[pulseaudio-discuss] limits on maximum device volume?

[CJ van den Berg]

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 02:29:43PM +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> > 5. Start totem. Sink volume jumps to 85% (and blows my eardrums).
> > Totem’s stream volume is also 85%.
> 
> Last time you apparently configured the totem volume to a factor that
> was higher then the reference volume (i.e. > 1.0). Hence PA will
> restore that this way, too.

Ok, I understand this now, and I‘ve succeeded in getting totem to
playback at 135% (causing distortion, obviously). I also get how this
makes a lot of sense, but I would change two things:

1. Make the sink volume in the UI *only* ever reflect the *reference*
volume level, irrespective of what the actual playback level is as
modified by the stream levels.

That way it won’t ever move by itself which will reduce confusion a lot.
That would of course mean that if a stream is playing at more than 100%
of the reference level, then the physical hardware volume slider will be
higher than the sink volume slider. I think that’s a lot less surprising
than the current behaviour though.

2. Cap all stream volumes to 100%. I don’t want distorted sound, ever,
period.

If the user tries to set the relative volume such that the hardware
can’t actually do it, then it’s just tough cheese. If a stream is
playing at sink+20% and the user raises the sink to 100%, then the stream
must not go over 100%. The same goes for restored stream levels.

-- 
CJ van den Berg

mailto:cj at vdbonline.com
  xmpp:cj at vdbonline.com
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 197 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/pulseaudio-discuss/attachments/20090427/bbcba26a/attachment.pgp>