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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:25 pm 
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Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:10 am
Posts: 23
MB: GIGABYTE|GA-880GMA-UD2H R
CPU: AMD|PH II X4 925 AM3 RT
RAM: 2Gx2|GSKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH
HD: 1T|WD 7K 64M SATAIII WD1002FAEX - OEM
CD: BLU-RAY BURNER LG | WH10LS30 OEM - OEM
TUNER: pcHDTV HD-5500 HDTV PCI CARD
CASE: HTPC ANTEC|M FUSIONREMOTE 350
DISPLAY: Sharp Aquos LC-32D62U LCD TV

New R6 install on this machine. OTA HD broadcast piped into coax input of tuner. HDMI output to TV.

After some tweaking and helpful replies to my first post, I now can "watch live TV" that has picture, but no sound. I've tried several alsa setting changes, but nothing seems to work. It's late and I can't think straight and you can basically treat me as if I haven't a clue. :?


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:30 pm 
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 11:00 am
Posts: 9551
Location: Arlington, MA
Which sound drivers are you using? ALSA or OSS?

If it actually is ALSA, have you run alsamixer from a root session and checked that the output and source aren't muted? (Sorry if this sounds vague, but it is hugely dependent on your hardware. At the very least unmute master, master mono, and PCM. I also had to unmute one called IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA, YMMV.)

In addition to those you may need to tweak the audio settings inside the MythTV apps under setup/general.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:04 am 
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Posts: 23
Sorry for the uninformative plea last night. I'm in a better mood after some sleep and coffee. :) As a preface, I'm a six-year linux user (mostly for work, but I've started using it for play) and I built the PC I'm typing this on, but this is my first attempt at a HTPC. Fall shows are about to start up again and my wife is aching for my "homemade TiVo" to work!

I am using alsa drivers - I tried loading the OSS drivers from the GUI when I started debugging audio, but the system just hung while loading them, so I've stayed away from OSS for the time being.

In the GUI Audio out settings, I select:
Sound card driver: Alsa
Type: Analog (because digital doesn't show my cards)
and then from the dropdown I see:
SB [HDA ATI SB] (hw:0,0)
HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI] (hw:2,3) *Interestingly, my HDMI sometimes shows as card 1 and sometimes as card 2.
All Xine, mplayer, mythmusic, mythfrontend are checked by default.
I try "Test ALSA Audio Settings" and I get the "Playing sample audio" popup box, but it immediately disappears with no sound.
If I try "Load ALSA driver" and switch over to Ctrl+Alt+F1, I see:
:: Restoring ALSA Levels
fail: alsa-utils: unable to change to service directory: file does not exist
(this repeats a few times)

From a terminal, I've looked at /proc/asound/cards:
0 [SB ] : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB, HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16
1 [CX8801 ] : CX88x - Conexant CX8801, Conexant CX8801 at 0xf8000000 (no irq is shown)
2 [HDMI ] : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI, HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdefc000 irq 19
(As I mentioned, sometimes the Conexant is card 2 and the HDMI is card 1 - I'm not even sure what device this Conexant is referring to.)

In /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf, I see:
...
defaults.ctl.card 0
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.subdevice -1
...
When I try playing a test sound, I see
> aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
I see the same message when I switch the card and device to 2,3. If I switch them to nonsense values, I see error messages. It looks like aplay "believes" it is sending the audio out, but I can't hear it.

I've tried the obvious "Is the TV muted/volume too low?"

After I change those defaults to my HDMI (card 2, device 3), alsamixer shows me:
Card: HDA ATI MDMI
Chip: ATI ATI RS90/780 HDMI
View: [All]
When I go to Item PCM, I can change the volume to whatever level I want (94 right now). There is also another Item called IEC958 which I don't understand. When I highlight it, it shows "00" and I cannot adjust the volume.

