#438: stream and master volume below 50% mutes audio
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Reporter: brian_j_murrell | Owner: lennart
Type: defect | Status: closed
Priority: normal | Milestone:
Component: daemon | Severity: normal
Resolution: wontfix | Keywords:
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Comment (by brian_j_murrell):
Replying to [comment:1 lennart]:
> This is not really surprising. -15db at the stream level and (possibly)
-15dB at the device level add up to -30dB (multiplying linear factors
equals adding logarithmic factors) That relates to a linear factor of
about .0009. At 16 bit samples this decreases the sample range to about <
64 levels.
Hrm. Well, that explanation is above my head, not being familiar with how
audio actually works.
I just know that this is new behavior since switching from using an SB
emu10k to this nVidia HDA controller. On the SB, I could reduce the
volume of both the stream and the master in any combination of decrements
and the sound would always just get lower and lower until reaching zero in
accordance with the slider. Even a single increment above 0 on both
sliders produced sound.
Now with this HDA controller, the sound drops off from quite audible to
absolutely nothing when either slider is at "half" and the other is put at
one decrement below half. It acts and sounds more like a mute than a
volume drop. Indeed, I am unable to achieve a "quiet" volume with any
combination of the two sliders. It's always "comfortable" to zilch with
nothing between.
> Also note that PA 0.9.10 considered <= -30dB equal to -inf dB. In newer
version this has been moved to -60 dB.
Maybe this solves the problem. But given the difference in behavior in a
single version based purely on the hardware, maybe not.
> the link you posted doesn't work.
Yes, that appears to be the case. Pity.
Beyond being audibly unintuitive (sound dropping from "comfortable" to
muted) it's visually unintuitive to have audio completely muted when both
sliders are at any value other than zero. I cannot see how this can be
not considered a bug which wont be fixed. That said, I will leave this
ticket closed and defer to your decision to reopen or not.
--
Ticket URL: <http://pulseaudio.org/ticket/438#comment:2>
PulseAudio <http://pulseaudio.org/>
The PulseAudio Sound Server
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