Fix streaming audio

Here's my problem: as I fly around SL, I find that the streaming audio on various plots can really eat in to my bandwidth and cause lots of lost data. Turning it off doesn't help, because I have to restart the client when I do want music.

My suggestion: add new options in the client to handle streaming audio:

1. Have the little play/stop button available even when streaming is off in the setup dialog. This way, the checkbox in the dialog becomes a Default of sorts.
2. Allow for a "delayed start" option in the client. Maybe 5 or 10 seconds. This will prevent the client from starting stream after stream as you fly overhead
3. When I push STOP at the bottom of the window, streaming should STAY stopped until I push play again. The client currently forgets the setting as soon as I move to another plot playing a different or no audio.

And speaking from a purely cosmetic point of view, it would be fun if the audio stream was (optionally) centered around an object or objects on the site (the closest "speaker" having priority). Also, allowing the owner of the site to set a volume would be nice (scripted, so visitors could crank the volume if they wanted to). This would make having real background music a lot easier.

And one more thought, now that I'm on a roll: how about letting the SL client play a local playlist on the user's computer when there's not a streaming source going on in the real world. I know this sounds silly, but think about it: the way I do it now is to run Winamp while I'm in-world. when I reach a plot with streaming music, ghe music and Winamp interfere. But if SL could play the playlist itself, then it could pause the playlist while playing the track supplied by the land owner. Move off the land, and the local playlist starts back up. (this would hopefully include support for my own Internet radio stations).

Woo!

And the rest sounds good too

Why do you have to restart when you do want it? Today, with 1.5.3, I was able to turn it on, walk off my plot, and then back on, and it started the playback of the stream attached to my plot?



Hmm. This is a fairly good idea, though I'm wondering if it might be better to have 'environment integration' as an option -- allow SL to communicate with other parts of the host environment, such as Winamp or Foobar2000 or iTunes or whathaveyou.

I think the thing is this: the only way to keep your client from connecting to every audio stream on every lot you cross is to turn off the screaming (err.. .streaming) audio in preferences. But this option doesn't take effect until you re-start the client.

Just clicking the stop button at the bottom is no good. THe next lot you cross turns it back on. We need some sort of a checkbox down there to KEEP the audio stopped until we need it.

I have the same problem: I have my banwidth setting turned up pretty high to make things show up faster. When I do that, the streaming audio causes lag. I'd like to be able to turn it off except for when I want it, but I don't like to re-start the client when I want to listen to someone's live music.