So for a while, I've been using SPDIF for all audio programs, HDMI for KDE notifications, and analog in for input sources. This setup has worked great for a while. However, VLC has some issues with DVD playback as well as this tendency to play moves with a slight frame drop once in a while, which is irritating with moving cameras. So, I went to find alternatives such such as Kaffiene and Xine, and Mplayer. Kaffiene seemed to give me the best results with the 1 exception that it didn't have surround sound support.

Anyways getting to the point, I decided to give up for the night and just stick with VLC. However, I turned on my computer today and found that my digital audio sources don't work in ANYTHING except Phonon. Analog works fine. No matter what I prioritize in phonon, nothing seems to change. I removed all phonon config files, I reinstalled phonon, I tried the gstreamer backend instead of the VLC one, and still got nowhere. I don't have an ~/.asoundrc file.

So, how do I get SPDIF to play audio for all programs again?


EDIT:
Nevermind, fixed the problem by installing and using asoundrc-gtk. The really strange part, though, is I didn't have an active .asoundrc file before and audio worked fine...