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AppleFan22

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 3, 2014
282
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Do you think there should be a "volume mixer", like the one available in Windows? For example, you click on the little sound icon in the Menu Bar, and that allows you to change the volume per open window & tab.

Discuss.
 
It's not something I'd really use, as I don't use it on my Windows machine either. But I wouldn't be opposed to adding it as a feature if other people welcomed it.
 
Per open window and tab might be a little excessive but I'd appreciate the ability to adjust sound per program. I absolutely hate those internet ads that start automatically with sound so I'd keep my browser permanently muted but it would be nice to still hear system sounds, itunes etc. I haven't been on windows full time since XP so I wasn't aware of that feature.
 
AppleFan22 said:
Do you think there should be a "volume mixer", like the one available in Windows? For example, you click on the little sound icon in the Menu Bar, and that allows you to change the volume per open window & tab.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

Oh man, totally, I made the move from Windows to OSX in 2011 and one of the main things I miss is the volume mixer.
Other things I wish OSX copied from windows:

- Turn off MBP's internal display while connected to an external display but keeping the lid open (not clamshell mode)
- Being able to control the sound level of my connected HDMI monitor (bootcamp windows lets me, but OSX shows a greyed out volume icon)
- Built-in window snapping, I had to buy BetterSnapTool on the app store to get it

That's pretty much is off the top of my head.
 
iVikD said:
Oh man, totally, I made the move from Windows to OSX in 2011 and one of the main things I miss is the volume mixer.
Other things I wish OSX copied from windows:

- Turn off MBP's internal display while connected to an external display but keeping the lid open (not clamshell mode)
- Being able to control the sound level of my connected HDMI monitor (bootcamp windows lets me, but OSX shows a greyed out volume icon)
- Built-in window snapping, I had to buy BetterSnapTool on the app store to get it

That's pretty much is off the top of my head.
Click to expand...

You can turn off the internal display, hold down F1 until the screen goes off.

I think the Sound Preferences pane (under output) has what you want for the sound thing too. If not, the monitor you are using should have a volume thing somewhere, it'll probably be buttons at the bottom or side. Have a look/feel around for them

----------
SuperMatt said:
I'd suggest this little Mac Gem, Soundbunny:

http://www.macworld.com/article/204...-an-individual-app-basis-with-soundbunny.html
Click to expand...

Getting people to pay $10.00 for something as basic as that is robbery!! #
 
AppleFan22 said:
You can turn off the internal display, hold down F1 until the screen goes off.

I think the Sound Preferences pane (under output) has what you want for the sound thing too. If not, the monitor you are using should have a volume thing somewhere, it'll probably be buttons at the bottom or side. Have a look/feel around for them

----------



Getting people to pay $10.00 for something as basic as that is robbery!! #
Click to expand...

Turning the backlight off isn't the same as turning the monitor off, as the OS still recognises it and the mouse pointer or apps can still be moved over there. Plus, the GPU still uses up resources drawing what's on the internal screen. On windows, it can actually be turned off and not even appear as a connected display, which is what I would like on OSX.

As for the volume, the OS doesn't allow controlling an external HDMI device (this has something to do with the audio signal being encoded and normalized). As for the monitor, it has no actual volume buttons since its volume output is an AUX cable that leads to my speakers.
 
AppleFan22 said:
Do you think there should be a "volume mixer", like the one available in Windows? For example, you click on the little sound icon in the Menu Bar, and that allows you to change the volume per open window & tab.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

Nope, applications have volume mixers, well Equalizers, i.e. iTunes. The general interface doesn't need one.

I always wondered why Windows wasn't smart enough to recall speaker and head phone volume, that's a useful Mac feature.
 
joedec said:
Nope, applications have volume mixers, well Equalizers, i.e. iTunes. The general interface doesn't need one.

I always wondered why Windows wasn't smart enough to recall speaker and head phone volume, that's a useful Mac feature.
Click to expand...

Not all applications have one. For example there may be amuse playing in one app you installed, but you want to play music from your iTunes library. You have to turn the iTunes volume up all the way, and you still have the music from the other app playing too.
 
p3ntyne said:
No it does not - it simply lowers the brightness (very low).

Even I thought it turned off until I turned all the lights off.
Click to expand...

I understand that current generation notebooks just have an extremely dim setting instead now, rather than entirely off? On older CCFL an early model LED backlit screens, turning the brightness all the way down turns the backlighting entirely off but does not turn off the monitor.

You can set a hot corner in the Screensaver options to turn off the screen, but that also seems to turn off all slave monitors in the process.
 
It doesn't turn off the display on any Mac. What it does is turn off the backlight. You can clearly see it if you put your nose to the screen and/or use a torch. OS X does not have an option to turn off the display (and by that I mean really turn off the display and only 1 display).
 
Last edited:
To the OP I'm all for more options when it comes to an audio mixer, though I find Windows always having issues when I plug stuff in and out and it doesn't want to play on the right device. Maybe I'm just stupid with it but I find it's ease of use nonexistent.

And about the screen brightness.

I used hot corners to fix the problem of the screen not turning off on my iMac while only using F1. I have it set to the bottom left corner, when the screen turns back on it's locked too.

Good way to keep your screens longevity and a fast way to lock your Mac. I use it on my Macbook Pro when I know I'll be right back and I don't want to close it completely and using F1 is too slow.

Years back I also had my teacher swap to this idea too. We had a full classroom of iMacs and everyone would leave the screens on, full brightness. It would get pretty warm in the classroom and the iMacs got pretty hot. The less the screens on the better.
 
p3ntyne said:
I have a MacBook Pro. On an iMac, the screen is still very visible when the brightness is turned down, similar to 2 notches on a MBP.

Dyn is right, the display does not turn off.
Click to expand...

My apologies, I thought all the screens would go off when the brightness is all the way down.
 
DarkCole said:
I used hot corners to fix the problem of the screen not turning off on my iMac while only using F1. I have it set to the bottom left corner, when the screen turns back on it's locked too.
Click to expand...
That's the "put display to sleep" option which is very useful. Unfortunately it is only to sleep all the connected displays and not just 1 specific display.

Years back I also had my teacher swap to this idea too. We had a full classroom of iMacs and everyone would leave the screens on, full brightness. It would get pretty warm in the classroom and the iMacs got pretty hot. The less the screens on the better.
Click to expand...
There is a news program on the telly here called "EenVandaag". They once showed all the measures they took to save some energy. One of them was setting certain power settings on all their Macs. The display would automatically sleep and eventually the entire machine would go into sleep mode. That not only saves power, it will also lower the temperature in the room. At work we are doing the same thing with our Windows machines (we leave the Macs on their defaults, we have no central managed for them). Have you guys tried that?
 
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