Any detriment to /boot/config.txt "set hdmi_drive=2" to fix audio?

Dochartaigh

My Pi has audio on my ~10 year old Toshiba Regza 42". Works on my 60" Vizio. Works on my Acer 2560x1440px monitor (set to 1080p) with built in speakers. Works on like 4ish other buddies TV's....except my cousin's Sony and 1 other random TV I haven't gotten the brand of - they have no sound at all (yes, I'm making these RetroPie gaming systems for everybody!!!).

The most common fix seems to be adding "set hdmi_drive=2" to "/boot/config.txt". I'm heading over to my cousins house on Friday (he's a bit computer-iffy and doesn't even have a keyboard to connect to his wifi so I can't remote in from his PC to the Pi...) but wanted to see if there's any detriment to adding this line to the boot config file on all future builds I do for people to hopefully cut down on the audio problems (which until this week I didn't even know where a quasi-common problem).

And yes, I had him try the 2 different Pi's I built for his kids (and his godson), he tried 2 different HDMI wires, tried his DVD player on the same HDMI and it has sound, and his downstairs Samsung TV has sound - only the Sony upstairs (his kids TV) doesn't have sound...so we've tried all bases and the problem is definitely on the Pi's somewhere...

Dochartaigh

So I'm setting up a new Pi Zero. I went to the /boot/config.txt and found this line:

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

Is this the same line I saw mentioned in all those posts (in regards to fixing audio so it works)? ...it's slightly different (no "set") so I thought I'd ask.

I'm also still trying to find out if there's any detriments to always adding this line of code if the Pi will always be plugged into an actual TV via HDMI (i.e. will never be used on a monitor via DVI - or I guess it would technically be with a HDMI to DVI adapter since the Pi doesn't have an actual DVI plug).

edmaul69

@Dochartaigh that is the line you need to remove the hashtag from. Should work great after that.

Dochartaigh

Great. I was just making sure since the code was changed from those github troubleshooting posts. Thanks.

obsidianspider

That's how I set up all of my Pis that I use via HDMI. No detrimental effects.

Dochartaigh

Old topic I know, but I created it so live with the bump! lol

So my 16-year old cousin brought his Pi Zero I built for him over to his buddies house and the sound wouldn't work. Regular consumer-style like 50" flatscreen (he didn't remember the brand/model), with the same cable he uses at home. After my other cousin had an issue with sound on an older ~32" Sony I've used hdmi_drive=2 on all of these. Any suggestions on what to try?

The elinux wiki says to also try adding:

hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_force_edid_audio=1

but I honestly have no clue what those do and haven't seen them referenced anywhere else...