[mythtv-users] HDMI – no audio GT210

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:24:37 -0500, you wrote:

>
>Hi Stephen!
>
>Thanks for replying!
>
>
>> Yes, a look at alsamixer's output can reveal all sorts of interesting
>> things.  When using SPDIF output, I always have to unmute it before it
>> will work.  And then sometimes the automatic "alsactl save" does not
>> seem to happen, so I find it a good idea to do that after I have
>> everything working.
>
>
>They may have changed it to 'alsactl store' else just typed the wrong
>word -- save, store, whatever to us humans! <g>  This newbie did a
>Google search and found the storage goes to /etc/asound.conf -- which I
>don't have at all (!).  Significant??  Or just empty because I haven't
>stored anything first?  

Sorry, I just typed the wrong word.  It is "alsactl store".

Whatever your Google search showed you was not correct.  Nothing
normally writes its data to /etc - programs are supposed to store to
/var.  On Ubuntu, alsactl stores to /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.  The
/etc/asound.conf file is where you would put manual Alsa
configurations to override the automatic setup.  Most people never
need to do that, so never have to create that file.

>And as I reminded Nick, in System Settings I don't have a 'Sound' icon.
>LIS originally , not sure if that's significant.  

I think the Sound icon in System Settings may be new to 16.04.  I do
not have it in Mythbuntu 14.04 64-bit, but I do have it on my test
16.04 box, which is a Ubuntu install, with the Mythbuntu packages
added afterwards.  It is also possible that it is part of PulseAudio -
that often gets uninstalled on MythTV boxes, as it can get in the way
of things rather than help.

And that reminds me that on my laptop, I had to install a PulseAudio
volume control and unmute the speaker and headphone outputs before its
sound would work.  It shows up on the Multimedia menu as "PulseAudio
Volume Control".  I think the package to install is "pavucontrol".

>> And then there is a new-ish bug that means that sometimes the "alsactl
>> restore" that is supposed to happen on boot does not work, or
>> something else turns off my SPDIF output.  So if I start playing a
>> recording and there is no sound, the first thing I do is go to a
>> command prompt and do an "alsactl restore" and 99% of the time it
>> fixes it.  Sometimes I have that problem several times in one day, and
>> sometimes not at all for a month or so.
>
>I wonder if that's what happened on my old Mythbuntu system (RIP -- late
>last week I think the storage drive died)  Rarely had to reboot one of
>the Frontends to get sound.  (That's the reason I'm using the old HDMI
>cards - trying to get them to connect to the new Backend.)

It could be the same problem - it sounds similar.  I only have it on
Mythbuntu 14.04 though, never on older versions.  I have not upgraded
yet, to I do not know about 16.04.

>> Another little gotch I have is with my laptop.  When it boots, it
>> assumes the audio is going to the headphone jack.  I have to plug in
>> and unplug my headphones to get it to go to the speakers.  I am sure
>> there is an option somewhere to fix this, but I have never had the
>> time to hunt it down.
>
>
>Like this newbie knows much of anything ... ah heck: thought I
>remembered I had something in my notes but was "if HDMI audio pass
>through does not work".   
>
>
>> Note: The alsamixer and alsactl commands may need sudo - I run them
>> from a root command prompt.
>
>Right.  I've found a lot of stuff when Googling trying to figure this
>last portion out and 'sudo' isn't written.  I usually figure if it
>doesn't work as user 'barry' I just have to tell the computer who's boss
>with the 'sudo' nametag! <g>
>
>Anyway, thanks for the help!  We'll get this critter working yet!
>
>Barry