Can Audio streaming control default to stopped instead of playing?

This has bugged me for a while. Why does an Audio Stream automatically play when you are over a plot ?

At present, if you leave audio streaming off in the prefs, you have to set it on then leave the plot and come back to activate it and you have no indication that there is a stream on the plot in the first place.

To me it would make more sense to have it default to a stopped mode. Have it show a Play button if a stream is present but then you press play to hear it.

This would save the player some bandwidth when flying, stop the constant playing of snippets of sound while flying around and give them an indication that there is a stream by showing a play button.

The player could then choose to play the stream on the plot they land on, if they wish, by pressing play.

Some players have metered bandwidth connections and I am sure that a lot is wasted loading streams that they will not even listen to, let alone want.

Is this possible to do?

Anyone else have a comment on this?

Would love this feature, right now I usually log in get blasted by the music, turn the volume really low and hit stop...but cross land zone and music on again...

I like music at events, etc, but I can always hit play with I get there, but hate the constant turn on/off of music while travelling around...

So YES please give us this feature!

I have added a proposal for this feature change, Please vote if you would like to see it happen

https://secondlife.com/vote/get_feature.php?get_id=82

Thanks

Better to have a user preference for autoplay just like every other software has

I just spent a good 4 or 6 votes on this particular proposition.

I like listening to audio in SL sometimes.
I DON'T like how much lag it generates for me to fly from a telehub to an event, because the audio player is hunting down and connecting to streams, often filled with crap I could care less about.


This does make going to some events a little tedious:
Turn off audio stream, teleport, turn on property lines, fly toward event. Just before arriving, stop to let things rez, enable audio, enter event property.

With this change, it'd be much easier:
Teleport, Fly to event, Stop, Rez, Play.

As I suggested in this thread, if your client is set to auto-play music streams it would be best if there was a delay before attempting to connect to the stream, just to make sure you are sticking around and not just flying over. 10 to 15 seconds should suffice for this purpose.

Then if you are flying around, you won't be wasting bandwidth connecting to streams just because you fly over someone's 512. This would save your client from unneccesary network load (right when you need all the bandwidth you can get), and it would also help out the stream providers -- I'm sure their usage stats are pretty useless because they are diluted with "flyover" connections that connect for one or two seconds.

JL

I noticed that this thread relates to proposal 82 - which currently has 284 votes. Jimmy's suggestion about building in a delay of say 15 seconds seems really sensible to me - and this is exactly what proposal 17 suggests (which currently has 50 votes). Is there no way to merge these two proposals and pool the votes together, thus moving it up the list a little?

Apologies from a newbie if this pooling proposals idea has already been suggested or is just plain silly, but I have to agree that in my first week of playing SL this music issue has been pretty annoying.

Here's how I'd like to see this implemented:

1. When you hit stop, the game will not override your choice just because you change parcels.
2. When you hit play, any plot you enter will stream.
3. Plots with no audio don't change you to stopped (if you last hit play), they just don't play anything.
4. The playing/stopped state you last chose is remembered between game sessions.
5. There is a delay before the stream changes.
6. During the delay, the previous stream (if you last hit play) continues to play.
7. If, when the delay is over, the current URL is the same as the old one, keep streaming it.
8. If, when the delay is over, the current URL is different, switch to it.

If the player's choice to STOP or PLAY is honored and never overridden, no Preference setting needs to be implemented. Their preference is clearly indicated by which button they last hit, play or stop.

Delaying the stream switch will provide a smoother feel to the game. When you leave a plot accidently and immediately return, there would be no interruption to the audio. Also, flying from one plot with stream X to another plot with stream X over a small plot with no stream or stream Y, if the passage is done quickly, stream X is all that is heard and with no interruption.

1-4 are a MUST. 5-8 would be nice.

Well said Tiger! *applaudes*

I have mixed feelings about this. I deal with newbies often - and find myself explaining how to enable music streaming - or have new folks that didn't even realize there was music in SL because they didn't have it enabled.

It sounds like the biggest complaint for having streaming default to off is in regards to flying around.

As a compromise solution - I would propose this:

Instead of having music default to 'OFF', build in a delay - such as 20 seconds (or whatever is appropriate) - before a stream begins automatically.

That way - people flying around don't have to deal with random streams hitting them as they're travelling to their destination - while at the same time - new folks that come to an event aren't missing the music either out of misunderstanding how things work.


Edit: I need to read better. /Agree=Tiger

Yep, of course, this thread lays forgotten, while the seven votes I placed here are pretty much decaying.

I'm just hoping that something is made of this. I actually refuse to use audio streaming until I hear that it defaults to stop and pays attention to what I set it to -- something I've done for quite a while now.

I don't mind using Foobar2000 while playing around in SL until it gets fixed, though. :b

I pitty the Second Life member.

Tiger Crossing has such good judgement.

I'd like to see the Lindens ack this thread, and close the proposal, saying that it's actually going to be in 1.7 in some form (since it is). I'd certainly like my votes back, so I can also put them on other proposals, or even make a proposal myself.

One like,
"Lindens to acknowledge proposals on a more regular basis; Closing completed props with comments, be it WONTFIX, CANTFIX, FIXED, NOTABUG, whatever."