Output
November 10th, 2007
Users should be able to quickly change the audio output device without leaving their current context. This came to mind because I regularly change my output from speakers to headphones so I don’t disturb my roommates and upstairs neighbors. Before bed during the week, I change the output back to speakers so that I can hear my alarm the following morning.
For output switcher quasi-mode activation and cycling, either Control- or Command-Volume Down/Up would be easy to remember. Shift-Volume Down/Up is already bound to changing the volume without the feedback sound and Option-Volume Down/Up/Mute opens System Preferences to the Sound pane’s Output tab.
Consider my icons placeholders.
Headphones
Line Out
Digital Out
I think a “Wave” in the circle would be more representative than the “Mesh” for an analog output, and possibly a laser light for the digital-out, so it’s not confused with regular copper digital cables.
I also assume the bezel would only show possible outputs depending on the hardware configuration. For example on my MacBook, the headphone jack knows if a connection is present, and the type.
Looking under the “Output” tab in the “Sound” preference pane, when nothing is plugged in it shows “Internal Speakers”, when an optical cable is plugged in, it shows “Digital Out”, and with a 3.5mm connector it says “Headphones”.
Which puts me to another point - an optical cable acts as a normalised volume output(a “line out”), yet a coaxial cable merely acts as a headphone only, and has its own volume slider. It would be nice if there was a checkbox to use a coaxial cable at a normalised “line-out” volume too.
But back to the switcher bezel. With nothing plugged into the jack, the switcher would show nothing (similar to how the F7 display switcher does nothing when no external display is connected to the MacBook).
With something plugged in, it would show a speaker icon (for the Internal Speakers), and a secondary icon for whatever kind out output is plugged in at the time (optical digital/analog headphone).
I’m not sure what kind of hardware you use (laptop/desktop), but the downside of this kind of functionality is I can see “Mom” wondering why her headphones are not working, and sound is coming out of the internal speakers, and subsequently thinking her computer is broken.
For most people, its easy enough to plug headphones in and have them work, and unplug them and have the internal speakers go. Adding software options only increases the chances of the end user getting confused.
Too complicated. There should be a “Sound Source” menu item checkbox on the Sounds prefpane, similar to the Displays one. Available for advanced users, hidden from normal users.
Ryan -
My icons are just to get the basic idea across. I’m not much of an icon designer.
I’m not suggesting removing the automatic switch that occurs when headphones are plugged into a laptop. In fact, this behavior would be nice to have on desktop systems. Given the keyboard shortcuts, I don’t think it’s likely the switcher could be accidentally triggered.
SuitCase -
A menu bar item would be another, likely simpler option. One drawback is that menu bar items are still not keyboard accessible (as of 10.5).
It’s not nearly as elegant as what you are proposing, but for Windows machines there is a freeware app called STADS (System Tray Audio Device Switcher).
http://www.mp3vcr.com/stads/
It’s basically what Suitcase was proposing, but for the other half.
Amen for that! I change my output between internal and my Motu 828 about 8 times each day. There is a switcher app by rogue amoeba, but it only works about in 10% of all times. I now go to the sound output prefs each time, which works like 90% of all times (yes, very sad, in the remaining 10% I have to open it several times to get it to work). Handy shortcut tipp: Alt-louder will open the sound output prefs immediately.