In etc/asound.state, I see normal-looking values for the state.SB controls and the state.CX8801 controls. However, the state.HDMI values look fishy, with an uncountable number of zeros (four lines worth on my 32" TV) at the end of each bitmask:
control.1 {
...
name 'IEC958 playback Con Mask'
value '0fff000000000...
}
control.2 {
...
name 'IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
value '0f00000000000....
}
control.3 {
...
name 'IEC958 Playback Default'
value ' 040000000000...
}
control.4 {
...
name 'IEC958 Playback Switch'
value true
}
control.5 {
...
name 'PCM Playback Volume'
value.0 240
value.1 240
}

I've got half a mind to get rid of those insane zeros and just try anything else. I'm making a backup of this .state and trying that now.

It's interesting that you say you had to unmute the IEC958. I can mute it and unmute it in alsamixer, but as I mentioned, I can't raise the volume above 00.

I hope this is a bit more information and that someone has an idea to resolve this issue. I feel like I'm tantalizingly close to getting this project to work...


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:25 am 
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Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:10 am
Posts: 23
For completeness, here is the Ctrl+Alt+F1 log of what happens when I try to load the OSS drivers:

ERROR: Module snd_pcm is in use by cx88_alsa
ERROR: Module snd_timer is in use by snd_pcm
ERROR: Module snd_page_alloc is in use by snd_pcm
(these errors repeat over and over, followed by:)
Failed to disable conflicting sound drivers
Reboot and try running soundon again
Also check that you have not compiled sound support statically into the kernel.

This goes in and endless loop until I kill it.

So there appears to be some sort of conflict arising between cards/drivers/devices. Not sure how to proceed. I feel like this Conexant card is getting in the way of progress.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:51 pm 
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Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:50 pm
Posts: 1013
Location: Los Angeles
ecumaniac wrote:
If I try "Load ALSA driver" and switch over to Ctrl+Alt+F1, I see:
:: Restoring ALSA Levels
fail: alsa-utils: unable to change to service directory: file does not exist
(this repeats a few times)


The above may be the culprit.... Try this:
Code:
$ sudo add_service.sh alsa ; sudo sv restart alsa


ecumaniac wrote:
From a terminal, I've looked at /proc/asound/cards:
0 [SB ] : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB, HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16
1 [CX8801 ] : CX88x - Conexant CX8801, Conexant CX8801 at 0xf8000000 (no irq is shown)
2 [HDMI ] : HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI, HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdefc000 irq 19
(As I mentioned, sometimes the Conexant is card 2 and the HDMI is card 1 - I'm not even sure what device this Conexant is referring to.)


CX88 is probably your HD5500 tuner card. If you're going to use HDMI out for audio & video we can address the flip flopping with a udev rule.

ecumaniac wrote:
There is also another Item called IEC958 which I don't understand. When I highlight it, it shows "00" and I cannot adjust the volume.


That's the digital audio output. "00" is ok... as long as it does not say "MM" (muted)

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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:01 pm 
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Posts: 23
Hey Mike,
Quote:
The above may be the culprit.... Try this:
Code:
$ sudo add_service.sh alsa

I get: 'couldn't find /etc/sv/alsa'
The only similar directory I see in /etc/sv is alsa-utils.

I saw on another thread to go in the GUI to Service Menu -> MythTV Config -> Setup -> General and pick ALSA:hdmi, but this didn't have any immediate effect.


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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:14 pm 
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Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:50 pm
Posts: 1013
Location: Los Angeles
ecumaniac wrote:
Hey Mike,
Quote:
The above may be the culprit.... Try this:
Code:
$ sudo add_service.sh alsa

I get: 'couldn't find /etc/sv/alsa'
The only similar directory I see in /etc/sv is alsa-utils.

I saw on another thread to go in the GUI to Service Menu -> MythTV Config -> Setup -> General and pick ALSA:hdmi, but this didn't have any immediate effect.


