GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 591285
gnome-volume-control limits max volume to 100% which doesn't match pulseaudio
Last modified: 2010-10-20 15:34:46 UTC
gnome-volume-control's and pulseaudio's volume controls could be better integrated. Pulseaudio allows you to adjust volume between 0 and 480%. This is fantastic, especially for computers with low inputs and outputs like mine. But the volume sliders in gnome-volume-control only go to 100%. So: a) When you adjust the pulseaudio slider, the corresponding gnome-volume-control slider moves, but stops at 100% and doesn't display the actual value. b) If you try to adjust the gnome-volume-control-slider, it immediately resets the pulseaudio volume slider back to 100%. The attached image illustrates this (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-media/+bug/325215). The pulseaudio volume controls are obtained by running PulseAudioManager and then selecting Manager from its notification panel control and then double-clicking on the appropriate device in the Devices tab. The gnome volume control applet in the notification panel does know that the volume is over 100% (its pop-up hint says, for instance "Output: 127% 29.77 db", but its slider also is limited to 100% and if you use this slider to adjust the volume, it resets it to 100%. What I think should happen is that the gnome-volume-control sliders shouldn't be limited to 100%, and if pulseaudio directs that the volume has gone above 100%, gnome-volume-control's sliders should reflect this correctly. Other information:
One thing to note is that we'll _never_ show the full range that PulseAudio allows. So the question is whether it's useful to have the bars going up to 150%, as we do it for input, and what it would look like for the applet.
Created attachment 143283 [details] [review] Go up to 150% Does this help?
Created attachment 143284 [details] [review] Updated patch
(In reply to comment #1) > One thing to note is that we'll _never_ show the full range that PulseAudio > allows. So the question is whether it's useful to have the bars going up to > 150%, as we do it for input, and what it would look like for the applet. why "_never_ show" ? is there any sane rationale behind this? i am on a system with very low volume speakers. and hence i view all videos in vlc which allows to set the volume to 400%. afaik mnay laptops also have to use this as their inbuilt speakers are really bad. mabye not exposing 400% by default but having a option in the pref to allow this/ having some advanced menu. so that all my apps eg totem can make use of this?
The advanced menu item is pavucontrol. Showing up to 200% is unreasonable if the only thing we're doing is trying to work-around broken hardware. If anything, PulseAudio should be doing the work internally, and showing a lower base volume, thus taking care of scaling the volume as required (so 100% is audible).
150% looks great in Ubuntu 9.10 beta, thanks!