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I have a laptop hooked up to a TV via HDMI. When the TV powers off, the audio output switches from HDMI to the built-in laptop speakers. This behaviour is new, as previous Ubuntu versions would always stay on the last device I chose (HDMI.) How can I control this feature so as to always have HDMI selected even when the TV is off?

Failing that, how can I disable the built-in laptop speakers so they are never available, hopefully forcing the audio output to HDMI?

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up vote 2 down vote

So it turns out everything you think you're editing in /etc/pulse/default.pa file isn't doing squat until you copy it to your current user profile (~/.config/pulse/) Shout out to Nebuzaradan for discovering the solution: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/293399/how-to-set-hdmi-sound-output-as-default-on-ubuntu-16-04

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You can use pavucontrol (Pulseaudio volume control, install if necessary):

Launch it from multimedia menu, go to the "output devices" tab, and click the green "define as alternative" button that is near HDMI soundcard.

Look also "configuration" tab: you will find various profile such as HDMI .

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Hi laugeo, the option you're referring to was "define as fallback device" and was already selected for my HDMI and built-in speakers. I de-selected the option for the built-in speakers, but it made no difference after power cycling my TV. Thanks for the idea though. – Cacklson May 17 '16 at 2:40

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