Windows app that provides visual cue when sound is played?

April 19, 2006 11:57 AM

I am looking for a Windows app that provides an onscreen visual cue when any sounds are played. It would be nice if the cue happened regardless of the status of the master mute. I'm having a tough time searching for this type of app without getting volume control widgets, etc.

The actual problem I am trying to solve is this. I am currently using Campfire at work. One issue that we have is the notifications for new messages get lost. The change of the titlebar is not noticeable enough, and our soundcards/speakers are tied up doing other things, so we don't have access to audio.

So I thought an app that visually indicated when sound was playing might solve the problem. Other thoughts:

• we really want Pyro for windows
• Some greasemonkey script that does is able to detect new messages and do something
• I've seen stuff like Netjaxer and Bubbles, but they don't seem to expose enough to hook into specific events that I need (either and new message, or the sound)

Any ideas, MeFi'ers?

posted by ding3r to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

XP has a visual notification feature built in. its in the accessibility area on control panel. I don't have an XP machine handy so no walk-through.
posted by clord at 12:09 PM on April 19, 2006

Control Panel, Accessiblity Options, Sound.

"Use SoundSentry if you want Windows to generate visual warnings when your system makes a sound...."
posted by jellicle at 12:10 PM on April 19, 2006

Response by poster: The SoundSentry feature apparently works for only Windows system sounds. It doesn't offer any visual cues for any other apps that make sounds.

Is this an option? Am I wrong?
posted by ding3r at 12:46 PM on April 19, 2006

You could write an AutoIt script to check for the existence of the title, and notify you in any way you choose. Note that you'll have to keep it in a different window (Press Ctrl-N on Firefox). Because it won't update the title if there is more than one tab, and another tab is currently selected. If you use IE6, everything has its own window anyway.
posted by Sharcho at 3:18 PM on April 19, 2006