Starting off muted bug?

[Tyler N]

I'm integrating tokbox video chat into an existing site. We've
noticed that very often, when a new user joins a persistent video
conference call, they begin the call with their outgoing sound muted.
The new user can hear other people, but other people can't hear the
new user. The new user can usually fix this by muting and then
unmuting their sound.

Most of us in these tests are using mac os x 10.5.7 / firefox 3.0.10.

This situation is easily reproducible for us -- any chance there might
be an existing workaround or upcoming fix for this? If so, I would
really appreciate it!

thanks!
- Tyler Neylon

[Melih Onvural]

Just wanted to give a quick update on this. We were able to identify
this situation and are looking to resolve it as soon as possible.
I will send an update e-mail to this listserv when it is resolved, but
it will hopefully be in the immediate future.

Best,
--
Melih Önvural

Videochat with me at: http://www.tokbox.com/melih

[Tyler Neylon]

Great!  thank you

[Brendan]

I'm not sure what the intended result is supposed to be (muted vs
unmuted on joining the call) but I find that having it muted by
default solves a LOT of audio feedback issues for people using
speakers... It would be wonderful to have as a flashvar so we had the
choice.

[Tyler Neylon]

If there is a decision to start off muted (hopefully that would be a non-default setting), it would make sense to both clearly indicate that the user is currently muted, and to make it very easy for them to turn that off.

I'm not convinced that starting off muted is a great solution to audio feedback.  In the tests I've done with tokbox conferences, continuous feedback has not been a serious problem, although there have been some (non-continuous) echoing issues.  The echoing issues are not clearly addressed by muting, since the user will ultimately have to either turn their speakers down or use headphones, whether or not they started out muted.

I don't mean to argue against the option altogether, just in favor of the default behavior being to start non-muted.

A compromise idea would be start out muted for the first, say, 5 seconds, and gradually unmute from there, along with some visual indication that this is happening (e.g. "Unmuting in 5...4...3..").  If the speakers are too loud, this gives the user a little time to turn down their volume, or put on headphones.

[Melih Onvural]

I think the suggestion was to have the option to start off muted by
using a flashvar. Please do continue to send feedback. We are gathering
feedback around the conference widget, and planning some work in this
direction in the near future.

Thanks,

--
Melih Önvural

Videochat with me at: http://www.tokbox.com/melih