Fresh HTPC build; sound cutting out

Used Bazzite for years with no trouble on AM4 5900x + 7800xt with audio via HDMI.
Repurpsed 5900x and rebuilt system with 9600X on a A620i AX motherboard with same 7800x gpu. Fresh install from blank m.2 with Bazzite 41 Handheld & HTPC Edition. Video and audio routed via HDMI to display via home theater AVR. Audio doesnt play in desktop or gaming mode consistently.. Audio is cut off or truncated if played at all; in sound settings spaming a speaker in test mode will get audio to play occasionally, but usually not. Everything else is working great.
Solution:
Solved this with an 4k+audio DP 2.0 ->HDMI 2.1 adapter. (wasnt aware DP carried audio). Seems to work fine now
CalDigit DisplayPort 2.0 to HDMI 2.1 (DP to HDMI) Active Adapter 8K...
The CalDigit DP2.0 to HDMI 2.1 adapter is ideal for use with any DisplayPort video output that you want to convert to HDMI, such as a HDMI monitor or TV. This adapter is also fully compatible with the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 and TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 docks in order to connect a HDMI monitor v...
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39 Replies
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
audio is cutting out temporarily or permanently? is the audio cutting out during play or for a while during silence
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
temporarily. like navigation sounds... sometimes they play, sometimes they dont. same with the test audio in desktop mode. if I spam it 50 times.. 5-10 might get something out of the speakers.
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
"Intermittent" is the best description I can think of. In games is the same.. sound comes and goes intermittently
Panthera
Panthera•4d ago
I had this in windows too. Its AMD HDMI audio issues - are you using latest drivers
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
it's pipewire temporarily shutting down to preserve power or whatever panthera said considering you probably don't care about power usage since you have the htpc version lemme quickly find the fix @Kyle Gospo correct me if im wrong, is pipewire not configured to be permanently on, on htpc? that feels a bit weird if it isn't
Kyle Gospo
Kyle Gospo•4d ago
sleep is disabled everywhere now
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
oh
Kyle Gospo
Kyle Gospo•4d ago
pipewire audio sleep that is
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
so install the update and restart ig @flapJ4cks
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
Roger, will give that a go! Thank you! err.. I did an update first thing after this fresh install earlier today. Is there a specific update number to target?
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
if ujust update says it's up to date then it's up to date ig @Panthera could you elaborate on what you said about hdmi?
Panthera
Panthera•4d ago
yes sure, I connected my mini PC (HX99G with 6600M GPU) to my TV 2 years ago and aduio stuttered like crazy. I ried different HDMI cables everything but still same issue. It turns out it was an issue with AMD audio over HDMI. I solved it by using USB-C to HDMI cable instead. However about 4 months ago that cable broke and I went bck to HDMI and the problem happens 1% of the time now, so I guess recent driver updates maybe fixed it
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
uhm then i guess display port time?
Panthera
Panthera•4d ago
if you want immediate fix yes please report back if that fixes it
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
Im going to liveCD Ubuntu to see if audio works there... same issue on Ubuntu :/ gotta be an AMD driver issue Removing the GPU entirely, and just using th iGPU on the 9600x and the audio works flawlessly. :/
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
from what i heard hdmi just kinda sucks on linux because of it being closed source so i think the only solution really might just to use display port
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
unfortunately not an option in a home theater setup. AVRs & TVs dont have seperate audio inputs these days..let alone DP. its all via HDMI
PegaSys
PegaSys•4d ago
if you have AVR can't you route audio from the motherboard into it rather than through hdmi? or am i misunderstanding
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
Modern avr's dont really have RCA inputs for audio unless its phono. Similar to this Denon.
No description
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•4d ago
Certainly modern TVs dont have RCA inputs for audio (i could use TOSlink in I guess if my mobo had TOSLink... maybe I can find a USB audio device with TOS... odds of linux support? lol)
Solution
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cks•3d ago
Solved this with an 4k+audio DP 2.0 ->HDMI 2.1 adapter. (wasnt aware DP carried audio). Seems to work fine now
CalDigit DisplayPort 2.0 to HDMI 2.1 (DP to HDMI) Active Adapter 8K...
The CalDigit DP2.0 to HDMI 2.1 adapter is ideal for use with any DisplayPort video output that you want to convert to HDMI, such as a HDMI monitor or TV. This adapter is also fully compatible with the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 and TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 docks in order to connect a HDMI monitor v...
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
I lied.. this WAS a fix until I updated the system, and now its broken again. Same problem. Crackling sound or cut-off & intermittent audio
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
yeah sorry to say, hdmi simply isn't very good on open source drivers
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
well im not using HDMI anymore.. Using DP 🤷 whats crazy as it worked fine for literally over a year.
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
you're still outputting a primarily hdmi signal are you not?
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
then just stopped in the last month :/ Im not sure what you mean by that Q... Im using DisplayPort output on my GPU, and using a DP->HDMI dongle right before the AVR
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
DP to HDMI isn't an official thing, so audio issues sound about expected
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
ok welp, parts for last ditch effort via TOSlink arriving today
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
hope it works out
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
fwiw, Audio withOUT a GPU.. ie, physically removed gpu and used iGPU on cpu, worked flawlessly
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
that makes sense like i said before it's better to take the audio directly from the mobo rather than routing it through the gpu
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
<shakes fist at AMD gpu bizness>
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
if you have any custom pipewire config you could try removing it temporarily
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
no, nothing like that.. this is a bone stock bazzite for HTPC iso install
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
well then i guess you could try making a config, just not feeling like doing the instructions rn, playing a game
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
NP at all... . I appreciate your help so far
PegaSys
PegaSys•3d ago
the gist of it is copy the default config from /usr i think and put it in ~/.config/pipewire and there you can reduce the clock and frequency, do note it might result in degraded or delayed audio personally the difference to me is like none
flapJ4cks
flapJ4cksOP•3d ago
I'll give that a go! Thanks again!

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