I just managed to configure exactly this thanks to the instructions in the ArchLinux wiki :
Set the one sink - HDMI - in pavucontrol/Configuration, and the other - analog output - you specify in default.pa
:
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0
load-module module-combine-sink sink_name=combined
set-default-sink combined
Maybe you were missing the last two lines?
Addendum: This is OK to add the analog output to HDMI, but what if you want it the other way around? (I want to keep analog input, Pulse calls that "duplex"...) Unfortunately, load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,3
did not work to add HDMI output to Pulse's "Analog Stereo Duplex" configuration. Pulse would start, but no HDMI output.
I compared the output of pacmd list-sinks
in the two situations. When I added device=hw:0,3
, that one would show up without ports. When HDMI output was chosen in pavucontrol, there would be ports. Looking at the output details, I came up with device=hdmi:0.
Choose "Analog Stereo Duplex" as your pavucontrol configuration, and add to default.pa
:
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hdmi:0
load-module module-combine-sink sink_name=combined
set-default-sink combined
Works like a charm. I keep my microphone input, and on pavucontrol/Output Devices I have all options for analog output and for HDMI.
Turns out, I had to switch the profile of "Built-in Audio" to HDMI.
I can do that with pavucontrol
, install it with pacman -Sy pavucontrol
.
Now, sound works perfectly on the TV speakers.
As described here, you can set the profile also from the command line with
pactl set-card-profile 0 output:hdmi-stereo
Since pavucontrol
uses PulseAudio, this has to be installed as well: pacman -S pulseaudio
. After restarting (PulseAudio's systemd job probably needed to be up), pavucontrol
can connect to PulseAudio.
Best Answer
Downmixing/Adjust from 5.1 to 'true' 2.1
I use ALSA and Pulse Audio on my Arch Linux machine.
You want to control how downmixing to 2.0 is done, so you're going to define a custom sound device in
/etc/asound.conf
You can use this output configuration:
(add the custom function to the file
/etc/asound.conf
)Then in VLC
Go to the audio preferences
Tools -> Preferences -> Audio
Set
Outputmodel
toAlsa audio output
and
Set
Device
toDefault ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
Save and restart VLC