Best posts made by john-phd

@zauberfritz

I am continuing to follow this simply out of curiosity.

To entertain the people that are supposedly "helping" I followed the steps more to prove a point than me thinking any of the solutions would actually work. I learned decades ago that I could meticulously lay out everything I did, and it wouldn't matter one bit. Once, someone in a forum asked for something that windows generates. It was not a log file exactly, but rather a list of installed software with detail that doesn't matter to most people. This contained a lot of details and was 15-20 pages in length, then asked me anyway what software I had etc. It's an exercise in futility. I suppose if I was a first time computer user with zero background, forums may be helpful but I rather doubt it.

But like fishing, maybe I'll catch something I dunno. My "Madagascar 3" thread in the Roku forums is fairly entertaining and equally fruitless.

More to the point, I wasn't looking to recompile the browser or something equally painful and tedious, but rather "is there a volume control somewhere". Chrome has one, and Opera had one at some point several revisions ago. I was looking for a simple answer, not to solve a highly complicated mystery.

@leocg

So... no answers, just a link to instructions how to post. Ok, let me address the bullet points:

The usual: Yes, it's updated to the most recent version (71.0.3770.198 at home, I assume work is the same), yes I updated Adobe (but if I wait 15 minute, there will be more updates), This should matter, adobe is out of date about every 60 minutes.

I'm using a work laptop (Dell) Windows 10 with all updates as of any work day, as required by my company.) with a typical microsoft office package, and some high end scientific software applications.

Home computer also (Windows 7 Ultimate SP1) with most updates. Opera previously worked here. I will update this to see what happens.

I do not use anti virus, firewall, or anti malware at home (protected at the router by Pi with necessary software), and at work I cannot disable it as it is controlled by the domain.

I purused the threads and found a lot of questions, but no answers. I am using Opera, it works well, but if I should open a news video, or for that matter, anything that has audio, there is no sound. Chrome and TOR work fine, but Opera has some features I like, but it seems to be at the expense of being only partially functional.

The usual: Yes, it's updated to the most recent version, yes I updated Adobe (but if I wait 15 minute, there will be more updates), I don't game, I'm using a work laptop (Dell) Windows 10 with any current updates (no choice). No, there are no software conflicts, if there are I'm running Microsoft products, and some higher end scientific software but no media applications or games. This is a problem on my home computer also (Windows 7 Ultimate SP1) which has a completely different hardware and software config than my work laptop. No games though.

This seems browser specicific and there are no answers I can find. I found one answer online that was 4 years old, and not applicable to newer revisions of Opera. This is applicable to YouTube, any videos on Facebook, or VK, or streaming from news websites etc.

@burnout426 yes, and most windows software have commonalities . Take for instance graphics; Photoshop has historically put "Crop" under the image menu, not under the edit menu, GIMP emulates photoshop quite a lot, but others put crop under "edit". Browsers are little different from each other, I'll agree to that. It's good for business, and the users don't have to relearn everything.

However, the problems begin when Chrome has an audio control, and Opera doesn't It took a while before I noticed the mute button in Chrome initially, but nothing in Opera.

I looked at #4, tried it a couple of times but after investing more time that I cared to, and finding nothing, I'll just keep an eye on this thread, and popcorn at the ready.

What do you mean "player in question". If you refer to my post, in my opera browser, any video has no sound, from any source I have tried online. I cannot speak to the software that is used, as it is likely a very wide range of embedded code. But, using the provided URL, I attached a snap of that. The list of players means absolutely nothing to me. If I were to explicitely (I think that is what you meant) enable sound for each individual website, I would rather pour honey on myself and take a nap on an anthill. I have no time for that sort of nonsense. It's not that important. There are so many websites, so many videos that I could simple go visit and not listen to because of no sound. Changing the setting for each one (aye, there's the rub!! I have not found any information how to do this!) is actually quite stupid. The computer works for me, not the other way around.

opera://media-internals - well, this is fun. It shows that my sound is disabled but there seems to be no options to change or edit this feature. I saw a popup that sends me back to "Experiments" which I did look into a week or so ago. It's a huge list of stuff that I don't care about, and I was not able to find anything dealing with sound while I mucked around in there.

