[pulseaudio-discuss] limits on maximum device volume?

[Lennart Poettering]

On Mon, 27.04.09 15:11, CJ van den Berg (cj at vdbonline.com) wrote:

> 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.

Hmm, Marc-Andre and I have discussed this. We are actually thinking of
showing the maximum of both volumes in the UI.

> 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.

I don't think it's that simple. We had quite a few requests to allow
this. And even I myself use it sometimes if I watch a movie on my BT
headphone. Some movies are just too faint if the volume is at max in
my headphones. 

I think the UI should make clear where 100% is but allow the user to
go even higher if he wants to. OTOH I am not sure the majority of
people would grok what 100% in this case means...

> 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.

My plan is actually to do dynamic range compression when amplifying
digitally. That should minimize artifacts.

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering                        Red Hat, Inc.
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