Sven Lotus
New Member
I have a HP EliteBook 745 G4 running Ubuntu 18.04 and I have a DisplayPort to HDMI cable connected to a 50" ONN non-smart TV. With this combination when I fire up pavucontrol I see two output types, "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" and "Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI 3)" and I am able to use mpv to play a video file where I can select the HDMI audio output in pavucontrol to get the sound output to go to the TV.
I can also use the following command to directly specify a particular audio output device with mpv:
Just in case anyone is interested or feels that it might provide additional important information the mpv version I am using is:
However recently I have been struggling to get the same thing working at another location where there is a Samsung 75" smart TV (model # QN75Q80AA). When I go there with the exact same laptop and DP to HDMI cable, the only audio output that shows up in pavucontrol is the "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo". The video displays just fine to the TV but nothing I do will get the additional digital audio output selection to appear in pavucontrol.
Since it works at my house with the non-smart TV, with everything else being the same I had to conclude there was some unknown difference between the two TVs that is affecting the ability for Ubuntu to see the Samsung TV as a valid digital audio output.
Since posting a question about this problem on another forum I have gone back to the other location with the Samsung TV and tried various different HDMI ports on the TV since some are labeled as "HDMI" but one is labeled as "HDMI (eARC)" but connecting to different HDMI ports seems to have made no difference.
While I was there I also ran the command "pactl list" and redirected the output to a file so I could compare this output with output from the same command at my home office where the ONN TV works fine.
I found there were definite differences in this pactl output from one location to the other but I still have no clue what is causing it or how to fix the problem.
With the ONN TV where sound works fine I see two Sinks listed in the pactl output:
and two audio cards are listed:
(this is not the complete output from "pactl list. It has been trimmed down to only show the important bits.)
but at the location with the Samsung TV with no sound I only see one Sink listed:
but there still are two audio cards listed:
So at the location with the Samsung TV with no audio output the HDA ATI HDMI card has no active profile and with the ONN TV with the working audio output the HDA ATI HDMI card does have an active profile.
At this point I was still very puzzled since as I said it worked fine with one HD TV (ONN non-smart) but the same configuration did not work with the other HD TV (Samsung smart TV, model # QN75Q80AA)
Finally in complete desperation I decided to try a different cable that I had lying around.
I used the different cable to connect from the displayport of the laptop to the HDMI input on the Samsung TV and now sound works! Yahoo!
The original non-working cable was a single continuous cable I got off of ebay for around $10 for a 10ft cable that went directly from the DP connector to HDMI on the other end.
The other cable I tried that ended up working was a regular HDMI to HDMI cable that plugs into a short pigtail conversion cable that went from DP to HDMI.
So if you run into a similar issue and you have already followed all of the standard troubleshooting for audio problems, try a different cable! It might just help.
I can also use the following command to directly specify a particular audio output device with mpv:
Just in case anyone is interested or feels that it might provide additional important information the mpv version I am using is:
However recently I have been struggling to get the same thing working at another location where there is a Samsung 75" smart TV (model # QN75Q80AA). When I go there with the exact same laptop and DP to HDMI cable, the only audio output that shows up in pavucontrol is the "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo". The video displays just fine to the TV but nothing I do will get the additional digital audio output selection to appear in pavucontrol.
Since it works at my house with the non-smart TV, with everything else being the same I had to conclude there was some unknown difference between the two TVs that is affecting the ability for Ubuntu to see the Samsung TV as a valid digital audio output.
Since posting a question about this problem on another forum I have gone back to the other location with the Samsung TV and tried various different HDMI ports on the TV since some are labeled as "HDMI" but one is labeled as "HDMI (eARC)" but connecting to different HDMI ports seems to have made no difference.
While I was there I also ran the command "pactl list" and redirected the output to a file so I could compare this output with output from the same command at my home office where the ONN TV works fine.
I found there were definite differences in this pactl output from one location to the other but I still have no clue what is causing it or how to fix the problem.
With the ONN TV where sound works fine I see two Sinks listed in the pactl output:
and two audio cards are listed:
(this is not the complete output from "pactl list. It has been trimmed down to only show the important bits.)
but at the location with the Samsung TV with no sound I only see one Sink listed:
but there still are two audio cards listed:
So at the location with the Samsung TV with no audio output the HDA ATI HDMI card has no active profile and with the ONN TV with the working audio output the HDA ATI HDMI card does have an active profile.
At this point I was still very puzzled since as I said it worked fine with one HD TV (ONN non-smart) but the same configuration did not work with the other HD TV (Samsung smart TV, model # QN75Q80AA)
Finally in complete desperation I decided to try a different cable that I had lying around.
I used the different cable to connect from the displayport of the laptop to the HDMI input on the Samsung TV and now sound works! Yahoo!
The original non-working cable was a single continuous cable I got off of ebay for around $10 for a 10ft cable that went directly from the DP connector to HDMI on the other end.
The other cable I tried that ended up working was a regular HDMI to HDMI cable that plugs into a short pigtail conversion cable that went from DP to HDMI.
So if you run into a similar issue and you have already followed all of the standard troubleshooting for audio problems, try a different cable! It might just help.
