[GregS]

I'm severely confused now.

For reference this is an hp pavillion dv6700 with an NVidia 8400m
I'm using the eden build of XBMC

Code:

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~$ uname -m
i686
xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~$ uname -r
3.0.0-21-generic-pae

I've run alsamixer and unmute all options (making sure to tab over to get them all)

I've run lspci | grep -i Audio

Code:

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6700:~$ sudo lspci | grep -i Audio
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP65 High Definition Audio (rev a1)

I've run aplay -l and/or aplay -L to see audio devices. This is where it is weird , I don't see anything refered to as HDMI under audio... am I missing a driver or something?

Code:

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6700:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6700:~$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=NVidia
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
    Hardware device with all software conversions

There are about a million threads with the same fix, go into XBMC and setup audio output to plughw:<card#>,<dev#> for the HDMI device. My problem is I dont have an HDMI option listed. Do all HDMI devices support audio over HDMI?

Note: Video over HDMI is working fine.

[GregS]

I have now managed to do away with any and all sound, I installed realtek-linux-audiopack-5.17 hoping it was install something I missed. It did alot of stuff but fixing HDMI audio was not one of them.

Code:

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~/realtek-linux-audiopack-5.17$ alsamixer
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~/realtek-linux-audiopack-5.17$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~/realtek-linux-audiopack-5.17$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:240: no soundcards found...
xbmc@XBMC-HPdv6600:~/realtek-linux-audiopack-5.17$

I think I may install a full Ubuntu install and see if I can get HDMI audio and video working then install XBMC from there...

[furii]

afaik the 8400 doesn't support audio over hdmi without a cable connecting the video card to your onboard sound. since you're on a laptop i don't even know that that's possible.

[GregS]

You are correct. It requires a connection from the on-board soundcard/SPDIF to the 8400 to send sound over the HDMI. It is strange I have read reports of people getting this to work on the HP dv6700 so I assumed it would work, perhaps since it is a laptop there would be a trace on the motherboard connecting but I guess not. I gave up on HDMI audio and have moved to HDMI video plus analog audio. It's been a ride. I'll document what I did in-case anyone reads this at a later date with a similar problem.

1. Install fresh Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
2. HDMI video and Analog Audio worked great
- - Note: My TV has one HDMI port that allows use with an analog input (3.5mm headphone jack)
3. Updated to NVidia Drivers
- - This broke audio over analog, I was able to determine this was because the TV was telling the PC it could accept audio over HDMI.
- - The NVidia 8400 is technically able to pass audio over HDMI via the separate SPDIF connection so the PC was sending an empty audio channel.
- - The TV saw the audio channel being transmitted (even though it was empty) so it disabled the analog input.
4. Enabled use of Custom EDID
- - Used the NVidia Settings to capture the edid being sent from the TV
- - Used a Windows box with Phoenix EDID Designer to remove all EDID extents
- - Created a new bin file to use as a custom EDID "touch custom-edid.bin"
- - Used a hex editor (hexedit) to modify the new edid (custom-edid.bin) with the results from Phoenix EDID Designer
- - Modified the Device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the following
- - - - Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-1:/home/xbmc/custom-edid.bin"

Here is the full /etc/X11/xorg.conf for reference

Code:

xbmc@xbmc-HP-Pavilion-dv6700-Notebook-PC:~$ more /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 295.33  (buildd@zirconium)  Fri Mar 30 13:38:49 UTC 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "SAMSUNG"
    HorizSync       26.0 - 68.0
    VertRefresh     24.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8400M GS"
    Option         "CustomEDID" "DFP-1:/home/xbmc/custom-edid.bin"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Now everything works, I have Video over HDMI and Audio over analog. Not ideal but works great for me to run this as a Proof-of-Concept for a few weeks to see if I want to build a dedicated box.

I gathered bits of info from all over, here are some of the links:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81635 - This is the process I mainly followed but the script did not work for me so I used a Hex Editor and manually created the .bin file.
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=156664
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1131058/solved...hdmi-audio
http://analogbit.com/hdmi_dvi_audio - This explained what I needed to do but the provided script didn't work for me.
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=...DID_nvidia

[lobtheblob]

Hi, although I am not using XBMC (ubuntu 12.10), I am on a dv6700 and have the nvidia 8400m, an HDMI cable and an HDTV. This laptop is dual booting vista, and the audio/video works perfectly with just the HDMI cable ( until ^&*$ty vista freezes from some unknown codec problem or something ), leading me to believe that this CAN be done under linux. I have the similar if not identical outputs as the previous poster:

aplay -l shows

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L:

default
Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
sysdefault:CARD=NVidia
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
HDA NVidia, CONEXANT Analog
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
HDA NVidia, Conexant Digital
Hardware device with all software conversions

I'm at a loss, but it is so frustrating when you know it works. It has to, Windows can do it!