Bug 357601

Summary:	Add option to only use HDMI audio output if it's video is being used/enabled
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] Phonon	Reporter:	Marcelo Bossoni <mmbossoni>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Harald Sitter <sitter>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	musikolo, myriam, romain.perier
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	4.8.3
Target Milestone:	4.8
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Marcelo Bossoni 2016-01-06 00:09:14 UTC

Windows have a really good feature that only routes my audio through HDMI only if I enable the video output as well (my TV in that case)
So, even if my preferred sound device is TV, it only routes the audio to my speakers/headphone when my TV is not enabled.
Don't know if this is possible since there will probably be some interaction with randr and so on, but would be nice to have that feature :). 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Monitor + TV scenario
1. Set preferred list to HDMI, Analog
2. Disable HDMI (TV) video output, use only the monitor.

Actual Results:  
Audio is routed through disabled TV, instead of using the Analog output with headphones.

Expected Results:  
Audio routed through heaphones. Once TV was enabled (video enabled), audio should be routed to TV since it is the first in priority.

Comment 1 Musikolo 2019-10-22 02:05:04 UTC

Following the topic of this thread, I would like to add to the wish list, a feature to remember the last configuration used for HDMI devices. This would make very handy to plug & play your laptop to your TV. Instead, when I plug an HDMI device, I have to manually choose the corresponding HDMI output device. Likewise, when I unplug it, I have to manually revert it back to the original settings.

Having a feature that automatically does this will great improve the experience and usability of external devices.

Thank you!

Comment 2 Harald Sitter 2019-10-22 08:24:18 UTC

I think you'll want to request this against pulseaudio https://bugs.freedesktop.org

Phonon doesn't make very reliable routing solutions, and certainly not global ones, it cannot because of where it sits in the software stack. Pulseaudio can.

Comment 3 Marcelo Bossoni 2019-12-08 13:43:07 UTC

Closing this one since everything seems to be working.
I found the problem to be in my side.
I have a nvidia card. Alsa enumerates 4 audio devices for it. 
The thing is: My monitor is accounted as an audio device.
The solution was to mark it as disconnected. Maybe making pulse have a way to remove/hide some ports would be the solution.

Now, when I set my tv as default device, it works properly.
showing screen only on monitor makes audio go through speakers.
enabling tv (either by setting tv only or by extending to it) moves audio to TV.