I'm very happy my browser has a high score based on someone else's opinion, and I'm ecstatic that I was correct all along that the sound is disabled.

So I have to ask, is this going anywhere? I just want the sound to work. Is there a way to fix this? I may have insinuated this orginally but for a gentle reminder, I'm asking it again.

@leocg I realize I can uninstall adobe flash. I can uninstall it, but I don't see how that will make media work, when media is dependant on flash sometimes depending on the code. As far as that is concerned, I have little interest in digging around to find the many different video sources that may exist, whether or not they use flash. However, I digress, videos do in fact work in my other browsers so there is that.

Now about the steps to reproduce the problem. I may have already addressed this, but here it is:

I open a video online. It can be in facebook, a news site, or a professional site, it doesn't seem to discriminate where it is sourced. I have no sound. This is every single day, any time I mistakenly open a video using Opera instead of another browser. This is quite a pain if I am attending a meeting online and someone shares something. I open it and remember "oh, damn, I need to open another browser, and log in all over again then click on the link to watch this presentation" when I should be able to do so in the browser I am currently using. As I like Opera better than Chrome or MSIE for the most part, I tend to be forgetful of this little detail at the least opportune moment.

But to any past or future "answers" what missing information? What do you need? Browser, check. OS, check. Websites, check, settings, check. This was all addressed already.

@donq Have I "checked site preferences"? why, yes, I have.

I will beat this dead horse until we are all tired of it, and I'll keep going. "site specific" and "site preferences" for literally any site with a video is not just a ridiculous notion, but completely wasteful of time. I have other browsers, but like most troubleshooters I would like to solve this even if I no longer use it as I don't like loose ends.

For the present, I will have to remember not to use Opera anymore. My earlier remark about baiting myself to ants is how I feel about having to set preferences to possibly dozens or hundreds of sites I might use in the future. I have other things I would rather do, such as use Chrome, MSIE, or TOR in the event I feel absolutely compelled to watch a video AND have sound at the same time, on my work laptop. But for the sake of argument, lets say I don't know where these site settings are.... because I don't know where they are which was implied in my original question, and in my additional responses.

The grahics which I already posted show that sound is disabled. While I am a rocket scietist, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce this. I'm happy that you are a developer, it was not my calling as I found writing code monumentally boring. Among my programming friends, many whom are quite dazzling when it comes to various aspects of programming language, code, multimedia, and so on, know a lot about a little bit of computing so although helpful, what I really need is a "boots on the ground" simple answer on how and where to enable sounds. I don't know if I can put it any more simple than that.

As I beat this dead horse some more, I've said this. I've gone into various areas of Opera, perused forums, now exhaustively for something that a free software product should "just do". I don't really give a shit about youtube or watching cats fall off tables, but as I don't really watch tv the occasional news video, or work related stuff that comes up at meetings is simply a part of my daily life and for some odd-ball reason, Opera ceased to work in this regard.

Sir, as a developer as you have difficulty writing a certain script to do a certain task you know the troubling feeling you get when it's right in front of you and you don't see it. It's like that but something that is stupidly simple, and answers strangely absent.

Reinstall the software. yeah, I could try that since nothing else works, however I suspect that when I install the full copy (not a beta, not a stable standalone) once updated or whatever, the outcome will be the same, it's kind of how I got here probably. I may try that, but since I could care less about coding and how it actually works. The thought of playing around with it for hours in an amateur debugging adventure is not very appealing.

I would imagine that like Chrome, there would be a button that mutes sound somewhere. After all, in my earlier post, it clearly shows sound is disabled. I want to "enable" it. It seems ridiculous to buy a new car because you have a flat tire you know? I was looking more along the lines of the simple answer of turning the sound back to "ON" since there does not seem to be a problem with the browser installation, per se.

