Intermittent HDMI sound, working with some videos/audios, failing with others

[JP S]

I'm using Lubuntu 17.10 on an ACER REVO RL80 connected to my TV through HDMI.

The sound output is configured via sound settings (pavucontrol) to HDMI ouput.

The sound is OK with some apps, and KO with some others.

For example in VLC, it works usually fine.
But on chromium/youtube, the sound is HS.
Actually, i think it's not really a per app problem, but it might depend more on the type of audio being played. I thought the audio was working fine on firefox youtube at first, but once I ran into a specific video with the audio HS (and I checked this video had sound).

When the audio is HS on a video play, if I start a video that usually doesn't have the problem, this video has the audio HS too.

And reversely, if the audio is OK on a video, and if I start a video that usually have the problem, this time the video has its audio OK.

Knowing this, I made a small sript to "fix" the audio of a video witht he problem.

I pause the video with the audio problem, I start a sound hat usually doesn't have the problem, and I change the audio output back and forth to HDMI output again. It usually fixes audio, and I jsute need to resume the video with the problem BEFORE the good audio is over, and it's OK.

This is my script

mpv /path/to/whitenoise_48k.wav &
pacmd set-card-profile 0 output:analog-stereo
pacmd set-card-profile 0 output:hdmi-stereo

And it's interesting to note that the same sound in 44k doesn't work (whitenoise_44k.wav).

Weird stuff...

These are the outputs of some commands, can make more if you want.

aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC662 rev3 Analog [ALC662 rev3 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC662 rev3 Digital [ALC662 rev3 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lspci -v
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
 Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 30
 Memory at f7e30000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
 Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

pacmd list-cards
1 card(s) available.
    index: 0
 name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 owner module: 22
 properties:
  alsa.card = "0"
  alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
  alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7e30000 irq 30"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
  device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
  device.bus = "pci"
  device.vendor.id = "8086"
  device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
  device.product.id = "1e20"
  device.product.name = "7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"
  device.form_factor = "internal"
  device.string = "0"
  device.description = "Built-in Audio"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
 profiles:
  input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 60, available: no)
  output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6000, available: no)
  output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (priority 6060, available: no)
  output:iec958-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output (priority 5500, available: unknown)
  output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 5560, available: unknown)
  output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (priority 5400, available: unknown)
  output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 5460, available: unknown)
  off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
 active profile: <output:hdmi-stereo>
 sinks:
  alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.hdmi-stereo/#5: Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI)
 sources:
  alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.hdmi-stereo.monitor/#5: Monitor of Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (HDMI)
 ports:
  analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
  analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
  iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
   properties:

  hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
   properties:
    device.icon_name = "video-display"
    device.product.name = "SAMSUNG"

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1756198/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[JP S (jptsetung)]

Adding the package info.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Can you add a comment explaining what "HS" means?

[JP S (jptsetung)]

Yes sorry, when I write "sound HS" I mean that I hear no sound on the TV via the HDMI output.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) reached end-of-life on July 19, 2018.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]