[mythtv-users] Mythbuntu, only mythtv plays sound, doesn't release sound card?

Richard peper03 at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 16 20:50:13 UTC 2012


On 16/09/12 21:19, P Orrifolius wrote:
>> Ubuntu 12.04 is notorious for leaving users with no desktop sound after
>> upgrade. Nothing to do with MythTV which is just very good in detecting the
>> sound system and configuring the sound on its own.
>>
>> Install the "pavucontrol" package for pulseaudio and enable the appropriate
>> output. Alternatively, create ".asoundrc" file in the user home directory to
>> set the default ALSA sound device. There was a thread regarding this
>> recently, actually more than one, so search the archive or google for help
>> with creating the asoundrc file.
>
> Ok, thanks.  I don't appear to have pulseaudio installed but I'll take
> a look into the .asoundrc and see if that helps things.
>
> Though in fact it was a fresh install, and I did actually have sound
> for a short period.  I think it was up until the first time I played
> content through myth... but the other slightly out-of-the-ordinary
> thing I did was try out the linux Spotify client.  It had sound, for a
> wee while, but maybe it's at fault for messing up my sound config
> somehow.  It's uninstalled now but no change in sound capabilities.

I had the same problem recently.  I found that trying to play anything 
other than recordings/videos in Myth resulted in silence (even Internet 
Video).  It turned out that by default everything was going through the 
'Line out' jack.

I created /etc/asound.conf with the following:

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "spdif"
}

to force the SPDIF output to be the default.  Now I get sound from other 
programs.

I haven't figured out if it's possible to get Myth to share the audio 
output with other applications via ALSA (e.g. Skype running in the 
background still has no sound if I'm watching something) but although it 
would be nice, it's only once in a blue moon that I actually need/want 
it so I've not felt the need to investigate further.

Richard.



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