new idea for open mic

[TeDeV]

the official xbmc android app. it is in the market

[Kalle]

the official xbmc android app. it is in the market

http://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/

[jitterjames]

hmm.  I had hoped that maybe there was a way to configure a custom button and use that to signal VC, but it doesn't seem to be possible with this app.

Really, Skype should have the option of using the built in sensors to auto-mute, but good luck getting them to add that!

[bodiroga]

Hi guys!

I don't want to interrupt your conversation between TeDeV, James and Kalle, but I thought that the inicial topic was at first about the option to send a command to automute (or autolow) the system audio when the prefixmodus is used 

What is the status of this feature request? It seems that James had it clear and knew how to make it possible, so I hope that we can see it in a near future version of VC.

Many thanks for your work and best regards,

Aitor

[jitterjames]

good point.

Yes it is pretty much sorted out in the version 0934 and later.  There are two methods that we can use.  It is not part of any standard configurations but we can upload some samples.

method 1:  you use a single command with the prefix mode from standby.  When you say the prefix an event is immediately generated that can mute your sound.  When you finish saying your command another event is generated that you can use to unmute.  Everything is happening here with you saying a single sentence.

method 2:  you issue a command that puts vox into listen mode temporarily, and it mutes the sound.  Vox will wait for you to say your new command.  After vox recognizes a new command it goes back into standby and an event is generated so you can unmute.

Either one of these methods can be customized so that the mute and unmute can be perfomed the way you want.  You might want to adjust system volume, or XBMC volume, or your receiver volume.

I am attaching a group for each method, which you can import into your command tree.  In both cases I am using system volume softmuting for the sake of illustration, but you can change it to suit your needs.

[TeDeV]

hey james can you explain this a little better?

if i use the first method, then how do i make it work? do i need to have a prefix? i can see that the phrase is "just one thing" is that correct? i am kinda confused.

and something else for this addon. is it possible to have the xbmc make the sound louder in steps to the point it was? for example if i listen music loud enough, then suddenly sound goes off, and then sound goes HIGH again all the way, it will destroy my ears . so an example of what i am saying..


1) Music is playing at 80%
2) i say ... "commando" (store current XBMC Sound level), (sound mute), "go home"
3) vox sends commands to make the sound go back to the previous level like (sound 10%, sound 20%, sound 30%..... sound 80%)

this way, the experience will be smoother, and we will not have to go from no sound to CRAZY sound in a sec.


another thing is that my stupid cheap microphone must not have noise cancellation. If i speak to it with no sound coming out of my speakers, it understands me 80-90% of the time. if music is coming out (just music no words), it doesn't matter what i do, it will not do what i say. even if the microphone is 10 cm from me, and the speakers are 2 meters from me.

[jitterjames]

hey james can you explain this a little better?

if i use the first method, then how do i make it work? do i need to have a prefix? i can see that the phrase is "just one thing" is that correct? i am kinda confused.

and something else for this addon. is it possible to have the xbmc make the sound louder in steps to the point it was? for example if i listen music loud enough, then suddenly sound goes off, and then sound goes HIGH again all the way, it will destroy my ears . so an example of what i am saying..


1) Music is playing at 80%
2) i say ... "commando" (store current XBMC Sound level), (sound mute), "go home"
3) vox sends commands to make the sound go back to the previous level like (sound 10%, sound 20%, sound 30%..... sound 80%)

this way, the experience will be smoother, and we will not have to go from no sound to CRAZY sound in a sec.

another thing is that my stupid cheap microphone must not have noise cancellation. If i speak to it with no sound coming out of my speakers, it understands me 80-90% of the time. if music is coming out (just music no words), it doesn't matter what i do, it will not do what i say. even if the microphone is 10 cm from me, and the speakers are 2 meters from me.

If you use the first method, you need to enable prefix mode. There does need to be a slight pause after the prefix for it to work.
The "just one thing" command is method 2. (my use of the words "single command" is misleading, sorry)

There is currently no way to change XBMC volume gradually.  You should ask the devs at XBMC for such a feature.  To simulate this in VoxCommando you would need to issue a series of volume down and volume up commands, but it would most likely be problematic.

I can't help you with your stupid cheap microphone, but maybe you can try to lower the input level if that is an option.  Bear in mind that Skype is compressing the hell out of your audio stream, so it is a wonder that it works at all.

It seems that you are listening to all your music and video at "CRAZY" volume levels.  I bet your neighbors love you.  If you are listening at such high levels then maybe there is just no solution for your situation.

[TeDeV]

ok about the prefix thing, i will try it asap.

as for the sound , can we read current sound level from xbmc? if that is the case i would do it with a series of volume up commands as you said. Why would it be problematic? Have you anything in mind?

As for the microphone, i was talking about my desktop mic. I am using both desktop mic and the skype from my pda. (not in the same time of course). My phone doesn't understand me either when the music is playing higher than a point. If there is no noise, skype understands me just fine.

