[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] Ticket #7517: Separate Volume control from Audio Output

[ryan patterson]

On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 4:42 PM, MythTV <mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org> wrote:
> #7517: Separate Volume control from Audio Output
> -----------------------------------+----------------------------------------
>  Reporter:  mythtv@…               |       Owner:  jyavenard
>     Type:  enhancement            |      Status:  new
>  Priority:  minor                  |   Milestone:  unknown
> Component:  MythTV - Audio Output  |     Version:  unknown
>  Severity:  medium                 |     Mlocked:  0
> -----------------------------------+----------------------------------------
>
>  With the exception of the software volume control implementation all
>  interfaces target system level volume controls. Normally such controls
>  should not be modified by an application, however as the primary intention
>  of MythTV is to take control of the whole PC, these implementations
>  provide the best results.

I just want to comment on the one bit I quoted above.  In my case I do
_not_ want MythTV to take control of the whole PC.  Yes mythfrontend
is the application I interface with the most on that PC.  But  I use
<alt><tab> to switch to different applications while leaving
mythfrontend running in the background.  I do this several times every
day.

Care should be taken to ensure mythfrontend doesn't adversely affect
other applications the user might want to run in parallel
(mythfrontend using operating system global volume controls does
this).  For instance the old mythfrontend audio code that disabled
pulseaudio and grabbed control of ALSA even when there was no audio
playing was a major annoyance.  using <alt><tab> and playing a video
in a different application didn't work (and didn't give an error
message or explanation saying why it didn't work).

-Ryan