No output after amp source switching

[MV10]

Vincent, here are the control panel screenshots you requested in email.

To recap the problem:

CABLE-Input is my default sound playback device, and CABLE-Output is my default sound recording device. For CABLE-Output, "Listen to this device" is checked, and the target playback device is my TV via HDMI, which goes through a Yamaha AVR amplifier.

The physical connections are PC --> HDMI --> Amp <-- HDMI-CEC <-- TV ... and of course, the amp has speakers attached. I assume the HDMI-CEC is why the PC sees the TV as the output device rather than the amp (not really sure what's "normal" there, I don't have any other PC's that output audio over HDMI).

Of course, the amplifier can switch between various sources, including the PC. When the amp is switched from something else to the PC, initially there is no sound on the speakers. The little bars in the Windows Sound control panel show there is sound on the CABLE devices, but do not show sound on the TV "speaker" device. I have to open the Recording tab, open CABLE-Output Properties, change the playback device to something else, Apply, change it back to the TV, Apply, and then speaker output works. It continues to work until the amp is switched away from the PC again.

This does not happen if the CABLE devices are not used. If the TV is the default audio device and "Listen to this device" is disabled for CABLE-Output, the audio works normally immediately after switching amp inputs to the PC.

This a brand new PC, OEM Win11 Pro, nothing is installed except Spotify and the latest Cable drivers. (I have a custom audio-intercept application on the PC, but it is a zero-install type of app, and its presence is unrelated to this problem, and it is not running when any of this happens.) Edit: Since HDMI is involved, in case it matters, this is a miniPC with an integrated GPU: Miniforums UM790 Pro with an AMD Ryzen9 7940HS CPU and an AMD Radeon 780M GPU.

These are the before and after control panel screenshots, but I don't see anything different. All settings are at the installed defaults.

Screenshot 2023-08-03 072800.jpg (79.22 KiB) Viewed 36862 times

Screenshot 2023-08-03 072641.jpg (79.28 KiB) Viewed 36862 times

[MV10]

The Windows Sound control panel screenshots I had sent by email.

playback.jpg (57.42 KiB) Viewed 36861 times

recording.jpg (42.9 KiB) Viewed 36861 times

cable_output.jpg (42.99 KiB) Viewed 36861 times

[MV10]

This was (perhaps) a Windows issue, there have been multiple updates since I reported this, and it has stopped happening. (Since this PC is only used for my custom audio-intercept stuff, nothing else has been installed or changed during that timespan except one update to the AMD GPU drivers.)

[Vincent Burel]

after some windows update, we see sometimes some audio routing inconsistency.
that are fixed after rebooting.

[MV10]

Just a note to say this seems to come and go randomly after reboots. Unrelated to Windows updates as far as I can tell. For example, we lost power unexpectedly. It was working fine, and after startup it was then broken. Nothing installed, I checked Event Viewer. When it starts happening after a reboot, it seems to happen all the time until I reboot again. So far, a reboot has fixed it every time.

This never happens on my two dev computers also running VB-Audio. One uses the rear panel line-out jacks to a dedicated Logitech "computer speakers" 5.1 amp, but the other is using HDMI through an AVR-style amp (actually a cheaper model of the same Yamaha series) and it hasn't happened so far. But that system isn't set up as a general A/V system, either -- no other inputs. So I don't know if those are relevant for comparison.

[Vincent Burel]

We are going to update our VB-CABLEs with our new model of driver (more compatible with Win10/11) in November or December.
So i guess it could help to will fix all your problems.