Webcam Sound Output Problem

Support Audio
1

I am trying to install a Logitech c920S Pro webcam on a Dell box.

I have installed Cheese and the video and recording sound appear correct. Looking at PAVControl (input devices), OrbiCam Dig. Stereo (IRC958) is correctly showing input.

The PAVControl (output devices) Port shows "HDMI/Display Port (plugged in) and no sound is played for instance from a Cheese recording.

If I play a file and direct the output to an auxiliary headset … Port: Headphones (plugged-in) then the sound works correctly.

The PAV configuration is set as follows:
TU116 High Definition Audio Controller … Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output
Built-In Audio … Analog Stereo Output
OrbiCam … Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
I have tried a number of config options without success.

In Alsamixer all modes appear to be on and Auto-Mut and Loopback are ‘Disabled’.

Help would be appreciated.

2

Your webcam probably has only a stereo microphone for audio capture and no audio output

OrbiCam … Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input

HDMI/Display Port output is to display monitor from GPU (TU116 = GTX 6650 or 6660)

Please post response to

pacmd list-cards

that will show PulseAudio sinks (outputs) and sources (inputs) available for each card

3

For HDMI output you need speakers on Monitor or some AUX out from it plugged into some speakers

4

david@dell ~]$ pacmd list-cards
3 card(s) available.
index: 0
name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
owner module: 6
properties:
alsa.card = “1”
alsa.card_name = “HDA NVidia”
alsa.long_card_name = “HDA NVidia at 0xd4080000 irq 17”
alsa.driver_name = “snd_hda_intel”
device.bus_path = “pci-0000:01:00.1”
sysfs.path = “/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1”
device.bus = “pci”
device.vendor.id = “10de”
device.vendor.name = “NVIDIA Corporation”
device.product.id = “1aeb”
device.product.name = “TU116 High Definition Audio Controller”
device.string = “1”
device.description = “TU116 High Definition Audio Controller”
module-udev-detect.discovered = “1”
device.icon_name = “audio-card-pci”
profiles:
output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (priority 5900, available: unknown)
output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 800, available: unknown)
output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (priority 800, available: unknown)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra3: Digital Stereo (HDMI 4) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra3: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 4) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra3: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 4) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra4: Digital Stereo (HDMI 5) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra4: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 5) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra4: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 5) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-stereo-extra5: Digital Stereo (HDMI 6) Output (priority 5700, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround-extra5: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 6) Output (priority 600, available: no)
output:hdmi-surround71-extra5: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 6) Output (priority 600, available: no)
off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
active profile: output:hdmi-stereo
sinks:
alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo/#45: TU116 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
sources:
alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor/#70: Monitor of TU116 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
ports:
hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority 5900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
device.product.name = "VP2768-4k
"
hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority 5800, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (priority 5700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
hdmi-output-3: HDMI / DisplayPort 4 (priority 5600, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
hdmi-output-4: HDMI / DisplayPort 5 (priority 5500, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
hdmi-output-5: HDMI / DisplayPort 6 (priority 5400, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
properties:
device.icon_name = “video-display”
index: 1
name: <alsa_card.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
owner module: 7
properties:
alsa.card = “2”
alsa.card_name = “HD Pro Webcam C920”
alsa.long_card_name = “HD Pro Webcam C920 at usb-0000:00:14.0-7, high speed”
alsa.driver_name = “snd_usb_audio”
device.bus_path = “pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:7:1.2”
sysfs.path = “/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-7/1-7:1.2/sound/card2”
udev.id = “usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02”
device.bus = “usb”
device.vendor.id = “046d”
device.vendor.name = “Logitech, Inc.”
device.product.id = “0892”
device.product.name = “OrbiCam”
device.serial = “046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF”
device.form_factor = “webcam”
device.string = “2”
device.description = “OrbiCam”
module-udev-detect.discovered = “1”
device.icon_name = “camera-web-usb”
profiles:
input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 65, available: unknown)
input:iec958-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input (priority 55, available: unknown)
off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
active profile: input:iec958-stereo
sources:
alsa_input.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02.iec958-stereo/#1: OrbiCam Digital Stereo (IEC958)
ports:
analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:
device.icon_name = “audio-input-microphone”
iec958-stereo-input: Digital Input (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:

index: 2
name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3>
driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
owner module: 8
properties:
	alsa.card = "0"
	alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
	alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xd4598000 irq 128"
	alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
	device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
	sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
	device.bus = "pci"
	device.vendor.id = "8086"
	device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
	device.product.id = "a348"
	device.product.name = "Cannon Lake PCH cAVS"
	device.form_factor = "internal"
	device.string = "0"
	device.description = "Built-in Audio"
	module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
	device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
profiles:
	input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 65, available: no)
	output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6500, available: no)
	output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (priority 6565, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-21: Analog Surround 2.1 Output (priority 1300, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-21+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 1365, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-40: Analog Surround 4.0 Output (priority 1200, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-40+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 1265, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-41: Analog Surround 4.1 Output (priority 1300, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-41+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 1365, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-50: Analog Surround 5.0 Output (priority 1200, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-50+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 5.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 1265, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-51: Analog Surround 5.1 Output (priority 1300, available: no)
	output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 1365, available: no)
	off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
active profile: <off>
ports:
	analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
		properties:
			device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
	analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
		properties:
			
	analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
		properties:
			device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"

