Volume Control is slow to react on Windows

The volume control in VLC 1.2 windows is not very responsive. While controlling it using the scroll wheel it takes time to reduce/increase the volume after the command is given.

added Difficulty::medium Severity::normal Type::bug + 1 deleted label

changed milestone to %Bugs paradize

Added attachment:

• volume.png

Original author: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=aitoawl7yerssudguzircpinmomadj0-iebalzo

See #5605 (closed)

changed title from Volume Control to Volume Control is slow to react on Windows

added Component::Audio: Windows plugins label and removed 1 deleted label

adding myself to CC

On Windows 7 (64 bit) running 2.0 rc I have the same problem. It takes like a second if the volume is changed after I changed it in the gui. But I found out that this is not with every media file. It was only while playing back streamed media. Using local files there was only a very small time difference.

Original author: http://kmindi.myopenid.com/

It depends on you're caching values. Local files have a low one so low delay, network files, streams... have a higher delay.

If you decrees the settings for these the delay is also decreased.

That sounds true. But I did not change any settings. And btw. could you tell me where I can find those settings? I looked through all options (expert on) but did not find any buffer settings to change that influence this.

If you change network-caching to 300 instead of 1000 default (new in 2.0rc?)

# Network caching (ms) (Ganzzahl)
network-caching=300

its like for normal files.

Original author: http://kmindi.myopenid.com/

Network-caching setting replicated vlc 1.1.x behavior for me too. Two caveats:

• I think users are going to expect volume change in vlc 2.0 to be at least as responsive as it was in 1.1.x, even when playing files over the network. Samba shares (which is how I noticed this) are fairly common, and use the network rather than file cache value. The slower volume change is noticeable and potentially harmful -- extremely loud volumes will persist for over a second after they've been adjusted in the user interface.

• The network-caching setting is buried in the advanced section of preferences, so it's not easy for users to find.

However, on linux (gentoo), even with all three caching settings set to 1500ms, VLC 2.0 has near-zero delay (casually speaking, imperceptible delay, probably a few ms) when changing volume.

I think that the windows volume change handler in vlc 1.1.x (not sure about earlier versions) and 2.0 is unnecessarily delaying audio volume changes, which I think should be the main concern of this bug. Linux behavior demonstrates that delaying volume changes according to input caching values is not a fundamental architectural behavior in VLC.

+1 for firebrand's comment

Original author: http://kmindi.myopenid.com/

Absolutely noone said that this was a fundamental architecture issue.

This is a lack of feature on the Windows Audio outputs, since 2.0.

Any patch and help are welcome.

Can confirm this on Mac OS X. Very annoying to wait several seconds to make loud compressed pop-music record quieter after listening to quietly recorded classical music for example.

+1 for firebrand. Completely agree that it should work as it worked in vlc 1.x — instantly (with same network-caching setting).

Original author: https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=aitoawlt3svpcyc9eqn7gmzpuiwqybzcw27zgvi

I have the same issue (Win7 64-bits)

Changing the Output Module in "Tools" > "Preferences" > "Audio" >

to "Win32 waveOut extension output" "fixed" the issue.

Original author: nickvergessen

I can confirm this volume issue on Windows XP (SP3) 32bit as well.

Patch fo directx audio plugin

Added attachment:

• patch _directx.zip

Hello. I added hardware support for volume control in DirectX audio output. (method IDirectSoundBuffer_SetVolume).

In the attached file (path_directx.zip) are

1. libaout_directx_plugin.dll (build in VS)
2. \ modules\audio_output\directx.c - all fixes are marked with comments //VSG Hope this helps

Excellent!

I will try to integrate that!

Replying to [comment:14 Sergey012]:

Hello. I added hardware support for volume control in DirectX audio output. (method IDirectSoundBuffer_SetVolume).

In the attached file (path_directx.zip) are

1. libaout_directx_plugin.dll (build in VS)
2. \ modules\audio_output\directx.c - all fixes are marked with comments //VSG Hope this helps

It helps a lot, this DLL solves the volume lag problem indeed.

One point though: with VLC volume set at 100% the general volume is now -7.5 dB lower than the default volume with the original DLL (tested on Windows XP with VLC 2.0.2 nightly build). This is way too low and needs to be adjusted.