ports/185076: multimedia/vlc: volume level doesn't saved & restored

[Shane Ambler]

The following reply was made to PR ports/185076; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Shane Ambler <FreeBSD at ShaneWare.Biz>
To: Anton Sayetsky <vsjcfm at gmail.com>, bug-followup at FreeBSD.org
Cc:  
Subject: Re: ports/185076: multimedia/vlc: volume level doesn't saved
 & restored
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2013 10:12:59 +1030

 On 24/12/2013 20:50, Anton Sayetsky wrote:
 >2013/12/24 Shane Ambler <FreeBSD at shaneware.biz>:
 >> I've seen the same volume issue - on 9.2.
 >>
 >> Part fix is to add hw.snd.vpc_autoreset=0 to sysctl.conf
 >I'll try this later.
 
 Another sysctl that appears related is hw.snd.vpc_0db this is described
 as "0db relative level". The default of 45 is what vlc sets the volume
 to, changing this also changes the volume that vlc resets to. While the
 vlc volume setting changes, the audio output level doesn't change. That
 is with vpc_0db=7 and vlc volume=7 or vpc_0db=45 and vlc volume=45 the
 sound level at the speakers is the same.
 
 So while vlc appears to be getting it's volume setting from there,
 changing it doesn't give the desired result.
 
 >> This doesn't fix the Set volume on startup in vlc but it does allow the
 >> volume to remain consistent between files and vlc restarts instead of
 >> always jumping to 45%.
 >This proves that VLC does not (or fails to) call volume restore procedure.
 >As I remember, it worked on all older versions (<2.1).
 
 The vlc volume restore definitely worked before the recent update a few
 months ago.
 
 Of note here, the sound restore does work if jack audio output is used
 but vlc jack output also doesn't close properly, that is pressing stop
 or closing the vlc window leaves a continuous tone playing, you need to
 pause playback before stopping or closing to prevent this.
 
 >> This volume change also effects more than vlc
 >What did you mean?
 
 vlc isn't the only program it effects, the sysctl tip was from a musicpd
 user (using 10-BETA) with the same volume changing behaviour on the
 multimedia mailing list.
 
 Also given that the sysctl is a system level sound option the command to
 reset the sound level must be coming from the underlying sound system
 not the user application. There is a possibility that this command has
 existed for a long time but was ignored until recently.