[david@dell ~]$

I hope that this helps …

5

PulseAudio data for the HDMI output is the same as in your OP
active profile: output:hdmi-stereo
presumably there are speakers in the display monitor (or a headphone jack) to be able to listen to audio

The webcam appears to be no different to OP
'active profile: input:iec958-stereo'
but there is another port option available

analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
properties:
device.icon_name = “audio-input-microphone”

so your pavucontrol GUI should have an option for Analog Stereo Input or Analog Mono Input
does that work any better than the digital input ?

Data for the onboard audio device shows it as inactive
active profile: <off>
and the output profile mentioned in OP is shown as not available

output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6500, available: no)

and output port for headphones is shown as unavailable which is not consistent with

analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
		properties:
			device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"

Please post more PulseAudio information

pacmd dump
6

First, something basic … neither my Dell box nor my monitor have any I/O capability … no speakers and no mics. No Bluetooth or headphones are connected.
My PulseAudio information:
In the Configuration OrbiCm is shown with a 'Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
TU116 High Def Audio Controller is shown as Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output
Built-in Audio is shown as Off and all options are shown as unavailable
…
Looking at my Input Devices. 3 Devices are shown … only 1 appears actiive.
The OrbiCam Digital Stereo (IEC958) on Port: Digital Input (S/PDIF) is Active and appears to be working correctly.
…
Output Devices … this is the bit that is not working:
There is only 1 option;
TU116 High Def. Audio Contr. Digital Stereo (HDMI)
with Port HDMI/Display Port (Plugged In)

Is this helpful?

7

If you have nothing connected to your system to hear audio playback your audio software could be working with no problem

PulseAudio is detecting the HDMI connection from your nVidia graphics card (TU116) to your monitor (VP2768-4k) and sending audio to the monitor. @binarydepth mentioned before that this would only work if the monitor had speakers or a headphone socket to hear the audio playing

If you want to hear audio playback using the headphone or speaker jack sockets instead:

  • go to PulseAudio Volume Control Configuration tab
  • change the Profile for the Onboard Audio (Cannon Lake PCH) from Off to Analog Stereo Output
  • change the HDA NVidia (TU116) Output to Off
8

What I do is disable everything I don’t use in system settings. Modify this file sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa To use the Output and Input I want.

The section reads like this:

### Make some devices default
#set-default-sink output
#set-default-source input
9

The goal here is simply to have the webcam operate correctly with input and output sound. I am not expecting the webcam to double as an independent speaker unit but simply to function for web communication.
As you have proposed I modified the PA config:
TU116 High Def Audio Cont. is now off all other settings are unavailable.
Orbicam is now Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
Built-In Audio is also set to off
…
The input devices still is shown with OrbiCam (Digital Input (S/PDIF) and appears to be working correctly and shows as a Hardware Input Device.
The output devices only has the single option ‘Simultaneous output’.
…
When I start Cheese video is working and PA shows sound input correctly but there is no device shown in the Recording tab. When I start to record a video then Cheese locks up.

10

Thanks for the response … I have opened-up the /default.pa and see the lines that you are referencing … not sure however what input I should give to those lines … could you provide an example that is relevant to a webcam (preferably OrbiCam)
Thanks

11

That is not possible. Your webcam has a microphone for audio capture but it has no built-in speaker or headphone socket for audio playback

Webcam has 2 sources analog-input-mic and iec958-stereo-input
but has 0 sinks for audio output
you can set the webcam to be the default source for recording audio
but webcam cannot be set as the default sink for playing audio because there is no sink output

simultaneous output option is to send audio playback to more than one output
This is useless for your system because the only audio output device that you could use for hearing audio playback would be from the onboard audio device
(headphone jack on front of desktop box or speaker jack on rear)
but that is set to Off

You need to remove this simultaneous output by undoing whatever you did to add it in the first place
if you installed a package paprefs to turn simultaneous output on, check all the tabs to make sure none of the boxes are ticked
but there are a other ways that this module can be added so you may need to work out how to reverse the process you used to add it

