Hacking a way through Google+ and Skype audio cancellation
October 21, 2011 7:16 AM
Hacking around sound cancellation on Google+ and Skype: Two tier question here about a related problem. Firstly, a way to sidetrack the software audio limits of a Google+ Hangout. Secondly, a way to stop Skype from cancelling out audio from one half of a conversation.
More detail:
Google+ Hangouts are great, but they have a weird limitation. So if I want to watch a Youtube video with friends, each of us gets a button that we have to press (via mouse cursor) in order to speak to others in the hangout. When this button is pressed, the sound from the youtube video is decreased.
Is there a way to hack past this? I'm not sure how it works, but could the button be pressed down permanently for a user using javascript or something? This might turn the video sound off. Is there any way around this, so sound from video and user would both come through?
Secondly, a similar thing happens in skype, but this time it's done on the fly by the snazzy software. If I talk, then it cancels out the sound coming through from the other person. This is great for conversation, but if again we are watching a video on one side then the sound is instantly cancelled out when the other side talks.
These are built in ways to limit bandwidth, I figure that, but there must be a way around them.
If skype is hooked up to a computer that in turn has its sound coming out of an amplifier, then these problems don't occur as much. Would it be possible to trick a computer into not cancelling this volume out somehow?
I realise these are big questions, and cover a lot of ground, but they are very much related to the same problem I have: how to karaoke in the best possible way over the internet?
More detail:
Google+ Hangouts are great, but they have a weird limitation. So if I want to watch a Youtube video with friends, each of us gets a button that we have to press (via mouse cursor) in order to speak to others in the hangout. When this button is pressed, the sound from the youtube video is decreased.
Is there a way to hack past this? I'm not sure how it works, but could the button be pressed down permanently for a user using javascript or something? This might turn the video sound off. Is there any way around this, so sound from video and user would both come through?
Secondly, a similar thing happens in skype, but this time it's done on the fly by the snazzy software. If I talk, then it cancels out the sound coming through from the other person. This is great for conversation, but if again we are watching a video on one side then the sound is instantly cancelled out when the other side talks.
These are built in ways to limit bandwidth, I figure that, but there must be a way around them.
If skype is hooked up to a computer that in turn has its sound coming out of an amplifier, then these problems don't occur as much. Would it be possible to trick a computer into not cancelling this volume out somehow?
I realise these are big questions, and cover a lot of ground, but they are very much related to the same problem I have: how to karaoke in the best possible way over the internet?
Ventrilo might work for this. At the very least, it definitely doesn't lower the audio volume when people talk.
posted by neckro23 at 8:29 AM on October 21, 2011
posted by neckro23 at 8:29 AM on October 21, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
For Skype, I use headphones and it seems to solve the problem. Not that it helps in a hangout.
posted by advicepig at 7:28 AM on October 21, 2011