Audacity only outputting through HDMI

Audacity Help Forum GNU/Linux
1

OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Audacity Version: 2.1.2, distro release

I’m having an issue where Audacity does not give me the option to output via Anything other than HDMI, although occasionally it does give me the option to output through Analogue (I’m not sure why it changes), restarting doesn’t help, reinstalling didn’t help, editing preferences doesn’t help, even changing Audacity’s config file doesn’t help (it just gets changed back).
the only options I have are: HDMI 0 (hw:0,3); HDMI 1 (hw:0,7); HDMI 2 (hw:0,8)

I’m not sure what to do, any help would be appreciated.

2

A common reason for a device to be unavailable is if the device is in use by another application and has claimed exclusive access to it.
If you have PulseAudio Volume Control installed (pavucontrol) you can look in the “Output devices” tab to see if the device is available to PulseAudio. If it is, then set Audacity to play back using “Pulse” as the playback device, start playback, then in pavucontrol go to the “Playback” tab and set Audacity to use the device that you want to use.
If pavucontrol is not installed, use your preferred package manager to install it.

3

I do have PulseAudio installed, but in Audacity the only option I have for hosting is ALSA.

4

Yes ALSA should be selected as the “host”.

Do you have “pavucontrol” installed?

5

I do have pavucontrol installed.

6

Did you try what I suggested here: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/audacity-only-outputting-through-hdmi/42862/2

7

You linked me this thread xD

I have tried that, but as I said, I only have HDMI options, I am not presented with any other playback options.

8

Look in the “Output” tab of PulseAudio Volume Control.
What output devices are available?

9

Is something connected to the HDMI port?

10

In the output tab of Pulseaudio, I have “Built-in-Analog-stereo”, that’s all and no there is nothing connected to the HDMI port, my monitor is connected via DVI.

11

Exit all media applications including web browsers and restart Audacity. Do you see “default” as a choice for Playback Device in Audacity’s Device Toolbar?

If not please post the output of Help > Audio Device Info… top right of Audacity.

Also type:

aplay -l

into a terminal, hit ENTER, and post that output. That “l” is the letter after “k”. See aplay commands.


Gale

12

Hi Michel here,
I’m digging this post up as it seems that it never got any solution…
I’m facing just the same issue that I cannot solve:

Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS on a Dell E5450 Laptop
Audacity installed with the distro
Audacity version: 3.0.5

Eventhough Audacity shows “Alsa” in Device, Interface, Host, the only options I have in “Playback, Device” list are:
HDA Intel HDMI: 0 (hw:0,3)
HDA Intel HDMI: 1 (hw:0,3)
HDA Intel HDMI: 2 (hw:0,3)
HDA Intel HDMI: 3 (hw:0,3)
HDA Intel HDMI: 4 (hw:0,3)
HDMI

Pulseaudio shows my analog sound outputs (Loudspeaker, headphones and Line output) properly and other softwares are using the loudspeakers without any issue.

Audacity Help, Diagnostics, Audio Devices info:

==============================
Default recording device number: 5
Default playback device number: 0
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: HDA Intel HDMI: 0 (hw:0,3)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: HDA Intel HDMI: 1 (hw:0,7)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: HDA Intel HDMI: 2 (hw:0,8)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: HDA Intel HDMI: 3 (hw:0,9)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: HDA Intel HDMI: 4 (hw:0,10)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: HDA Intel PCH: ALC3235 Analog (hw:1,0)
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.00580499
Low Playback Latency: -1
High Recording Latency: 0.0348299
High Playback Latency: -1
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: hdmi
Host name: ALSA
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 8
Low Recording Latency: -1
Low Playback Latency: 0.00580499
High Recording Latency: -1
High Playback Latency: 0.0348299
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Selected recording device: 5 - HDA Intel PCH: ALC3235 Analog (hw:1,0)
Selected playback device: 0 - HDA Intel HDMI: 0 (hw:0,3)
Supported Rates:
    44100
    48000
    96000
    192000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
==============================
Available playback volumes:
==============================
Recording volume is emulated
Playback volume is emulated

aplay -l returns:

**** Liste des Périphériques Matériels PLAYBACK ****
carte 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], périphérique 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], périphérique 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], périphérique 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], périphérique 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], périphérique 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Sous-périphériques: 1/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], périphérique 0: ALC3235 Analog [ALC3235 Analog]
  Sous-périphériques: 0/1
  Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0

Any clue of where I should go to clear this issue with Audacity?
Many thanks
M.

13

In the Device Toolbar there should be options to use “Pulse” as the input / output devices. On Ubuntu, “default” and “Pulse” are the same (unless you’ve modified Ubuntu).
With “Pulse” (or “default”) selected, you should be able to use the system’s audio mixer (pavucontrol) to select which physical inputs / outputs you want to use.

14

Thanks Steve,

I completely missed your answer…
Went to the devices bar and the only output devices I can see in the list are:
HDA Intel HDMI: 0 (hw:0,3)
HDA Intel HDMI: 1 (hw:0,7)
HDA Intel HDMI: 2 (hw:0,8)
HDA Intel HDMI: 3 (hw:0,9)
HDA Intel HDMI: 4 (hw:0,10)
hdmi

As per the command:
aplay -l (see above), I can see that an analog output port is listed, but with HW #1. What is HW #1 and why does Audacity cannot access this HW and its port?

I’m stuck with that for a long time… and I wonder why it seems very few people complain about this issue.

