vlc shows 100% audio volume where it's actually more

[Camille Appert]

Steps to repro :

- open a video file
- set volume to 200%
(optional) - close vlc
- reopen file or a new file
=> volume is now still 200% but vlc volume widget show 100%
then, changing the volume to any level in the new window gets the right volume again.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: vlc 2.0.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic 3.2.24
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Aug 24 00:16:44 2012
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-02-10 (194 days ago)

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

The situation is slightly better in VLC version 2.1.0. But fundamentally, VLC cannot display the correct initial volume since libpulse does not provide the volume early enough. Indeed at the moment, libpulse only provides the volume after the audio stream is created.

So VLC does not know the would-be volume of its stream until after playback is started. To fully fix this bug, libpulse needs to be extended to expose the volume of inactive streams (just like WASAPI does on the Microsoft Windows platform).

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

On VLC side, resolution of this bug is blocked by libpulse's incompleteness,

[Camille Appert (bibinou)]

Rémi: I'm curious, what was improved in 2.1.0 ?

Playing devil's advocate, it could also be seen as a UI bug : Why display any volume control at all if you have no information ?
I understand that you would like to keep the UI consistent between Ubuntu and Windows.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

In VLC 2.1.0 the UI actually shows the updated volume when it's changed externally. That was not the case in VLC 2.0.

Sure, the UI could grey out the volume control. Best of luck convincing the VLC UI developers, and teaching users why the VLC volume control fails only on Ubuntu. I am not going there myself.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

Cannot do more than now until PulseAudio gets fixed -> invalid.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]