And I can say that, because it works fine. Except for the no sound part. I will compare to Chrome for the moment, that with some past update, chrome has placed a mute button atop the browser window. This button allows mute/unmute when you have something with sound. I anticipated something like that. Maybe the developers forgot about that since they wanted it to have all the other bells and whistles but forgot the basics.

I'll humor you.

It didn't work. Which is kind of what I was thinking would be the outcome, since sound is disabled in Opera (per the diagnostic that you referred me to on October 1). I am fairly certain that there is not much wrong with the sound card other than it's an OEM built into a DELL, which I would never purchase for myself but that is only a preference. The presence of two (or three) sound cards to me is a bit lame and redundant, and likely useless but I didn't design it.

Also I'll reiterate what I said earlier on. By the time I get to the forums, I've already tried everything I know, and I know a lot. I could itemize my steps, which would take time and would be ignored, based on quite a lot of previous experience. But since you bring up the topic of Opera developers, in what way can I ask Opera developers (or their technical support) a question? They have adopted the microsoft model for users helping other users in forums which keeps everyone busy and off of their payroll hours. While effective as a business model, there is little ground covered so far in most cases.

On that same topic, you mention that the "default audio output" for opera may not be what I am using. This would be interconnected with my earlier question, "if there is a mute button, where do I find it?" So since you brought it up, where would I find the setting for default sound card settings for Opera? I imagine I would also find the volume and "enable" feature in the same place. A helpful hint is that it is not in windows settings, because the system settings for the sound work for everything else. I would not be surprised if Opera defies the default system settings, but if so, where would I look for that? I know this is possible because Chrome will only use a US keyboard, and I have a Swedish keyboard which is why I use opera as much as I do, It doesn't fight me constantly.

So once more, how do I enable sound in my Opera browser? this is the question.

I thought that it was a little hoaky that 2 (or three) sound cards would be present. So a quick look online shows me that these are what we used to call "virtual devices" which is present in device manager, but is not a physical piece of hardware. It is how the software and drivers are written.

Intel Display audio is a driver for HDMI devices. There is no speakers or audio on my monitor so we can rule that out, and disable it. Odd it even appears in device manager, I am reading that it usually does not.

My tertiary (3rd) audio device is Realtek USB audio. According to what i am seeing, this is the docking station for the laptop, and appears to be a virtual device. This has not worked for Opera, nor have the built in laptop speakers (Realtek sound card, which is physically present) since april. That is, there is no sound whether or not I am connected to the docking station.

So, since I am not using HDMI for audio, I will disable it permanently. It's a loose end. I updated the driver for the USB Audio (which should not matter) and there is no update for the physical soundcard. No dice. I should say no sound in Opera after the update and subsequent reboot.

@burnout426 so you are explaining that if a bug report is generated by users in the forums, then the developers will take note? That sounds like it would be super reliable.

As to the other requests for the past month, I have run on this hamster wheel the entire time, the sound devices are in order, in every way. Prior to coming here (which I was loathe to do) I found that up until 2017 or so this was a recurring problem with the browser, and there was a fix for it. However, the fix at that time which was in Opera Labs, is a setting that no longer exists where it did at that time. This information is easily found online, some of it is in these forums, from long ago.

For a multimedia interface, which is all a browser really is sometimes, to not have audio controls somewhere makes very little sense. To point this out one more time, you had me do a diagnostic which shows that sound is disabled within Opera. So either the diagnostic is giving wrong information, or.... somebody else is. Everything else related to the sound card and drivers is tip top. Likewise, for a piece of software to defy system settings (which I have seen, as I already said) seems one possibility. While I do not write code, all of this is available somehere if one knows where to look. I did look, but the audio settings that existed in 2017 don't exist anymore, in the same place. But, I feel confident they still exist, the question is where. And I am fully aware there is no mute button, thank you for that captain obvious. And sending me back to control panel to check my default audio (playback) device? We covered that already. I like to move forward when possible.

I will also remind you that this was on two systems, not one, but two systems, with different software and different hardware, and different operating systems.

