I want a script so I can type "vol 50" and the volume gets changed to 50%, "vol 0" and it mutes, and so on.

I'm finding a whole bunch of long over-complicated explanations for things when I just want a simple script to save me a bit of time.

I found this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms679141(VS.85).aspx

But if I put either...

SetMasterVolume 0.5

or

SetMasterVolume 0.5 , null

...into a VBS file it gives error

The useless piece of shit doesn't give me any clue what type is mismatched, and nothing I try works, and Google is no help either.


All I want to do is programmatically change master volume - why is it so much effort!? :'(

Possibly something to do with VB's weirdass syntax where if you call a function you have to assign its return value to a variable? That might not be the case, mind - my only experience with VB is doing macro stuff in Excel 2003.

That function seems to be part of a native API, you're not going to be able to call that from vbs afaik.

This command line tool can set volume, I used it myself last week.

Good thought, but didn't help. :(

Tried both:

Dim Bert
Bert = SetMasterVolume( 0.5 , NULL )

and

Call SetMasterVolume( 0.5 , NULL )

But both give same error.


(There's some silly rule about when you can/can't use parentheses for multi-arg function calls, if I didn't use them here I got errors about that, but the other code only works if I don't use them. Don't you just love Microsoft! :@)

Huh? Why the hell not?


No it can't, it can increase or decrease the volume, but not set it.

And for some reason it uses a scale of 65536 for doing so.

Which means I need to do:

nircmd changesysvolume -65535
nircmd changesysvolume 65535 * <vol>/100

Except bloody Windows command line doesn't do maths, so it's not quite that simple...

set /a v = 65535 * %1 / 100
C:\path\to\nircmd.exe changesysvolume -65535
C:\path\to\nircmd.exe changesysvolume %v%

Which works, but is really ugly. :/


I hate Microsoft. :@

It can set volume - use setsysvolume.
And its 0-65535 because sound volumes in windows are 16 bit integers.

Grrr! Stupid badly written documentation page made me miss that.


Just because Windows uses 16-bit integers doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to use them. Should be normallised to 100.00 instead.


Anyway, something else that'd be handy, is being able to display what the actual volume level is. Properly, using numbers, instead of just having three different images, and the difference between the 33..65 and 66..100 one being a single feint pixel! :@

Don't suppose you know of anything that does that?

Nope, sorry.

Are your ears able to perceive the differences in volume that accurately?

Sometimes. Maybe. :P

 

My point was more the other direction though - we probably don't need sixty five thousand levels.

 

It could either use 1 byte instead of 2, and then just have a direct 1:1 mapping of percentage to volume, or - in case there is some obscure software that requires it - make it a 2-byte float so it's no effort for programmers/users to translate, because it's still a percentage, but you've still got that precision if necessary.

The 16-bit thing for volume is probably related to the bit depth of standard CD audio, although apparently that's a signed integer.

Not sure why it would need to be same, but meh.

It'd be nice if the page would say why it's signed. I can't think of any logic in having negative volume? :S

He just wants to turn it all the way up to 11.

Actually... if you do know a way to amplify beyond 100% that'd be handy.

With some things (e.g. Last.fm) I can set everything to 100% and it'll still play quieter than, for example, BBC iPlayer at 3 and 50%.

There are probably some crap audio booster applications somewhere, but it'll no doubt distort the signal more as well. I don't even like the Windows volume sliders on 100%.

I think iPlayer content is just mixed significantly louder than normal stuff anyway. It's much louder than everything else I play on XBMC, including broadcast TV and downloaded content.

Well yeah, but it's not the only thing.

I tend to have YouTube on about 40% (with Win at 50%), and I think I might have Vimeo even lower.

But then Jango I put at 100%, and then vary Win's level from 60% upwards (which is now much easier, yay), because they don't have a normalised catalogue (and some songs just sound better louder/quieter anyway).

Can all get rather frustrating. :/

Well yeah, videos on YouTube vary in volume too, not a lot to do about it.

ITV's player's pretty cool, as it seems to dip the volume lower for the adverts on anything I normally watch. It's a pity they can't do that on the actual TV, as usually the adverts are shouting at me instead.

Heh, that's surprising, but nice to hear.

But... is there actually anything on ITV that's worth watching? :S