New Features Coming Up For PulseAudio 3.0

[Larian]

Show me some other free software for GNU/Linux that lets me seamlessly and independently flip different audio streams between headphones, bluetooth and network audio devices with a nice GUI ...

Would you mind telling me what sort of circumstances have conspired to make you want to be able to do that kind of audio ninja kung-fu? I'm serious here, not trolling. It sounds like a neat feature, but why would someone want to do this? I've never understood who this functionality is marketed to.

[ShadowBane]

Would you mind telling me what sort of circumstances have conspired to make you want to be able to do that kind of audio ninja kung-fu? I'm serious here, not trolling. It sounds like a neat feature, but why would someone want to do this? I've never understood who this functionality is marketed to.

I routinely want to move audio streams (mostly music, sometimes games) between my headphones and 5.1 stereo, and less frequently to a computer in the next room, which is hooked up to a nicer stereo unit. I find it convenient to run the music on the speakers most of the time, and then move stuff to the headphones when running games (voip and all that)

[Ericg]

Would you mind telling me what sort of circumstances have conspired to make you want to be able to do that kind of audio ninja kung-fu? I'm serious here, not trolling. It sounds like a neat feature, but why would someone want to do this? I've never understood who this functionality is marketed to.

I have a laptop set up next to the TV in my room. If I'm on the actual laptop using it like a desktop then all audio is routed through Pulse via the Veromix Applet to the laptop's speakers. If I want to watch a movie though then I pull up Smplayer and direct Pulse to output Smplayer's audio only over HDMI to the TV. I can switch around those streams as much as I want and everything keeps on chugging online seamlessly other than a brief stutter right when I change output wherein Pulse has to redirect the audio stream, after that half second though audio is perfectly fine with zero stutters or anything.

As far as Networked... what if you have your house wired with bluetooth speakers and youre having a party or some other get to together. Pull up your laptop/desktop, tell Pulse that the audio output device is the bluetooth speakers, setup a playlist and all your music will be sent throughout the entire house to the speakers seamlessly.

[e8hffff]

From a user perspective PulseAudio is fantastic. The only thing lacking is the ease of mixing different channels, especially for INPUT.

Example if I want to record audio from a youtube clip playing in Firefox, there's little means to do this graphically. I may be able to do this in a commandline but hey, that's not to be expected from majority of Users.

[crazycheese]

Perhaps your English is not so good! Can you tell the difference between "making an observation" and "volunteering for work"?

You know that software like PulseAudio has security issues, and so it needs to be updated regularly?

If you patch up PulseAudio so you can embed it in your device, now you have a patch that needs to be maintained. If you sell a device that embeds PulseAudio, now you have added complication to your software update process and your users are going to be vulnerable for longer.

If you want your product to achieve market penetration you need to make it EASY for your code to propogate, not HARD.

Besides the PulseAudio developers would find their work to be EASIER if they supported a wide range of platforms because they will be will be talking to other copies of PulseAudio instead of whatever Apple is using and whatever Google is using and whatever samsung is using etc.

Yes indeed it is possible to open the hood and look at the engine and make observations and your name does not need to be John DeLorean or Ferdinand Porsche. It is indeed possible for potential users of product to decide "this mess is not worth my time" and they can only do that by looking with a critical eye.

Stop FUDing and flooding.
Your original claim is invalid as Pulse audio system mode is running PA via global single daemon instance and is disabled by default.
As explicitly stated by PulseAudio Developers, if you want to mess with system mode, you should understand how PA works or your will be ignored.

So go understand PulseAudio before you flood, so your can use "critical eye" and not "slimy tongue" as of now.

From a user perspective PulseAudio is fantastic. The only thing lacking is the ease of mixing different channels, especially for INPUT.

Example if I want to record audio from a youtube clip playing in Firefox, there's little means to do this graphically. I may be able to do this in a commandline but hey, that's not to be expected from majority of Users.

PulseAudio is meant for efficient audio mixing and broadcasting. For mixing of individual streams there is Jack.
To record audio from youtube clip, download the clip using any plugin for your browser (at least 3 working), then drag-n-drop the clip onto Audacity 2.0+ instance.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

How about PulseAudio recognize the on-board chipset features and actually have it configured for your system, instead of always haven't to bang on it to get it to recognize anything that is Intel Sound via RealTek 889 never mind 892. Each time some modification arrives in Debian my 7.1 turns into a 2.1 sound configuration. It's embarrassing that Audio in 2012 is still a joke in Linux.

[e8hffff]

PulseAudio is meant for efficient audio mixing and broadcasting. For mixing of individual streams there is Jack.
To record audio from youtube clip, download the clip using any plugin for your browser (at least 3 working), then drag-n-drop the clip onto Audacity 2.0+ instance.

I think you missed the point. It's within PulseAudio's scope and any Windowing System(KDE, Gnome, etc) to allow PA to mix channels.

Jack is really a hardware based(realtime access) layer that happens to have mixing capabilities.

Also the example I put could also be a live broadcast and you want to record as the audio comes available, so downloading a video is not applicable in this scenario and is a round about way.

[bug77]

Perhaps your English is not so good! Can you tell the difference between "making an observation" and "volunteering for work"?

You said PulseAudio devlopers have a "DUMB mind-set" since they don't support "PulseAudio everywhere" - definitely not just "making an observation". One of the obstacles to supporting everything is that some has to actually do the support part. I was just asking if you were ready to put your money where your mouth is or you were just shouting orders.

[steveriley]

Would you mind telling me what sort of circumstances have conspired to make you want to be able to do that kind of audio ninja kung-fu? I'm serious here, not trolling. It sounds like a neat feature, but why would someone want to do this? I've never understood who this functionality is marketed to.

The Yate softphone is one of the few SIP clients that can work with my employer's goofy Avaya setup. However, it has no built-in functionality for manipulating audio inputs and outputs -- meaning there's no UI for configuring it to work with my USB headset. So without some method of altering the default, Yate sends output to my laptop's speakers and takes input from my laptop's built-in mic.

Enter Veromix and PulseAudio. After installing Yate and during the first phone call, I can use controls in Veromix to change Yate's audio routing. I can send output to and take input from the headset. Fortunately, I only need to do this once after installing, as the configuration is saved. Furthermore, if I want to switch to speakerphone-like behavior, I can route the output and input back to the laptop's hardware.

Agreed, this is suboptimal. Better would be for Yate to incorporate some audio configuration, like just about every other softphone I've tried. But, alas, I can't get any of those to properly perform (or hold) a SIP registration. The problem lies somewhere, I think, in Avaya's SIP implementation. But I'm no SIP expert, so I'm kind of guessing here.