SPDIF audio passthrough troubles with Alsa on LinuxMint

rmkimathi
   13 years ago
  9

Go to:

Applications -> Preferences -> Sound

There on the Hardware tab. Choose a profile that does NOT contain anything related to digital or IEC. I chose Analog Stereo Duplex. My theory is, that if you go digital there, pulse is blocking the digital output. The sound preferences window seems to be only related to pulse, not alsa at all.

Now open up a terminal window and start:

gstreamer-properties

On the Audio tab, select ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, for Default Output.

As Device, choose the digital device, in my case: ALC889A (my sound chip) digital.

I selected ALSA also for Default Input, though I don't think Input has any effect, as long as you don't use a mic or something.

In XBMC, I got both devices for audio and passthrough set to IEC958. And voila :-) I am enjoying happy sound via Alsa in Ubuntu and XBMC, via HDMI and SPDIF, including passthrough in XBMC.

Hope this can help others to avoid audio troubles in Linux.

Comments
leilton_sfc 5 years ago

I need this solution for linux mint 19, but the gstreamer-properties command does not respond. Acl889 device.

mopoke 8 years ago

Hi, newbie here: haven't a clue what your instructions actually mean, but they were so clear that I followed them & successfully produced sound from my Audioengine 2+ speakers, but only using the headphone connection. Not complaining though - really great to have sound. Many thanks!

crivote 11 years ago

Thanks! Easy and helpful!

gloriousigor 12 years ago

I'm adding some related terms here to hopefully bump up this post's presence on Google:

The onboard 8-channel ALC887 High Definition Audio Realtek® ALC 887-VD2 Audio CODEC supports : Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking, and Anti-pop Function. Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel.

gloriousigor 12 years ago

This was spot-on. Bravo!

I followed the directions and everything worked fine, and now I am hearing sound via S/PDIF optical digital output on my ASUS E35M1-M PRO. I did have to perform one additional step, obtaining the gstreamer package, but Linux Mint prompted me for that at the command line after I attempted gstreamer-properties. Gstreamer was downloaded and installed, and after that I followed the directions above, although for my motherboard the sound was ALC887-VD2.

Good tutorial, simple and concise, and necessary because it is not possible to configure S/PDIF optical output--bypassing HDMI!--in Linux Mint Maya using the graphical interface. This command-line workaround is necessary, and I am glad that I found it--and a little worried that the stats show this was read "0" times.

The ASUS E35M1-M is one of the few motherboards around that does have an optical audio output port, and for those that do not use HDMI, it is helpful for connecting to surround sound stereo systems. This tutorial quite simply was the difference between me watching a movie tonight... and not.