HDMI Audio Issue/Radeon Grapics Card [Solved]

Question

Hello All,
New user to Arch, been using linux for a little while longer. I'm trying to set my HDMI out as default output, but cannot seem to make it work. I've tried the wiki, forums, and websearches, but none of the methods (and variations thereof) seem to work for me. The hw must work, for I am listening to music as I type via HDMI, but I must go into VLC>Audio Output>HDMI. So if someone could help me out, walk me through it, I would appreciate it very much. I'll post some info below, sorry in advance if it's not everything needed. If you want to assume I am a complete n00b/idiot, I will not be offended. Thanks in advance!
Arch (64 bit)
custom desktop pc:
gigabyte gap55aud4p mobo
i7 cpu
Radeon HD5670 video card
$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 1: ALC889 Digital [ALC889 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
$ aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=MID
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=MID
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=MID,DEV=0
HDA Intel MID, ALC889 Digital
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
$ xrandr # list outputs
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 410mm x 230mm
1366x768 59.8*+
1920x1080 50.0 60.0 30.0 25.0 24.0
1920x1080i 50.0 60.1
1280x720 50.0 60.0
1440x576i 50.1
1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
1440x480i 60.1
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3
720x576 50.0
720x480 59.9
640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
]$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 29298 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 30893 1
snd_hda_intel 35816 7
snd_hda_codec 145704 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 6364 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 76860 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc 7330 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer 18687 1 snd_pcm
snd 58893 20 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore 5418 1 snd
$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 29298 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 30893 1
snd_hda_intel 35816 7
snd_hda_codec 145704 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 6364 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 76860 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc 7330 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer 18687 1 snd_pcm
snd 58893 20 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore 5418 1 snd
[sean@arch ~]$ lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 29298 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 30893 1
snd_hda_intel 35816 7
snd_hda_codec 145704 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 6364 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 76860 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc 7330 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer 18687 1 snd_pcm
snd 58893 20 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
$ ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Aug 18 17:50 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 8 Aug 18 17:50 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 Aug 18 17:50 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 7 Aug 18 17:50 hwC0D2
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 Aug 18 17:50 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 Aug 18 21:53 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 5 Aug 18 22:15 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 4 Aug 18 21:53 pcmC0D1c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 3 Aug 18 21:54 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 2 Aug 18 17:50 pcmC0D2c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 9 Aug 18 22:29 pcmC1D3p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 1 Aug 18 17:50 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Aug 18 17:50 timer
Last edited by seanthor (2013-09-14 13:40:50)

Answer 1

OK, I think I've got a resolution. I used a combination of several wikis to get it right, mainly:
ALSA-Gentoo Wiki
ALSA-Arch Wiki
ATI#HDMI Audio-Arch Wiki
Kernel Parameters-Arch Wiki
I searched a number of other pages I don't remember right now, but these were the most helpful as I recall. I again added "radeon.audio=1" to /etc/default/grub per the "Kernel Parameters" and "ATI#HDMI Audio" Arch Wikis. I then modeled  my ~/.asoundrc to match the Gentoo Wiki example, with a slight tweak to fit my hardware. That file now looks like this:
GNU nano 2.2.6 File: ~/.asoundrc
pcm.!hdmi {
type hw
card 0
device 3
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdmi"
It's been a few days, with rebooting everyday, and so far so good. Audio programs (eg. VLC) and flash content are working just fine. However, speaker-test & aplay -D give no errors and the scripts run, but no audio is actuallly produced. ??? Is this a problem, or can I continue to ignore it?
Anyways I consider this pretty much resolved, and hope this helps anyone else with this issue. Cheers!!!