Version: 4.7 (using KDE 4.7.2) OS: Linux When using VLC backend, Phonon is unable to play on HDMI. Using GStreamer backend makes everything work. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: Connect the PC to a TV using an HDMI cable. Install VLC backend, go to System Settings->Multimedia->Phonon. Select VLC backend from the "Backend" tab, then select HDMI device on the "Device preference" tab. Then click on Test button. Actual Results: Test sound is played by the laptop speakers instead of TV speakers. Expected Results: TV speakers should play the test sound Tested on Sony Vaio VGN-SR21M laptop with Mobility Radeon HD3470 and Catalyst 11.8. $ aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC262 Analog [ALC262 Analog] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 VLC player correctly sends output to TV when watching a movie, and GStreamer Phonon backend works, so I think it is something restricted to VLC backend.
Which exact version of the phonon-backend-vlc is this about?
Hi Myryam, sorry for not providing such a basic information :) I'm using 0.4.1 version, obtained from official Archlinux repository (package name is phonon-vlc 0.4.1-1).
Thank you for the fast feedback :)
Do you have PulseAudio installed?
No, I don't. Is it needed to make vlc backend work with HDMI? Should I try to install it?
I did not understand if I should use or not use PulseAudio to make the backend work. Anyway, when I spotted the problem I did not have it installed and the backend did not work. So I installed PulseAudio but this does not solve the problem at all.
I would generally say you should always use PulseAudio, but then as upstream PA maintainer, I would say that :) Can I ask if you saw the list of selectable devices change when PA was installed? if not, then something is likely wrong (such as not compiling vlc with pulseaudio support). The list of devices should be very much simplified and you should be able to see only the devices you have selected. You may need to change h/w profile in PA to enable the HDMI in this case. Please supply the output of "pacmd ls" and a screen shot of the device selection list. Please also refer to http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/KDE for some example screenshots of how things should look.
Colin, I tried again with PulseAudio and this time things were much smoother. Devices list behave as you stated, and also phonon is now able to play on HDMI using VLC backend. So I'm satisfied with it and according to me the bug can be closed. Anyway, is this the intended behavior of VLC backend? If PulseAudio really is the only way to make it work on HDMI, then it should be written somewhere (maybe it is and maybe I should have search it more carefully, I don't know...). Thanks everybody for the precious support! :)
Hi Nicola, Glad you got it working :) In theory VLC backend should work with HDMI even without PA, but PA is generally part of the recommended setup in KDE and pretty much all the major distributions do this out of the box by default these days. As our resources are limited, we do tend to focus on the "standard" setup primarily and the other configurations get less attention, so I'll leave it to Harald to see if he wants to close this bug or work on the underlying cause.
Thank you all for the feedback.