Author Topic: A LOUDER Internet (Read 12070 times)

Renegade · « **on:** March 10, 2011, 10:14 PM »

While I love music, and write audio software, I really think that default on/play for audio on the web is a colossally gargantuan mistake. I hate it.

Lately, I've been finding a few sites are blasting away. I never found that a few years ago.

Has anyone else been finding any sites that start audio without a user action?

e.g. http://www.dominos.com.au/

Paul Keith · « **Reply #1 on:** March 10, 2011, 10:34 PM »

To quote:

I am a firm believer that no sound should come out of my browser unless I authorize it first. I am only annoyed when someone's profile page starts playing music without me first hitting play but when an advertisement or some other stupid website starts playing sound without my approval first I am outraged. I fail to understand why a mute button isn't already a feature of any of the major browsers. I installed flash-mute recently but it doesn't support chrome. It would be awesome to see this added to chrome in such a way to block unwanted sound while still allowing you to choose to hear it the same a notification for the pop up blocker comes up. But just a mute button on the corner would be a major improvement as well.

Source http://www.google.co...ed8425695e&hl=en

Edit:

Of course this is just another un-marketed feature of Opera that someone would probably copy and popularize eventually:

http://www.opera.com...support/kb/view/846/

Renegade · « **Reply #2 on:** March 10, 2011, 11:54 PM »

It's funny how innovation in Opera filters into the other browsers.

Deozaan · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2011, 12:35 AM »

Almost every single My Space page used to do this. I wouldn't know if they still do since I've been fortunate enough to not touch that site for a few years now.

Curt · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2011, 03:01 AM »

3½ years ago I was searching for a video decompiler, picture extractor, and found one at http://www.softwareclub.ws/ The site is still as it was then, nothing has changed. Terrible muzak, unless maybe if you are a (censored for the sake of world peace).

scroll down and click the microscopic "sound on/off" - it will always be on when you enter:

katykaty · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2011, 01:57 PM »

3½ years ago I was searching for a video decompiler, picture extractor, and found one at http://www.softwareclub.ws/ The site is still as it was then, nothing has changed. Terrible muzak, unless maybe if you are a (censored for the sake of world peace).

scroll down and click the microscopic "sound on/off" - it will always be on when you enter:

(see attachment in previous post)

-Curt (March 11, 2011, 03:01 AM)

And it'll turn itself back on as you navigate through the site. Dismal.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:13 PM »

The no. of people who don't want to click 'play' on a page with embedded media will always be a LOT greater than those who do. So this is never going to change.

The point of the web is to provide a rich user experience. If a website has music, I of course want the music to start playing when I visit it. The fact that this feature is abused doesn't mean autoplay is bad.

Renegade · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:20 PM »

The no. of people who don't want to click 'play' on a page with embedded media will always be a LOT greater than those who do. So this is never going to change.

The point of the web is to provide a rich user experience. If a website has music, I of course want the music to start playing when I visit it. The fact that this feature is abused doesn't mean autoplay is bad.
-MrCrispy (March 15, 2011, 06:13 PM)

You're quite correct.

For *some* cases it is appropriate. But certainly not for a pop under ad page.

When you've got as many programs, windows, and tabs open as I do, it's impossible to find. And VERY annoying at 2am.

Sound in general is a problem like that though as there's no such thing as setting the actual real volume output. Different sources play at different volumes. This makes things even worse.

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:22 PM »

Autoplay is always bad.

I can't think of a single time it's been what I want, whether I was surfing casually or I intentionally hit a band, game or movie site. For playing a Java or Flash game, yes, but not for pretty much anything else.

And people who do audio in advertisements should have their guts removed with rusty spoons.

Renegade · « **Reply #9 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:30 PM »

And people who do audio in advertisements should have their guts removed with rusty spoons.
-f0dder (March 15, 2011, 06:22 PM)

Hahahaha~!

I see someone has a strong opinion on the subject~!

f0dder · « **Reply #10 on:** March 15, 2011, 06:31 PM »

I see someone has a strong opinion on the subject~!
-Renegade (March 15, 2011, 06:30 PM)

Strong opinion? I moderated myself quite a bit while typing that

Renegade · « **Reply #11 on:** March 15, 2011, 07:26 PM »

I see someone has a strong opinion on the subject~!
-Renegade (March 15, 2011, 06:30 PM)
Strong opinion? I moderated myself quite a bit while typing that
-f0dder (March 15, 2011, 06:31 PM)

Don't you hate toning it down sometimes?

If I'm visiting a band site, I kind of expect it to go with the territory. That I don't mind so much. It's a music site after all.

f0dder · « **Reply #12 on:** March 16, 2011, 08:04 AM »

If I'm visiting a band site, I kind of expect it to go with the territory. That I don't mind so much. It's a music site after all.
-Renegade (March 15, 2011, 07:26 PM)

It's still drop-dead annoying if I'm just looking for some information about release or tour dates - music should be opt-in.

The reason I'm hating so much on auto-music is probably that I have my stereo amplifier hooked up to my PC, and that I'm blasting music away quite a lot of the time... very unpleasant when something unwanted mixes in with whatever I'm listening to.