I did not expect to see simultaneous output added to your system and I am wondering what other changes you might have made that you have not told us about

please post response to

pacmd dump && pulseaudio --dump-conf
12

This is part of my output form pacm list-cards

index: 4
        name: <bluez_card.00_1D_DF_1C_7B_AB>
        driver: <module-bluez5-device.c>
        owner module: 33
        properties:
                device.description = "Avantree NB16"
                device.string = "00:1D:DF:1C:7B:AB"
                device.api = "bluez"
                device.class = "sound"
                device.bus = "bluetooth"
                device.form_factor = "headset"
                bluez.path = "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_00_1D_DF_1C_7B_AB"
                bluez.class = "0x240404"
                bluez.alias = "Avantree NB16"
                device.icon_name = "audio-headset-bluetooth"
                device.intended_roles = "phone"
        profiles:
                headset_head_unit: Headset Head Unit (HSP/HFP) (priority 30, available: unknown)
                a2dp_sink: High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink) (priority 40, available: unknown)
                off: Off (priority 0, available: yes)
        active profile: <a2dp_sink>
        sinks:
                bluez_sink.00_1D_DF_1C_7B_AB.a2dp_sink/#2: Avantree NB16
        sources:
                bluez_sink.00_1D_DF_1C_7B_AB.a2dp_sink.monitor/#4: Monitor of Avantree NB16
        ports:
                headset-output: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

                headset-input: Headset (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

And this is my /etc/pulse/default.pa

### Make some devices default
set-default-sink a2dp_sink
set-default-source echoCancel_source
13

I do now realize (for the first time) that my webcam has no audio output. I do have a bluetooth speaker that I will try to make functional. Anyway here is the output that you requested and if you see anything that would be helpful your advice would be appreciated.

[david@dell ~]$ pacmd dump && pulseaudio --dump-conf

Configuration dump generated at Tue Nov 3 09:55:32 2020

load-module module-device-restore
load-module module-stream-restore
load-module module-card-restore
load-module module-augment-properties
load-module module-switch-on-port-available
load-module module-udev-detect
load-module module-alsa-card device_id=“1” name=“pci-0000_01_00.1” card_name=“alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1” namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties=“module-udev-detect.discovered=1”
load-module module-alsa-card device_id=“2” name=“usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02” card_name=“alsa_card.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02” namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties=“module-udev-detect.discovered=1”
load-module module-alsa-card device_id=“0” name=“pci-0000_00_1f.3” card_name=“alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3” namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes avoid_resampling=no card_properties=“module-udev-detect.discovered=1”
load-module module-bluetooth-policy
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
load-module module-bluez5-discover
load-module module-dbus-protocol
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
load-module module-gsettings
load-module module-combine-sink
load-module module-zeroconf-discover
load-module module-default-device-restore
load-module module-rescue-streams
load-module module-always-sink
load-module module-intended-roles
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
load-module module-console-kit
load-module module-systemd-login
load-module module-position-event-sounds
load-module module-role-cork
load-module module-filter-heuristics
load-module module-filter-apply
load-module module-x11-publish display=:0.0
load-module module-x11-xsmp display=:0.0 session_manager=local/dell:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/843,unix/dell:/tmp/.ICE-unix/843
load-module module-cli-protocol-unix

set-sink-volume combined 0x10000
set-sink-mute combined no
suspend-sink combined yes
set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo 0x1010a
set-sink-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo no
suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo yes

set-source-volume alsa_input.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02.iec958-stereo 0x10000
set-source-mute alsa_input.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02.iec958-stereo no
suspend-source alsa_input.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02.iec958-stereo yes
set-source-volume combined.monitor 0x10000
set-source-mute combined.monitor no
suspend-source combined.monitor yes
set-source-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor 0x10000
set-source-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor no
suspend-source alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo.monitor yes

set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1 output:hdmi-stereo
set-card-profile alsa_card.usb-046d_HD_Pro_Webcam_C920_A0969CEF-02 input:iec958-stereo
set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3 off

set-default-sink combined
set-default-source combined.monitor

EOF

Read from configuration file: /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

daemonize = no
fail = yes
high-priority = yes
nice-level = -11
realtime-scheduling = yes
realtime-priority = 5
allow-module-loading = yes
allow-exit = yes
use-pid-file = yes
system-instance = no
local-server-type = user
cpu-limit = no
enable-shm = yes
flat-volumes = no
lock-memory = no
exit-idle-time = 20
scache-idle-time = 20
dl-search-path = /usr/lib/pulse-13.0/modules
default-script-file = /etc/pulse/default.pa
load-default-script-file = yes
log-target =
log-level = notice
resample-method = auto
avoid-resampling = no
enable-remixing = yes
remixing-use-all-sink-channels = yes
enable-lfe-remixing = no
lfe-crossover-freq = 0
default-sample-format = s16le
default-sample-rate = 44100
alternate-sample-rate = 48000
default-sample-channels = 2
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right
default-fragments = 4
default-fragment-size-msec = 25
enable-deferred-volume = yes
deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec = 8000
deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec = 0
shm-size-bytes = 0
log-meta = no
log-time = no
log-backtrace = 0
rlimit-fsize = -1
rlimit-data = -1
rlimit-stack = -1
rlimit-core = -1
rlimit-rss = -1
rlimit-as = -1
rlimit-nproc = -1
rlimit-nofile = 256
rlimit-memlock = -1
rlimit-locks = -1
rlimit-sigpending = -1
rlimit-msgqueue = -1
rlimit-nice = 31
rlimit-rtprio = 9
rlimit-rttime = 200000