PowerBook sound input troubles
DaveC
OS X 10.4.11
- - -
Audio for the most part seems to work. Through the PowerBook's speakers I can
hear beeps and such and I can hear music played in iTunes.
When I open System Preferences > Sound > Input and select Internal Microphone
(Built-In), I see the Input Level indicator respond to my snapped fingers.
When I have an external device plugged into the Microphone / Line-In jack,
and I select Microphone / Line-In in System Preferences > Input I can see
the Level Indicator respond appropriately to the input.
I cannot get any sound connected to the Microphone / Line-In jack to play
through the PowerBook's built-in speakers.
In System Preferences > Sound > Output, "Internal Speakers (Built-In Audio)"
is the only option and is selected.
I need one point clarified: under System Preferences > Sound > Input, there
are these 4 options:
- External microphone / Line In
- Internal microphone
- Sound input
- Zoomed video
Are these all standard input options? Are any of these possibly add-ons? I
ask because it seems suspicious to see both "External microphone / Line In"
and "Sound input" (which both refer to the line-in and both show the line-in
signal strength when selected).
The Preference Panes I have installed are Perian, Flip4Mac, and MenuMeters,
all current versions.
Any idea why I can't get the Line In input to play through the PB's built-in
speakers?
All input and output volume levels have been tried. No joy.
Resetting PRAM was no help.
Thanks, and
Happy Holidays,
Dave
Malcolm
You need an application running to use any audio input. The simplest
is the free LineIn. Scroll down on:
<http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/>
DaveC
Ah, another "add-on-to-make-the-OS-function-like-it-should" utility.
Thanks. It's Christmas!
Happy Holidays to all,
Dave
Erik Richard Sørensen
Everything you've described seem to be as they should be on the
Lombard/Pismo - at least the first three, but the 'Zoomed video' input
wonders me. Have you or have you been using a webcam with the current
system (presuming it's a OS X 10.4.x)? 'Zoomed video' will appaear the
first time you connect either a webcam or a videocam to the computer. -
'Zoomed video' is a 'hidden' prefs setting in OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x...
I also presume that you haven't put a checkmark into the 'Mute' checkbox
down to the right of the input/output sliders, cause if you had done so,
you wouldn't be able to hear the warning sounds or music...
It is also normal that the built-in speakers are disabled when you
connect an external device - LINE/MIC/CAM. It is to avoid the
electrically feedback tune that will come if you put the MIC too close
to the speakers.
To be able to be listening to the internal speakers, you must enable the
'Play Through' in the audio application that you use for recording - fx.
Amadeus II, Amadeus Pro or Audacity.
If you make voice recordings to a textprocessor like MSWord or
NeoOffice, you will not be able to enable any 'Play Through' to the
internal speakers - only real audio apps have this feature.
You could try to download the demos of the Amadeus apps from
www.hairersoft.com or the Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
and set the prefs not to start immediately after you select 'REC'. In
the recording dialog you will see an unchecked checkbox 'Play throug
speakers'. If you put a checkmark into this box, the sound will be
played through the internal speakers during both MIC or LINE recording.
Cheers, Erik Richard
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC, <mac-m...@Mstofanet.dk>
NisusWriter - The Future In Multilingual Text Processing - www.nisus.com
OpenOffice.org - The Modern Productivity Solution - www.openoffice.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DaveC
> Lombard/Pismo - at least the first three, but the 'Zoomed video' input
> wonders me.
Zoomed Video is a built-in feature of the PCMCIA standard:
<http://www.answers.com/topic/zv-port>
See previous post in this thread for the solution recommended to me. It fixed
my "problem".
Dave
Erik Richard Sørensen
DaveC wrote:
>> Everything you've described seem to be as they should be on the
>> Lombard/Pismo - at least the first three, but the 'Zoomed video' input
>> wonders me. [Erik Richard]
>
> Zoomed Video is a built-in feature of the PCMCIA standard:
> <http://www.answers.com/topic/zv-port>
Hm, can't remember I ever have seen this on my earlier Pism 500mhz. - It
isn't on my PB G4 either - also with PCMCIA technology. - Just checked
to be sure...:-)
> See previous post in this thread for the solution recommended to me. It fixed
> my "problem".
OK, it looks as the LineIn does the same as I recommended with just
opening a recording app and set it to the REC mode without recording...
DaveC
> isn't on my PB G4 either - also with PCMCIA technology. - Just checked
> to be sure...:-)
It's up to the implementer of the PCMCIA host. I know Pismo had it and
Wallstreet and the 3400(?). It was not carried onto the G4's.
>> See previous post in this thread for the solution recommended to me. It
>> fixed
>> my "problem".
> OK, it looks as the LineIn does the same as I recommended with just
> opening a recording app and set it to the REC mode without recording...
Yes. LineIn does the minimum patching required for "pass through" audio.
Happy Holidays,
Dave
Erik Richard Sørensen
DaveC wrote:
>> Hm, can't remember I ever have seen this on my earlier Pism 500mhz. - It
>> isn't on my PB G4 either - also with PCMCIA technology. - Just checked
>> to be sure...:-)
>
> It's up to the implementer of the PCMCIA host. I know Pismo had it and
> Wallstreet and the 3400(?). It was not carried onto the G4's.
Indeed the PB G4 has. I've just been that lucky to put my hands on an
Mac OS dedicated Adaptec SCSI host adaptor and original cable for my 17"
PowerBook G4/1,67ghz, and it works just nicely and smooth.:-)
Nearly all of the PowerBooks from 500 series and up all have the PCMCIA
slots. Even the old PB 190 had it. Many of them could take both Type II
and III (or Type I/II?) cards, where the PB G4s only take one of them -
the thick type...
>>> See previous post in this thread for the solution recommended to me. It
>>> fixed my "problem".
>>
>> OK, it looks as the LineIn does the same as I recommended with just
>> opening a recording app and set it to the REC mode without recording...
>
> Yes. LineIn does the minimum patching required for "pass through" audio.
One could say that it is needless, if you have an audio app, but I can
also see that the LineIn is rather easy to use.
> Happy Holidays,
The same from here.-)
DaveC
> Mac OS dedicated Adaptec SCSI host adaptor and original cable for my 17"
> PowerBook G4/1,67ghz, and it works just nicely and smooth.:-)
>
> Nearly all of the PowerBooks from 500 series and up all have the PCMCIA
> slots. Even the old PB 190 had it. Many of them could take both Type II
> and III (or Type I/II?) cards, where the PB G4s only take one of them -
> the thick type...
I'm not talking of PCMCIA there, I was talking about Zoomed Video. I think
only a couple of the G3 PowerBooks had ZV. I don't think the G4 PBs had it...
Dave
Erik Richard Sørensen
OK, I think you're right here. I've never seen it on any PB G4.