I use a Hisense (smart) TV as a monitor for my entertainment system, via HDMI cable. I've been doing this with a Asus on Windows 10, a HP laptop on Mint, later Zorin 17.2 Core, and another HP Pavilion on Zorin 17.2 Core.
I've had no issues until this weekend, when the Hisense built-in speakers weren't detected, and everything started playing through the laptop speakers.
At first, the Hisense speakers wouldn't show up in the sound options, although the display clearly showed Hisense and worked. A reboot sorted it out and up to last night was A-OK. Roll on today and it's back to using the HP laptop speakers, although this time the Hisense option is showing up, now there is a new FIREFOX audio option that suddenly appeared. If I click on the slider, it is controlling the audio!
I've changed laptops, back to the old HP (not the Pavilion) and Kodi is playing normally through the Hisense speakers! (It was last updated on Saturday). I usually do updates and upgrades every time I log in to any computer,but I've not done it this time, just in case there's something in the latest updates that has affected this.
It's now after 1 AM and I'm so tired - Tuesday's and Thursdays are late nights. and all I want to do when I get home is cook, eat and catch up... I can really do without the unpredictability. I could do with understanding what's happening so I can stop it happening again.
I assume that your system is already running with Pulse Audio, because usually with Ubuntu Gnome distro's like Zorin OS do, and certainly does with mine. You can make more specific audio option choices through the Pulse Audio Volume Control App.
Now, what works even easier for me, as an extension to that, is to install the Sound Input/Output chooser, it just uses Pulse Audio's abilities, and installs a widget, in the lower right status menu. This works great for me, to choose what audio output I want, after booting up the PC.
I haven't had issues with audio on Q4OS but recently had a systemd update. So I posed the question on Brave search via Mojeek:
Systemd and PulseAudio Influence
Systemd has a significant influence on PulseAudio, particularly when running PulseAudio in system-wide mode.
Systemd Service: Systemd is used to start PulseAudio at boot, and a ready-made systemd service file is recommended for this purpose.
Disabling User Services: When using system mode, the PulseAudio user services need to be disabled in systemd using the command sudo systemctl --global disable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket.
Autospawn Configuration: It is advisable to set autospawn = no in /etc/pulse/client.conf to prevent autospawning when the daemon stops, which can make debugging more difficult.
User and Group Management: When PulseAudio starts in system mode, it changes its user and group from root to pulse, and the pulse user needs to be in the audio and bluetooth groups to use ALSA and bluetooth devices.
Access Control: All users that need access to PulseAudio have to be in the pulse-access group, even root, to ensure proper access control and security.
If you don't have Audacious installed I would do that and install all the ALSA apps, then in output settings change to ALSA and then change the plugin settings to your setup.
Because of the Volume Settings for Firefox and Kodi: I think this comes because of Audi or Video Content in these.
But for the Moment, I would suggest to use Pulse Audio Volume Control to set it up. You can install it with sudo apt install pavucontrol and then open it and go to the Output Tab and mark the Marker on the HDMI Output. Then make a Reboot to check if it works.
Thanks @StarTreker . It seems that you are right about Pulse Audio, it showed up top in the search, so I've also installed PulseAudio Volume Control. I also followed the link you posted to to widget, clicked install but nothing appears to have happened... I saw that it's a 2 part, a browser extension and also requiring Python dependency, so I'll have to leave fiddling with that until the weekend.
As the older HP is working fine, I'll stick with that for now - at least I can hear what I'm watching!
@swarfendor437 , I'll look at those instruction when I have time,
I just wish that fundamental things, like visuals & sound, didn't just up and change suddenly, breaking was was working perfectly!
OK. What happened or was done that upset it at the weekend. Was there a kernel update?
If true, try booting the previous kernel gereric via grub menu item "Additional options for Zorin".
I don't know what was updated, although the fact that a reboot wasn't required suggests that it was not a kernel update. Plus, I'm extremely cautious about those, due to past experiences with Mint and Zorin, so I always take note of them and usually hold them back a while.
I was wondering if anyone else had experienced a similar issue - I guess not.
I'll have time to troubleshoot at the weekend, and try out what @StarTreker recommended. I'll keep the post updated when I learn something, or make progress.
@Ponce-De-Leon , I will do that as soon as I get time. Thanks for the suggestion. It's weird because those options don't show at all on the other HP.I've been doing the same thing with various laptops and different OSs for a couple of years too - never had this before.
I'm guessing that I have to set up this laptop back to the Hisense to get correct readings? If so, I'll have to wait until Saturday, I don't have time during the week while I'm working.
I've been doing some browsing, and I'm starting to wonder if Firefox is at fault. Lots of people are having trouble with FF resetting their audio feeds on different channels, and even between videos.
What I can't tell is if anyone is using a TV for a monitor, or just using the one device. Nevertheless, it's interesting that Firefox can do that, overriding user's settings. I know it is probably to protect the hearing of those using ear buds or headphones, but I'm going to check into it, when I have time.
If anyone sees similar links on Ubuntu or Reddit, feel free to share! Thanks in advance.
Just putting this link here because I can't save it in the app:
Does anyone else have these options show up when they open sound in settings? "speech-dispatcher-dummy". This is where the Firefox and Kodi... appeared. It doesn't exist in the other HP laptop I use with the TV. If I can find out where it came from, I can get rid of it and go back to a normal experience!
Sorry I don't have Zorin installed anywhere these days. What has worked for me on other distros is installing all ALSA packages, (except OSS and JACK), QasMixer, QasHctrl and one other Qas package. Then install Audacious. Go to Settings | Preferences and change output to ALSA plugin, then to the right of that, plugin settings and choose appropriate sources. Once that was done I get audio from all speakers. The one exception is streaming video in Firefox which just comes from centre speakers.
I solved the problem last night: I uninstalled Firefox (it said something about a Firefox profile that couldn't restored if it was removed??) and the problem went away with it! I tried with both YouTube and Kodi with no issues at all. What is strange to me is that I have Mozilla and Firefox synced on the old HP laptop with Zorin, and a Windows X Asus laptop, neither of which have this "profile", nor the problem with the sound.
I don't suppose I'll ever understand it but as long as it's fixed, I don't really mind. I just hate it when apps that you use are changed without your knowledge or permission, and Firefox (or is it Mozilla?) is doing it more and more. As I don't want a Chromium based browser, I'm sticking with Zen (version 1.7b), which is a lot more stable now and I enjoy using it.
Once again, I really appreciate everyone chipping in with advice and ideas. This forum rocks!
I was wondering if the machine with the issue was by any chance flatpak version of Firefox installed? We need to remember that Mozilla gets most of it's funding from Google.
If the early version of 17 it would indeed be flatpak which led me to doing that video on Vimeo. Remember, flatpak is isolated from the system which means it would not be able to access audio without an extension I suspect, could be wrong.