But it's cool, this will be marked "solved" with the passing of enough time, and nothing new will come from it. Cheers!

@ctef The forum doesn't have dates (helpful), but the post from 23 days ago (about November 7) this was suggested but through device manager. Doesn't work.

If I take the laptop away from the docking station, it narrows down to one audio device. The other two appear as a result of being attached to the docking station, and disabling any combination and trying to force it to use any single one of them fails.

It is off topic, but my keyboard is also not recognized in Opera on either system. I cannot type the "at" sign, or Swedish/Norwegian letters that are on my keyboard. I t just seems to have a life all of it's own. This is despite my system settings of a certain soundcard, and language settings for a certain keyboard. Opera just happens to work a little bit better than the competition, which now that I re-read this, may not be the case.

@donq Thanks for the insight. But, since this is two completely different computers, and two completely different operating systems, one of which I have no control over (it is a domain install on a work laptop) I cannot wrap my brain around that it is under another user account. I mean, if you read this thread in its entirety, and get past all the circular logic present, having another user account for Opera would probably be within the same realm of possibility as having the sound turn on for me, but not in My profile. After many hours of curiosity gave way to frustration, which led to apathy, I won't be pursuing this any longer. Having pored through the entirety of the windoze operation system within the limits of my knowledge (which is quite a lot) I just don't see it. The software is all installed in my account, in my OS, and so on. My work computer has no additional user accounts, I got it new. It doesn't even have an active Admin account (although it is present if needed by IT). Of Opera has another user, then there is obviously something very wrong in how it's written, and this sort of rogue behavior isn't welcome on my computer.

Pardon me for saying but this thread is going off into the twilight zone, and it's as though I will ultimately end up having to fix the source code or something completely wasteful like that.

I once was a car enthusiast. When one owns a car, replacing a starter, tires, brakes, its all part of it. If you like the car, replacing the motor or transmission is a possibility. However, I have yet to have a car I loved so much that when someone torches it and it burns the the ground, that I'll fix it. It's just how I feel.

But I did come up with a solution, it's working really well so far.

I uninstalled opera completely from both systems and installed Vivaldi and Firefox as alternates. Firefox was abandoned about 2018 by my last university, and in my own experience it completely stopped working properly at that time. However, maybe the Netscape genes will resurface and it will be good. In the meantime, Vivaldi is quite good, I had forgotten about it until I looked up browser options. I could care less about the finer points of the whole internet experience, but I need to have internet access for my work, and things that I do. When I cannot use a Swedish keyboard, have sound, and a host of other small "issues" it's time to set that burning carcass to the side and start anew.

On a side note, when I clicked on the link in my email, it opened up this thread in MSIE and wow, talk about a terrible browser! Buttons didn't work, script didn't work, It's been a while since I've use it, and I never use it intentionally, now I recall why.

Have a great rest of the week.

And.... after some inactivity, this will be marked "solved" I know it.

Yeah, I not only dumped the cache, I uninstalled it (completely, even registry entries) and then wiped the containing folders associated with Opera. I rebooted for good measure, and reinstalled. Problem remains. This is why I'm stumped!!

@eattherich said in web based media has no sound in Opera:

@john-phd I read through this whole crazy thread because I was having the same issue after installing Opera. People were making some absurd suggestion fixes. After not finding a solution I did some more googling, cleared cookies and cache and restarted Opera. That's it. That worked. Even though it's a new browser, maybe something from importing my chrome settings got corrupted. So there you go. Future peeps looking have a potential solution that doesn't require programmer level knowledge.

@bblack4jc This is an easy fix if it works. However, my problem seems to be intrinsic to this browser. The "usual" methods don't work. I may or may not have mentioned your fix already in my thread, but I have done everything including going into the actual code of Opera as much as I am able to to find anything addressing this......

the closest I found was a post from 2011 or 2012, where developer options in Opera had a line (among thousands of lines) to enable sound. This line doesn't exist in new versions I guess. I dislike code for the most part, but I am comfortable tinkering around in it.

@snipernation317 OMG I'm dying!!! Lol