diff --git a/src/flash/FlashMediaElement.as b/src/flash/FlashMediaElement.as
index 75d92cdaa..2fe83aca9 100644
--- a/src/flash/FlashMediaElement.as
+++ b/src/flash/FlashMediaElement.as
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 		private var _enableSmoothing:Boolean;
 		private var _allowedPluginDomain:String;
 		private var _isFullScreen:Boolean = false;
+		private var _startVolume:Number;
 
 		// native video size (from meta data)
 		private var _nativeVideoWidth:Number = 0;
@@ -75,6 +76,7 @@
 			_timerRate = (params['timerrate'] != undefined) ? (parseInt(params['timerrate'], 10)) : 250;
 			_showControls = (params['controls'] != undefined) ? (String(params['controls']) == "true") : false;
 			_enableSmoothing = (params['smoothing'] != undefined) ? (String(params['smoothing']) == "true") : false;
+			_startVolume = (params['startvolume'] != undefined) ? (parseInt(params['startvolume'], 10)) : 1;
 
 			if (isNaN(_timerRate))
 				_timerRate = 250;
@@ -104,7 +106,7 @@
 
 			// create media element
 			if (_isVideo) {
-				_mediaElement = new VideoElement(this, _autoplay, _timerRate);
+				_mediaElement = new VideoElement(this, _autoplay, _timerRate, _startVolume);
 				_video = (_mediaElement as VideoElement).video;
 				_video.width = _stageWidth;
 				_video.height = _stageHeight;
@@ -112,7 +114,7 @@
 				//_video.scaleMode = VideoScaleMode.MAINTAIN_ASPECT_RATIO;
 				addChild(_video);
 			} else {
-				_mediaElement = new AudioElement(this, _autoplay, _timerRate);
+				_mediaElement = new AudioElement(this, _autoplay, _timerRate, _startVolume);
 			}
 
 			// debugging
diff --git a/src/flash/htmlelements/AudioElement.as b/src/flash/htmlelements/AudioElement.as
index 74a613dfe..0588b0428 100644
--- a/src/flash/htmlelements/AudioElement.as
+++ b/src/flash/htmlelements/AudioElement.as
@@ -54,15 +54,16 @@ package htmlelements
 			return _currentTime;
 		}
 
-		public function AudioElement(element:FlashMediaElement, autoplay:Boolean, timerRate:Number) 
+		public function AudioElement(element:FlashMediaElement, autoplay:Boolean, timerRate:Number, startVolume:Number) 
 		{
 			_element = element;
 			_autoplay = autoplay;
+			_volume = startVolume;
 
 			_timer = new Timer(timerRate);
 			_timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, timerEventHandler);
 
-			_soundTransform = new SoundTransform();
+			_soundTransform = new SoundTransform(_volume);
 			_soundLoaderContext = new SoundLoaderContext();
 		}
 
diff --git a/src/flash/htmlelements/VideoElement.as b/src/flash/htmlelements/VideoElement.as
index fb22f9b2d..43b90deed 100644
--- a/src/flash/htmlelements/VideoElement.as
+++ b/src/flash/htmlelements/VideoElement.as
@@ -77,10 +77,11 @@
 		// _stream gets created
 
 
-		public function VideoElement(element:FlashMediaElement, autoplay:Boolean, timerRate:Number) 
+		public function VideoElement(element:FlashMediaElement, autoplay:Boolean, timerRate:Number, startVolume:Number) 
 		{
 			_element = element;
 			_autoplay = autoplay;
+			_volume = startVolume;
 
 			_video = new Video();
 			addChild(_video);
diff --git a/src/js/me-shim.js b/src/js/me-shim.js
index 77b70acf6..b61c27b6a 100644
--- a/src/js/me-shim.js
+++ b/src/js/me-shim.js
@@ -343,6 +343,7 @@ mejs.HtmlMediaElementShim = {
 			'autoplay=' + ((autoplay) ? "true" : "false"),
 			'preload=' + preload,
 			'width=' + width,
+			'startvolume=' + options.startVolume,
 			'timerrate=' + options.timerRate,
 			'height=' + height];
 
diff --git a/src/silverlight/MainPage.xaml.cs b/src/silverlight/MainPage.xaml.cs
index a3d33ca09..ca4b581ee 100644
--- a/src/silverlight/MainPage.xaml.cs
+++ b/src/silverlight/MainPage.xaml.cs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ public partial class MainPage : UserControl
 		int _timerRate = 0;
 		double _bufferedBytes = 0;
 		double _bufferedTime = 0;
+		double _volume = 1;
 		int _videoWidth = 0;
 		int _videoHeight = 0;
 
@@ -74,6 +75,8 @@ public MainPage(IDictionary<string, string> initParams)
 				Int32.TryParse(initParams["height"], out _height);
 			if (initParams.ContainsKey("timerate"))
 				Int32.TryParse(initParams["timerrate"], out _timerRate);
+			if (initParams.ContainsKey("startvolume"))
+				Double.TryParse(initParams["startvolume"], out _volume);
 
 			if (_timerRate == 0)
 				_timerRate = 250;
@@ -101,6 +104,7 @@ public MainPage(IDictionary<string, string> initParams)
 
 
 			media.AutoPlay = _autoplay;
+			media.Volume = _volume;
 			if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(_mediaUrl)) {
 				setSrc(_mediaUrl);
 				if (_autoplay)