Hi,

I was used to switching between laptop speakers and Bluetooth speaker on the normal audio menu.

But one day, I needed to use a TV’s speakers through HDMI, and couldn’t find it, so I initially thought it was a driver issue, but never found a fix, so I had to use a friend’s Windows laptop at the last minute because people were waiting to watch something.

Today, months later, I have the same issue, but on a different laptop with more recent hardware, so I was hoping to have better luck, and I didn’t… Until I accidentaly notice that the HDMI device is available under a submenu of the laptop’s speakers, WTF ?

Attached to this post is a screenshot showing a Bluetooth speaker, the laptop’s speakers and HDMI speakers. Why isn’t the latter available at the same location as the former two ?

The submenu could be kept for selecting between 2.0/5.1/7.1, just like for Bluetooth devices it’s used to select between aptX/LDAC/SBC, but I don’t understand what’s a whole different device doing in that submenu of the laptop’s speakers.

Thanks

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
    7·
    10 days ago

    To clarify a little bit for OP: the same sound device is shared between the laptop’s speakers, headphone jack and its video outputs like HDMI.

    It’s the same sound card but under a different profile to send the audio to the HDMI instead. Technically the same also happens but more automatically when you plug in wired headphone, it triggers a port switch. It’s an either or situation: it can only do one at a time except on some chipsets. That used to be an interesting audio quirk back in the days: plug in headphones and it keeps playing through the laptop speakers.

    Plasma only shows independent audio devices because it’s not just a global audio device selector, you can also select individual apps to go to different audio devices, for example an external mixer and a dedicated music channel.

    • KaKi87@jlai.luOP
      1·
      5 days ago

      The thing is : I want my laptop to never have sound when using speakers, but always when connecting anything, e.g. Bluetooth or HDMI.

      So, I mute Built-in Audio Analog Stereo, but I don’t mute Turn It Up Wireless Speaker : then, when I connect the latter, it has sound, but when I disconnect it, the former stays muted, therefore I never risking being surprised by sound.

      Except, when I need to use HDMI, I actually have to unmute Built-in Audio Analog Stereo because Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output is considered to be the same item by Linux, therefore when I unplug it, it turns back to Built-in Audio Analog Stereo but stays unmuted, which leaves me at risk of being surprised by sound.