My configuration:
Audacity 3.1.3
Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS

Thanks for your help

15

What do you get from running this command in a terminal window?

pactl list cards



ALSA assigns a number for each “device”.

“hw:0” is the first (default) device
“hw:1” is the next device
and so on.

Usually with a “HDA Intel” chip, hw:0 is the analog device, and hw:1 is the HDMI device. I don’t know why, but yours appears to be the other way round.

16

Ubuntu 20.04.4
Audacity 3.1.3 from distro

I too have only HDMI for playback. This is particularly awkward since I don’t have an HDMI device with me. I’ve looked through all the posts back to 2007 that address similar problems and don’t find anything that works.

Audacity offers to output through HDMI or “HDA Intel PCH: HDMI 0 (hw:0,3)”. Pulseaudio reports as output devices only Speakers and Headphones.
“pactl list cards” has headphones (currently plugged in) as an available analog output.

Is there maybe something that is causing Audacity or Alsa to favor digital outputs?

17

Yes mymymy, I do consider this problem as being a major issue, as it totally prevents from using Audacity in a normal way.
I am very surprised that this major issue was not tackled by the developers since all that time.

I add that on this same machine, with the very same configuration, I have several other software that make use of the analog audio output without any problem.

Any help welcome!

18

If the problem was a bug in Audacity, I’d expect to see many users reporting the problem. The fact that there are so few reports, and many Linux users (including myself) cannot reproduce the problem, strongly suggests that the problem lies elsewhere. I’m happy to try and help, but as I can’t reproduce the problem I need information from you, such as:

19

I seem to have a work-around for my version of the HDMI -only bug. I restarted the computer and then started Audacity before anything else. At that point Audacity offered a bunch of output options, including “default” and “sysdefault” as well as HDMI. Default seems to work for me.

Most of the time recently I have only been using a browser (Firefox) and Audacity. I’m not sure whether the problem is related specifically to Firefox, so I’ll do some experimenting with other browsers. This is only a workaround, not a solution, since we should not expect such interactions between programs.

Incidentally, it would be good in general if people seeking help would report back to the forum if they find a solution that works, or a work-around, and in what circumstances.

20 



Carte #0
	Nom : alsa_card.pci-0000_00_03.0
	Pilote : module-alsa-card.c
	Module propriétaire : 7
	Propriétés :
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel HDMI"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf723c000 irq 57"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:03.0"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/sound/card0"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "8086"
		device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
		device.product.id = "160c"
		device.product.name = "Broadwell-U Audio Controller"
		device.form_factor = "internal"
		device.string = "0"
		device.description = "Audio interne"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	Profils :
		output:hdmi-stereo: Sortie Digital Stereo (HDMI) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 5900, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround: Sortie Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 800, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround71: Sortie Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 800, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Sortie Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 5700, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra1: Sortie Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 2) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra1: Sortie Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 2) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Sortie Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 5700, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Sortie Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Sortie Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra3: Sortie Digital Stereo (HDMI 4) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 5700, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra3: Sortie Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 4) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra3: Sortie Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 4) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra4: Sortie Digital Stereo (HDMI 5) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 5700, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra4: Sortie Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 5) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra4: Sortie Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 5) (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 600, disponible : non)
		off: Éteint (sorties : 0, sources : 0, priorité : 0, disponible : oui)
	Profil actif : off
	Ports :
		hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority: 5900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:hdmi-stereo, output:hdmi-surround, output:hdmi-surround71
		hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority: 5800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:hdmi-stereo-extra1, output:hdmi-surround-extra1, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1
		hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (priority: 5700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:hdmi-stereo-extra2, output:hdmi-surround-extra2, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2
		hdmi-output-3: HDMI / DisplayPort 4 (priority: 5600, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:hdmi-stereo-extra3, output:hdmi-surround-extra3, output:hdmi-surround71-extra3
		hdmi-output-4: HDMI / DisplayPort 5 (priority: 5500, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:hdmi-stereo-extra4, output:hdmi-surround-extra4, output:hdmi-surround71-extra4

Carte #1
	Nom : alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0
	Pilote : module-alsa-card.c
	Module propriétaire : 8
	Propriétés :
		alsa.card = "1"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7238000 irq 58"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card1"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "8086"
		device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
		device.product.id = "9ca0"
		device.product.name = "Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller"
		device.form_factor = "internal"
		device.string = "1"
		device.description = "Audio interne"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	Profils :
		input:analog-stereo: Entrée Stéréo analogique (sorties : 0, sources : 1, priorité : 32833, disponible : oui)
		output:analog-stereo: Sortie Stéréo analogique (sorties : 1, sources : 0, priorité : 39268, disponible : oui)
		output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Duplex stéréo analogique (sorties : 1, sources : 1, priorité : 39333, disponible : oui)
		off: Éteint (sorties : 0, sources : 0, priorité : 0, disponible : oui)
	Profil actif : output:analog-stereo
	Ports :
		analog-input-internal-mic: Microphone interne (priority: 8900, latency offset: 0 usec)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-input-dock-mic: Microphone de la station d'accueil (priority: 7800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-input-headphone-mic: Microphone (priority: 8700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-input-headset-mic: Microphone casque (priority: 8800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : input:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-output-lineout: Sortie ligne (priority: 9000, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-output-speaker: Haut-parleurs (priority: 10000, latency offset: 0 usec)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
		analog-output-headphones: Casque audio (priority: 9900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Propriétés :
				device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
			Partie du(des) profil(s) : output:analog-stereo, output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo

Thanks steve, for your help!