Renegade · « **Reply #13 on:** March 16, 2011, 08:14 AM »

If I'm visiting a band site, I kind of expect it to go with the territory. That I don't mind so much. It's a music site after all.
-Renegade (March 15, 2011, 07:26 PM)
It's still drop-dead annoying if I'm just looking for some information about release or tour dates - music should be opt-in.

The reason I'm hating so much on auto-music is probably that I have my stereo amplifier hooked up to my PC, and that I'm blasting music away quite a lot of the time... very unpleasant when something unwanted mixes in with whatever I'm listening to.
-f0dder (March 16, 2011, 08:04 AM)

That doesn't tick me too much.

What really pisses me off is that the entire state of audio is still so horribly primitive. Phones still have crap quality. It's only been 100 years or so... But the real thing that irks me is volume.

All volumes are relative, and there is no base-line for anything. Put in one song and the volume is great. Put in another, your ears are blasted out. 3rd song and you can't hear anything. Same for audio in videos.

Volume *SHOULD* be in actual dB or SPL with a standard like STP (standard temperature and pressure). e.g. X dB @ STP and a distance of 2 meters.

Sigh... Some things are just hopeless...

(But it gives me a great idea for a product that I don't have the money to fund... Sigh... more frustration...)

f0dder · « **Reply #14 on:** March 16, 2011, 08:26 AM »

It would help if all audio was "normalized", but it wouldn't be an end-all solution. What if you're listening to something with a wide dynamic range, and are currently enjoying one of the quieter passages - and you go to this website that starts spitting out highly range-compressed jungle? Or just plain old loud&noisy thrash metal?

Audio on websites should be opt-in, plain and simple. Also helps you not waste bandwidth

Paul Keith · « **Reply #15 on:** March 16, 2011, 09:12 AM »

To be fair though, since I have a slow internet connection, I'd rather audio to be pre-loaded.

Opt-in still but preloaded even if it wastes bandwidth just because most music sites require tons of "buffering" and it's not like many of them can be downloaded instead.

Oh and technically muting sites except via site preferences does come close to being an end-all solution except Opera under-advertises their options. It's kind of like Adblock/NoScript being close to the end-all solution for ad blocking software not necessarily because there may not be better options out there but it's good enough for making every site opt-in.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #16 on:** March 16, 2011, 11:46 AM »

And people who do audio in advertisements should have their guts removed with rusty spoons.
-f0dder (March 15, 2011, 06:22 PM)

Yeah, I'm a day late...But I'd still like to 2nd the sentiment. I tend to like things quiet, I really do not need some jarring cacophony derailing my train of thought because of some clowns interpretation of an immersive experience.

It is idiot simple to put a play button in a easy to access location ... which would of course be the exact opposit of where these idiots invariably hide the friggin stop button.

Hell, here's and idea that'll satisfy everybody ... pop open a question box on page load:

Would U like Background Noise?
| yes | no |

U click yes it streams, U click no - Done.

JavaJones · « **Reply #17 on:** March 16, 2011, 01:27 PM »

I doubt this would satisfy everyone in the thread, but my personal preference would be an AJAX-type pop-up when I visit a page with audio asking me if I want to listen. It could auto-dismiss in e.g. 5 seconds with an automatic "no" answer. That way pages that depend on audio for a big part of their experience, e.g. band pages, could get the benefit of it, but without the annoying auto-play blast. I imagine many would be hesitant to have such a question thrown up for every visitor though. Maybe if it could be remembered for successive visits to the site...

- Oshyan

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #18 on:** March 16, 2011, 01:52 PM »

I doubt this would satisfy everyone in the thread, but my personal preference would be an AJAX-type pop-up when I visit a page with audio asking me if I want to listen. It could auto-dismiss in e.g. 5 seconds with an automatic "no" answer. That way pages that depend on audio for a big part of their experience, e.g. band pages, could get the benefit of it, but without the annoying auto-play blast. I imagine many would be hesitant to have such a question thrown up for every visitor though. Maybe if it could be remembered for successive visits to the site...
-JavaJones (March 16, 2011, 01:27 PM)

Works for me. Especially the automatic no, because I frequently open batches of sites in new tabs when doing a search ... And really hate having to scramble to find out which one (of the dozen that are loading) is screaming at me for no particularly sane reason.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #19 on:** March 16, 2011, 10:12 PM »

I think the problem with any pop-ups is the risk of having multiple pop-ups and the sense of rush to click on something + the extra click.

5 seconds would be just too fast to make any smart decision and over time it becomes a source of frustration once you start seeing those sites and it's just easier to close any site permanently. I however think this is a better idea for ads - just reversed to opt-in yes. I certainly prefer it over the confirmation pop-up those spam sites do when trying to close a tab.

Renegade · « **Reply #20 on:** March 24, 2011, 12:47 AM »

This is unbelievable... I was watching a video tutorial from Adobe and finished. I didn't close the tab. About an hour or so later it starts playing out of the blue.