System is a Vaio VPCF1 laptop w/nVidia GEForce 330m built in, running openSUSE 12.3, and pulseaudio.

As noted in my other thread about this system, the HDMI output port 'just works' when plugged in, using the latest nVidia proprietary drivers. However....sound was a problem, and took some digging to figure out a solution.

First, you have to figure out which HDMI device supports sound output. You can run this command:
...and it will output something like:
The device with the '1' is what you're after. A note here: if you just plug a device in, the command may not return anything valid. You can fix it either by plugging in the HDMI device before powering-up, or by removing/re-inserting the module-udev-detect module.

Running "aplay -l" will give you:
The device numbers are what you're after. You can then test the output to make sure you're getting HDMI sound by:
...for example. If you get a 1 from the grep command, one of these will work.

The big HOWEVER, though, is that KDE won't let you choose the output channel of things easily, if at all. I found it easier to use VLC player (which DOES), and play media through it. You can go into audio settings, and choose a device, and it works fine.

If anyone has good ideas on how to easily change KDE's default output, I'd love to hear it.

Does the Pulse Audio Volume Control not work under KDE? That's what I use to chose where my sound is sent. It does route all sound through the chosen device though.

It works fine...however, due to a device-enumeration problem, unless the HDMI device that accepts output is FIRST in the chain, you're out of luck. In VLC, it'll show all 4 HDMI devices, and I can pick the second. In the pulseaudio control, it shows the FIRST...which is inactive, and won't go past there.

From what I've read, they're working on this, and I'd be just fine with being able to run that and shovel everything out the HDMI port...or (better), have it AUTOMATICALLY go to HDMI when I plug it in...but the device doesn't show up to be selected.

hi

tells you ....you can get correct output, but I can not see how that translates into actual device numbers.


2) by any chance did your test of
prove fruitful

otherwise, why not just look for the devices in aplay -L.(capital l)...that match playback ability and try each in turn.
I am betting if you run aplay -L you will also see devices for NVidia as DEVs 3,7,8,9