
Enable Pulse in PCC - Hardware - Sound and reboot.

You will then be able to direct the sound on a 'per application' basis to any sound card fitted to your PC .....  including on board sound, HDMI sound on the video card and any USB sound devices you attach.

[Nish]

Pulse is installed but when I went to check it to use it in control center it wanted to install something else.

 

Not very informative!

Install task-pulseaudio from the repository and pavucontrol
Enable Pulse in PCC - Hardware - Sound and reboot.

You will then be able to direct the sound on a 'per application' basis to any sound card fitted to your PC .....  including on board sound, HDMI sound on the video card and any USB sound devices you attach.

not informative perhaps because the error message said something about ALSA - I happen to be a veteran of the ALSA wars and have PTSD from it!  The message I get when I go into CC (mind you, Pulse is already checked) is "the package libalsapulseaudio blah blah" needs to be installed.  I am not sure why I am getting a message about ALSA....will post screenshots for you on my website if that helps.

I don't want to install or enable ALSA if it is not currently default sound server because I have had so many problems in the past. I am quite happy I have sound.  I only wonder why I can't get it through my flipping TV speakers instead of these dime store turds

[Just17]

I don't want to install or enable ALSA if it is not currently default sound server ...

Then I guess you need to find out what sound server you are using and work from there.
I would think that unless you have done something deliberate to change it that Alsa is the sound system in use.

[Nish]

Installed the pulse pkgs.  Opened the pulse app and get an error:
"connection:failed connection:refused"
cannot do anything in there but close

go into CC and it now tells me that there is no known audio driver for HD card (not true, it was working with ALSA "snd_hda_intel) and it is using "unknown" Totally confused now. So I go into "advanced" and tell it to let me pick any driver and I pick the one I was using. I have also run the redetect hardware in CC and in sound it does show two cards, the HD and the Intel. So I think this means that linux doesn't have a driver for HDMI?

[Just17]

Installed the pulse pkgs.  Opened the pulse app and get an error:
"connection:failed connection:refused"
cannot do anything in there but close

The usual cause is not doing a reboot after PulseAudio has been correctly installed and enabled.

go into CC and it now tells me that there is no known audio driver for HD card (not true, it was working with ALSA "snd_hda_intel) and it is using "unknown" Totally confused now. So I go into "advanced" and tell it to let me pick any driver and I pick the one I was using. I have also run the redetect hardware in CC and in sound it does show two cards, the HD and the Intel. So I think this means that linux doesn't have a driver for HDMI?

There are no problems, that I am aware of, sending sound over HDMI.

[menotu]

There are no problems, that I am aware of, sending sound over HDMI.

+1

A Phoronix review from Nov 2010 advises:

Of course, there is also the stereo speakers built into the ASUS VE228H, but like nearly every speaker system integrated into the monitor, the quality is not anything superb but is enough to get by for light audio listening. There also appears to be no quirks (such as incorrect EDID being supplied by the monitor) when using the DVI-D and HDMI connections to a few different ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards under Linux. Everything worked just fine with both the open and closed-source drivers and properly mode-setting to the 1920 x 1080 native resolution.

[Nish]

Installed the pulse pkgs.  Opened the pulse app and get an error:
"connection:failed connection:refused"
cannot do anything in there but close

The usual cause is not doing a reboot after PulseAudio has been correctly installed and enabled.

no less than two reboots, same message.  Googling said sacred pulseaudio error message isn't bringing me any joy in here in Mudville either.  Again, mostly the posts relate to turning off the darn thing I want to turn on.

Almighty all powerful Pulse is installed, enabled and rebooted.  Not working.

Oh, and this is not a monitor with speakers. This a mid range small HDTV.  Working fantastic in Windows.  Pity I don't use Windows but a couple of times a year.

[nixer]

Nish,

This Samsung HDTV is my monitor and is connected to computer by DVI cable from my nVidia card to HDMI port on the TV.  Kind of surprised that windows is picking up the sound that way and I only noticed it because I was forced to use windows to play Thor DVD on Powerdvd.

May I ask, is there a particular reason why you do not connect the computer to the monitor by way of an hdmi cable?  The reason I ask is that I am using the same nvidia gt220 card with a vga, dvi, and hdmi port.  It is connected to a large Sony TV (Bravia) by way of a hdmi cable and the sound works fine.  However, I do not use pulse but alsa.  I had to find an obscure forum post on another board to get the hacks that I needed.  I had to hack two files but after several months of searching, I almost fell out of the chair when I heard the KDE boot up sound for the first time.

I will be glad to give the hacks to you again, or I will try to search the board here.  But you may want to make a change from pulse to alsa.  I have nothing against pulse, but I never could get it to work with this card - but it was probably operator error.

EDIT:  Here is the link to the hacks.

[Just17]

I think you might be best served to use task-pulseaudio-remove to uninstall PA after turning it off in PCC ....  if you had installed PA using the task-pulseaudio meta package to install it in the first place.

Reboot, and ignoring the state of the sound system, install it again using task-pulseaudio. In addition ensure that pavucontrol is installed.
Enable PA through PCC and immediately reboot.

When rebooted, launch pavucontrol and in the Configuration tab see what sound cards are available to you.
Your HDMI should be there in addition to the internal sound card.

Play an audio file and go to the playback tab on pavucontrol ...... there you should be able to choose through which sound card to play streams from whatever application you are using.

The above scheme has not failed here on some 5 different PCs and two laptops.

Don't assume that any part of the above sequence has been done properly up to now.
Do it again as above ....  it should work properly.

If the above doesn't work then maybe referencing this thread could help ......  bearing in mind that its content may be somewhat out of date by now

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,83740.0.html

[Just17]

May I ask, is there a particular reason why you do not connect the computer to the monitor by way of an hdmi cable?

This Samsung HDTV is my monitor and is connected to computer by DVI cable from my nVidia card to HDMI port on the TV.

Damn!  I missed that!