[SOLVED] HDMI Audio - Can it be muted/disabled?

Hi,

I’m currently trying to mute/disable the HDMI audio output on my Odroid-N2 running the latest nightly build (20191010), as I have an AVR that only supports S/PDIF and I’m unable to pass the audio from the TV to the AVR.

I’ve tried the command outlined in this post: https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/mute-hdmi-audio-output-when-using-spdif/705 but this has no affect on the audio output.

Reading the release notes for 9.0.1, it states that an option was added to mute the HDMI audio output - has this option been removed in later releases, as I’m unable to find it?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I think the option is under the coreelec settings addon

Cheers for the reply.

I’ve gone back through every menu and setting option I can find while in Expert mode but I’m unable to find anything related to muting HDMI audio. Is this an extra add-on that needs to be downloaded, or should it be installed as part of the default load?

Should be by default to my knowledge on Expert mode. Make sure you are not using any custom skin which prevents you seeing the options.
Settings → System → CoreELEC and under Audio, Disable HDMI audio output.

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This setting is not in 9.2.0 on my N2.

I can also confirm that it’s not present for me either using the default skin (Estuary) at any of the setting levels.

The only options showing under Settings > System > CoreELEC are as follows:

Display:

  • Tone map SDR to HDR
  • Tone map HDR to SDR
  • Limit display colour depth to 8-bit
  • Use 4:2:2 colour subsampling

  • Reset above settings to default

I also tried cycling through each Audio output device option (located in Settings > System > Audio > Audio Decoder) and checking whether any audio options became available on the Settings > System > CoreELEC menu, but only the options above were present for each.

Out of curiosity. If you don’t want audio from the tv, why is just muting the tv not a valid option?

Because the TV will not default to mute and you therefore must change it every time you turn it ON.

Ok, like I said was just curious, because I don’t use that type of setup, so was unsure why what seemed like a logical option wasn’t an option.

My TV will display a small bright red box in the bottom left corner showing a mute symbol and text, this stays on screen the entire time the TV is muted - not something I enjoy looking at when viewing. At the moment I’m turning the volume down to zero instead of muting.

The reason I’m doing any of this is because the encoded source audio is being sent to the HDMI channel when S/PDIF passthrough is active, so I’m getting the properly decoded audio via my AVR while having to listen to the bitstream noise through the TV.

Are you able to set the TV so the audio out is the Optical Output rather then the TV speakers? If so, that will mute the TV.

Yes, I can change the TV settings to stop audio output through the speakers, but this is really no different to turning down the volume. It’s also more involved as you have to go through a number of menus to make the change.

I still use my TV as a TV, so anything that allows me to configure the N2 to stop HDMI audio output is the ideal solution. Given that this was a previous software configuration option, I’m curious to find out if it’s been removed entirely, or whether it’s still there and the interface to configure it has been overlooked with the newer releases.

Sorry to hear you’re out of luck then, it does exist on my default latest stable 9.0.3 installation.

All good. Appreciate you taking the time to reply.

At least I know it did exist in the past. :smiley:

Ok, now that I understand what the problem is, and why you want this. ssh into your N2 and use the following command, to mute the audio on the hdmi.

amixer sset 'Audio hdmi-out mute' on

If this has the desired effect for you I can add it as a setting in the gui.

edit: just so you are not questioning your memory. It’s the older devices(s905/s912) that has the option in the gui to mute the hdmi audio. This was probably removed for the newer devices because the way it was done on the older devices doesn’t work for the newer devices(s922x/s905x2/a311d).

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Many thanks for that cdu13a.

I’ve tried it and can confirm that it works as desired. I can now enjoy all audio output via S/PDIF without having to turn down the TV volume.

Really appreciate you taking the time to rectify this. :+1:

It may help the issue I’m having too in regards to hdmi audio that I posted about some weeks ago but got no responses on.
I’m using an analog receiver for audio, and HMDI audio is leaking in in the form of distorted audio with noisy hiss. The workaround I’m currently doing is enabling HDMI audio instead of analog and then switching again back to analog. I have to do that every time CE is rebooted to install nightlies.

Adding a HDMI mute option would definitely be welcome!

I don’t understand anything about what you say. As @Rascal said, this option is available in CoreELEC 9.2.0

I don’t have it on current nightly. Rascal said he has it on 9.0.3 not on 9.2.0. Didn’t try on the default skin but I’m using confulence not something custom.