As for my music, sometimes it is crazy. i am one of those people who loves spending time with his Home Theatre. When you watch The Pirates for example, you want to be in the movie
(This is why i said in my previous posts that talking to a microphone away from you, will never work, i was talking about my setup, and this is why i am looking for a solution similar to amulet (mute-unmute on conditions)).

[jitterjames]

it can be problematic for a few reasons.  First, there is the time it takes to do the mute if you are doing it in steps.  In this case it will never work with prefix mode, but it should still work with the "just one thing" command.  But you still need to find a reliable way to execute the "just one thing" command.  If you can do it with a remote then it's no problem, but if your music is loud then you will probably still have problems getting it to listen to the "just one thing" command.

the other problem is that when you send commands to xbmc for volume up and volume down, it pops up a display window.

yes it is possible to read the volume from xbmc

XBMC.Send   GetVolume

[Kalle]

ok about the prefix thing, i will try it asap.

as for the sound , can we read current sound level from xbmc? if that is the case i would do it with a series of volume up commands as you said. Why would it be problematic? Have you anything in mind?

As for the microphone, i was talking about my desktop mic. I am using both desktop mic and the skype from my pda. (not in the same time of course). My phone doesn't understand me either when the music is playing higher than a point. If there is no noise, skype understands me just fine.

As for my music, sometimes it is crazy. i am one of those people who loves spending time with his Home Theatre. When you watch The Pirates for example, you want to be in the movie
(This is why i said in my previous posts that talking to a microphone away from you, will never work, i was talking about my setup, and this is why i am looking for a solution similar to amulet (mute-unmute on conditions)).

You can test the attach xml, this work with Mediamonkey perfect, I hope with XBMC to. You must set in "VC-Options" a idle-timeout for 5000ms - When you say your prefix, you have 5 seconds to say your command, otherwise VC go to standby. You can play a little with setting.

[bodiroga]

good point.

Yes it is pretty much sorted out in the version 0934 and later.  There are two methods that we can use.  It is not part of any standard configurations but we can upload some samples.

method 1:  you use a single command with the prefix mode from standby.  When you say the prefix an event is immediately generated that can mute your sound.  When you finish saying your command another event is generated that you can use to unmute.  Everything is happening here with you saying a single sentence.

method 2:  you issue a command that puts vox into listen mode temporarily, and it mutes the sound.  Vox will wait for you to say your new command.  After vox recognizes a new command it goes back into standby and an event is generated so you can unmute.

Either one of these methods can be customized so that the mute and unmute can be perfomed the way you want.  You might want to adjust system volume, or XBMC volume, or your receiver volume.

I am attaching a group for each method, which you can import into your command tree.  In both cases I am using system volume softmuting for the sake of illustration, but you can change it to suit your needs.

Hi James!

Many thanks for your work as always However, I'm having some problems making work and understanding how the examples you have given work. First, let me tell you that I'm using the latest beta 0.934c version that it's posted in the forum.

In your examples I can see that you are two four different events for each case: VC.OnSingle and VC.Single.End for "Single command ducking" and VC.Prefix.Start and VC.Prefix.End for "Prefix Ducking", but this events don't exist in my VC version  The events are not shown in the "History" and the command VC.OnSingle doesn't work at all.

Do I need any non-released version of VC to make it work?
Are you sure that this commands work with 0.934c version?

Perhaps I have done something wrong with my configuration, so if you are sure that it must work tell me and I will start from scratch making a backup of the voicecommands.xml file.

Best regards,

Aitor

[Kalle]

Hi James!

Many thanks for your work as always However, I'm having some problems making work and understanding how the examples you have given work. First, let me tell you that I'm using the latest beta 0.934c version that it's posted in the forum.

In your examples I can see that you are two four different events for each case: VC.OnSingle and VC.Single.End for "Single command ducking" and VC.Prefix.Start and VC.Prefix.End for "Prefix Ducking", but this events don't exist in my VC version   The events are not shown in the "History" and the command VC.OnSingle doesn't work at all.

Do I need any non-released version of VC to make it work?
Are you sure that this commands work with 0.934c version?

Perhaps I have done something wrong with my configuration, so if you are sure that it must work tell me and I will start from scratch making a backup of the voicecommands.xml file.

Best regards,

Aitor

You've right, in the downloaded 0.934c don't work all of the prefix intercom, I think James fixed that

[bodiroga]

You've right, in the downloaded 0.934c don't work all of the prefix intercom, I think James fixed that

Many thanks for your quick replay Kalle, you guys are amazingly fast helping people 

There is no option then to test the new commands and events until a new version of VX comes out , right?

[jitterjames]

I just downloaed 0934c from the forum and both methods work.

[Kalle]

I just downloaed 0934c from the forum and both methods work.

Sorry for Confusion of me, everthing works - I've only tested sloppy   

@bodiroga: look at the picture as evidence