Code:
$ sudo pacman -Q alsa

If that returns nothing:
Code:
$sudo pacman -Sy alsa


What audio output do you plan to use? Analog, HDMI, SPDIF, etc?

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:58 am 
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$ sudo pacman -Q alsa
error: package "alsa" not found

$ sudo pacman -Sy alsa
:: Syncronizing package databases...
core 114.3K (100% download)
extra 61.1K (100% download)
alsa package not found, searching for group...
error: 'alsa' : not found in sync db

It seems ALSA should be one of the more common things one would like to update, so it perplexes me that it is nowhere to be found.

After doing more reading, I did confirm the Conexant card is on my HD5500. I plan to use HDMI audio out. It was the main reason I configured this system the way I did, so that I could have the one-cable solution to my TV.


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 Post subject: ALSA is AWOL
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 6:05 am 
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Just out of curiosity, I tried
$sudo add_service.sh alsa-utils
adding alsa-utils

But something is super-fishy. I can't even run alsamixer any more (it just worked a couple of days ago):
$ alsamixer
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

Again, it screams "reinstall" to me, but I don't want to lose the progress we made in displaying the TV video.


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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:20 pm 
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Posts: 1013
Location: Los Angeles
Quote:
After doing more reading, I did confirm the Conexant card is on my HD5500. I plan to use HDMI audio out. It was the main reason I configured this system the way I did, so that I could have the one-cable solution to my TV.


Ok, so maybe we don't have a software issue at all... I think this may be a configuration issue. What is the output of the following command:

Code:
$ sudo aplay -l
(That's a lowercase L)
Here's mine for reference:
Quote:
[mihanson@zotac ~]$ sudo aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC662 Analog [ALC662 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC662 Digital [ALC662 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


As you can see HDMI (which I don't use) is on card #0, Device #3. So if I wanted to use this output I would set up like this:

Service Menu > MythTV Configuration > Setup > General > Audio System....

Set the top menu item (Not in front of my box, but I think it's called Audio Device or something like that) to ALSA:hw=0.3, ALSA:device=hw=0.3 ALSA:plughw=0.3 or ALSA:device=plughw=0.3 That should map the correct audio device. If you have not tried already you can also try ALSA:hdmi The rest of the settings you'll probably have to play with a little and see what works. Here's some reference reading ALSA: Digital Out and Arch Linux ALSA. AS I don't use HDMI, I'm not sure how much more I can help. Maybe someone with more HDMI experience can chime in.

FWIW, I believe that you're most likely recording audio, but we just need the right settings to hear it.

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PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 9:55 am 
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Now I did something to the capture card setup and I'm having the same video problems I had before. So we're back to no video and no audio. I'm really frustrated with this beast. I suppose everyone who is using HDMI with motherboard audio and a pcHDTV card happily figured it out for themselves. I can't find a single case on the forum that duplicates what I need. This http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 006#122369 was the closest I could get, but it proceeds after testing audio from the command line, assuming that works. It doesn't work for me, so I have nothing to go on here.

Mike, I've tried ALSA:hdmi and ALSA:hw=1.3, to no effect. If I could get the box to make any sound at all it might make me feel better. It thinks it is playing the test .wav files, but nothing goes to HDMI.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:28 pm 
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Location: Orlando FL
I was having the same issues with alsamixer it seems that if you do anything involving oss in gui it completely screws up alsa. Try going into the LinHES setup menu and selecting alsa then rebooting. I have noticed that any changes made in that menu really need a reboot to take effect. I am currently fighting against digital audio out problem I had it working then it disappeared.

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 Post subject: analog for now
PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:01 am 
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@ Matt: thanks for sharing your struggles, and let me know if you have luck with HDMI in ALSA.

For now, I have settled for using the analog 3.5mm jack from my mobo out to auxiliary speakers. The pcHDTV 5500 is capturing both video and audio just fine, and I can live with this setup now that the fall programming season has started. Eventually, I'd love to solve the HDMI audio once and for all...


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