win10-14986 nvda next latest build, audio ducking not working

[beqabeqa473]

hello.

please test if you also are experiencng this problem, i have only one device for this time and cannot test on other.

audioducking is not working for me.

[derekriemer]

Can you give us a log? Also, in your config, file (NVDA.ini) put there's a way to enable audio ducking support. Not sure if its in the wikki.

[beqabeqa473]

there is no error.

so, always duck and duck when outputting speech and sounds behaviour is the same.

[derekriemer]

@josephsl

…

On 12/27/2016 8:23 PM, beqa gozalishvili wrote: there is no error. on option always duck, audio is ducked for several milliseconds and then restored again. — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6684 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFGivZXak4twhCXMe_W6Vve69XMNYrzkks5rMdYqgaJpZM4LWpJy>.

-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Derek Riemer * Department of computer science, third year undergraduate student. * Proud user of the NVDA screen reader. * Open source enthusiast. * Member of Bridge Cu * Avid skiier. Websites: Honors portfolio <http://derekriemer.com> Awesome little hand built weather app! <http://django.derekriemer.com/weather/> email me at derek.riemer@colorado.edu <mailto:derek.riemer@colorado.edu> Phone: (303) 906-2194

[josephsl]

Hi,

Partly confirmed: "always duck" option is broken.

STR:

1. In Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14986, open a media player or point your browser to a page that has multimedia content (such as YouTube).
2. While a file is playing, press NVDA+Shift+D to switch between audio ducking options.
3. For each option, use a command you know will cause a long text to be spoken (e.g. NVDA+T for title).

Expected: audio ducking settings are respected.
Actual: if audio ducking is set to "always duck", media volume is restored once NVDA finishes speaking.

@michaelDCurran, anything we can do besides sending a feedback?

Thanks.

[jcsteh]

This was due to a change made by Microsoft. Prior to 14986, ducking in Windows was static; i.e. you turned it on and it stayed on until you turned it off. NVDA does the dynamic (speech and sounds) ducking itself by turning static ducking on and off as needed. In 14986, Microsoft changed Windows ducking to be dynamic; i.e. it does speech and sounds ducking itself. This means that "always duck" is no longer possible. We also feel that Microsoft's implementation of speech and sounds ducking does not fit for NVDA. Thus, we're trying to convince Microsoft to give us separate options for static and dynamic ducking in a future build.

[jcsteh]

Setting this to p2 for now, since we need to push Microsoft to fix this ASAP, but this should possibly even be p1, since it has significant user impact.

[jcsteh]

Pushing to p1 as per discussion with Mick.

[michaelDCurran]

Sadly we were not able to convince Microsoft to reverse their mistake of reusing the same flag for dynamic ducking, thus we will temporarily work around it.
We hope that Microsoft strongly considers rectifying this situation after the Creators Update, either by adding a new flag (thus allowing an AT to manage ducking manually) or by enhancing their own dynamic ducking code to bring it inline with what NVDA already had.

[jcsteh]

Just a reminder that Microsoft enhancing dynamic ducking is not enough. Users have explicitly requested optional static ducking as well.

[fergregoire94]

I think perhaps this could be worked around by making NVDA to expose to the system as a communication program making a VoIP call when “Always duck” is enabled.
In Sound Windows Control Panel applet there's a Communications tab to configure what to do when using some Internet telephony programs like Skype. There you can choose between reducing volume of other sounds 50%, 80%, mute other sounds completely or do nothing. I don't know if this could conflict with communication programs when actually making or receiving a call; but when the user is not in a call, this would allow to bring back the “Always ducking” mode in newer Windows 10 builds and with the additional flexibility of choosing between lower volume or everything muted, as well as making this functionality available on Windows 7.

[josephsl]

Hi,

Reopening this as we have an update: in build 15048, when audio ducking is set to "duck when outputting speech", audio will duck regardless of speech is in progress. This was tested on two computers - one with Winamp running, the otherwith movies and TV running, and both exhibit the same.

Thanks.

[josephsl]

Hi,

Further discussion will take place in #6933. Thanks.