VLC goes to wrong direction? Volume Cap, Power consumption

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onetimerun2
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VLC goes to wrong direction? Volume Cap, Power consumption

Postby onetimerun2 » 26 Aug 2014 15:38

Hi!
It's still the best player I know so far, but ...
How I came here:
Yesterday I downloaded the latest version because there was a bug in my old version when converting files.
I wanted to extract the audio from a mp4 audio+video file. The filename had an ' in it's name: "Hannah Montana musik video - It's All Right Here_(1080p).mp4" For the destination file I added "Audio - " in front. There was no destination file created and the program switched automatically to "stream" or "streaming" in the bottom status bar. The newest version created the working destination file, but truncated the destination file name before the '.)

A) I have read the forum rules. This is the only appropiate forum. I don't have questions. I have solved it for myself by going back to use version 1.x.x for replaying files.
B) I fear this project is losing focus a bit on fundamental things. At least there are two of those fundamental things.
1. There is now a volume cap. I'm not the only one asking about that. So far I have not found a single answer with a working solution. Seems there is a normalization or volume cap that can't be turned off. Instead of being able to turn off this forced upon cap, to add insult to injury there is the option to let the volume control reach up to an arbitrarily higher number of percentage, let's take for example 200%. But there is no increase in volume when going over 125 or 130%. I'm not the first to recognize this. And like someone else I also recognized that the volume doesn't follow directly a change in the volume bar by the user. That's why the other guy suspected there to be some normalization or filter. I do concur with this assumption. - So we have the first fundamental flaw: Don't you call it Nanny State in English? Or whatever reason you might have.
In fact I found some posts who said they only became constant VLC users because of the volume was adjustable to higher settings than in other software. Lo and behold: That's exactly why I started using VLC for audio files years ago!
2. Now there is a fundamental flaw I do not forgive - in the sense that it will lead me to not using your new versions:
I have used the resulting audio file to compare the CPU power usage as shown in the Windows Task Manager (Win 7 64bit Home Premium, audiodg-options turned of as much as possible - side hint: take a look at audiodg.exe power consumption in standard windows settings, it's devious) of the newest and the older version.
The new version mainly had 5 to 7% (and very seldom 4%) when the vlc window was on screen, and 2 to 3 % when the window was minimized.
The old version had mainly 1 to 3 (and very seldom 4%) when the vlc window was on the screen, and mainly 0% (!!!) when the window was minimized.
Do the math yourself, please!

Two fundamental flaws: Less functions (because perceived as good by the responsible developer) and higher power consumption (I don't want to assume the reason for being in neglect about this.)

Greetings, cheer up and good luck!
otr

Jean-Baptiste Kempf
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Re: VLC goes to wrong direction? Volume Cap, Power consumpti

Postby Jean-Baptiste Kempf » 26 Aug 2014 18:30

1. 125% is adjustable and can be gone up to 200% in preferences.
Moreover, the new 125% is equal to the old 196%, because it uses a cubic scale now, to be closer to the human ear.

2. did you try to disable the high-quality audio resampler? This is probably the issue.
Note that 2.2.0 has a lower CPU footprint.

PS: you contribute nothing, so this is not the right forum.
PPS: this project is open source and done by volunteers. Feel free to help.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf
http://www.jbkempf.com/ - http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/category/Videolan
VLC media player developer, VideoLAN President and Sites administrator
If you want an answer to your question, just be specific and precise. Don't use Private Messages.

onetimerun2
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Re: VLC goes to wrong direction? Volume Cap, Power consumpti

Postby onetimerun2 » 26 Aug 2014 20:41

@ Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Having seen your sort of answers before when searching for the solution for the volume task I haven't expected any other attitude in an answer from you.

Let's see:
- I pointed out 2 bugs. (The bug reporting system didn't work; at least not with my email. So here is even a third bug I point out.)
- I pointed out that many people don't like the direction VLC is steering with the volume restrictions.
- I pointed out that the current version uses 2 to 5 times CPU power compared with my 1.x.x version. (Let's multiply this with the numbers of users worldwide to see the impact.)

Let's see what you have done:
- You talked about a version that is not the current version and was never discussed by me and is a bad choice to suggest it to anyone running a stable system. (Suggesting an unstable version is really like bringing into disrepute the project.)
- You OBVIOUSLY haven't tried the volume control even once for your answer. When you set the graphical control for the volume in a way where 200 % is the maximum, then there IS NO GAIN IN VOLUME in reality when you put the volume over 125 or 130%! (That was the second bug. Or is it a feature?) AND as pointed out by me and someone other there seems to be a normalization or dynamic cap working in the software. It's as I said adding insult to injury to add the choice to let the graphical control go for example to 200% when it does actually nothing. That "patch" was OBVIOUSLY done by someone ON PURPOSE!

- So critic and hints and bug report all in one forum post is not a contribution from your point of view? No, it isn't for you. ... Then you should rename the forum in "admiration forum".
- And I don't give a .... if you remove or delete my post. I would take meassure of assurance that it is known that this forum isn't run appropriatly by posting your inapproriate answer on other forums. Very simple. Don't for one second believe I would go on to talk to you personally here.

Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Site Administrator
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Posts: 37523
Joined: 22 Jul 2005 15:29
VLC version: 4.0.0-git
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Location: Cone, France
Contact:

Re: VLC goes to wrong direction? Volume Cap, Power consumpti

Postby Jean-Baptiste Kempf » 31 Aug 2014 09:33

Insulting and attacking people who work for free will not make anything come forward.

For many people, 200% actually works, and this has been tested over and over.

If VLC CPU usage had spiked 2 to 5 times, seeing the 100 millions downloads, we would know.

Your post is insulting, vague, and you don't do the basic reporting task. Please go away with your hatred.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf
http://www.jbkempf.com/ - http://www.jbkempf.com/blog/category/Videolan
VLC media player developer, VideoLAN President and Sites administrator
If you want an answer to your question, just be specific and precise. Don't use Private Messages.


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