[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] forceable software volume control

[Reimar Döffinger]

Hi,
> > > This is incredibly stupid and broken. It's only a few dB, hardly
> > > sufficient!
> > > If you're going to work on fixing mplayer volume code, make EVERYTHING
> > > work in dB and make the range essentially unlimited. (e.g. -100 dB to
> > > 100 dB or something)
> > 
> > I can't claim to know much about audio and dB, but this thing works on 
> > multiplication...
> > its certainly got unlimited range in reducing volume, can go all the way to 
> > 0%. and being able to multiply to 2 times greater is usually more than 
> > enough... 10 times greater can already be considered unlimited.
> > 
> > Isn't this sufficient? Or am I misunderstanding your point?...
> 
> no, not at all. 2x greater is barely any change at all. it's the same
> as a couple clicks on a soundsystem that goes by a decibel scale. 10x
> is the very minimum cap that would be acceptible. but again it should
> all be done in decibels since linear scales don't make sense to use
> for signals.

This just does not work as easy as that in the digital case. Amplifying
2x means you need one extra bit, for 8x amplification you need 3 extra
bits. So without changing the format (hard to do as often both source
and soundcard want 16 bit), this will only work when whoever created the
file wasted at least 3 bits out of 16 by not adjusting the volume
correctly. I am not convinced that adjusting to such crap is a good
idea.

Greetings,
Reimar Döffinger