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I Dream of Silence From My Web Browser?

Posted by Cliff on Fri Jan 13, 2006 08:46 PM
from the flash-wav-files-should-have-a-mute-function dept.
Mozilla The Internet
BRAINBUZ asks: "I'm finding more and more web-pages are blasting sound at me. Everyone who chooses to blast sound at me seems to manage to make their sound files much louder than what I was trying to listen to. I am finding this to be even more annoying than popups -- at least with pop-ups I could click the X and be done with it, pages with sound don't give an option to turn it off without closing the browser, or muting all sound. When I can, I avoid sites with sound, but just today I was checking my balance on one of my credit cards only to have some awful noise nearly blow out my speakers from one of their ads, for themselves. Opera has a feature to turn off sound in web pages, which doesn't work on most noisy pages. Haven't been able to find a similar option in Firefox or IE. The next killer feature, what I really want from my browser, is the ability to shut every web site up. I get security warnings from my browsers all of the time, why can't I get a warning about every media file (whether it be audio, video, flash, ActiveX or Java based) on the page that wants to play and the option to play or not play them?"
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  • FlashMute (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2006, @08:50PM (#14469019)
    FlashMute [indev.no] - cross-browser Flash muting.
  • ...in this situation. Here I am reading the news/video game article/PC article when all of a sudden a car insurance ad BLASTS at me with a screeching car sound. You can substitute screeching car sound with any conceivable annoying sound in existance. My solution? Adblock the hell out of them.

  • disconnect your speakers (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mkcmkc (197982) on Friday January 13 2006, @08:54PM (#14469039)
    I run with my speakers (including that stupid internal one) disconnected all the time, unless there's something I want to hear. That solves about 99% of the problem. Don't install Flash plugins--that's an additional help.

    • Re:disconnect your speakers (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bob whoops (808543) <bobwhoops.gmail@com> on Friday January 13 2006, @09:33PM (#14469196) Homepage
      There is something I want to hear most of the time. My music.
    • Everyone who chooses to blast sound at me seems to manage to make their sound files much louder than what I was trying to listen to

      In other words, he listens to music at a reasonable volume, and then disruptive flash ads pop up with blaringly-loud noises/voices/etc. So unplugging the speakers is not a reasonable answer.

      Personally, unplugging speakers would never be an answer. All OS's tend to have a "mute" option on audio out... so why would you reach around for speaker wires. Moreover, a better soluti

      • All OS's tend to have a "mute" option on audio out... so why would you reach around for speaker wires.

        Because I've been using (and programming) computers long enough to know that software sucks. If you absolutely need something to work, no matter what, don't do it with software. If you absolutely don't want to hear sound from your speakers--unplug them.

        As for the part about wanting to listen to music, I'd suggest that killing off plugins will still solve most of the problem. And for mp3's, a standalon

  • Most of these are flash... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Matt Perry (793115) on Friday January 13 2006, @08:58PM (#14469052)
    Most of these sounds come from Flash objects. You can block Flash with FlashBlock [mozilla.org]. It puts a play button where the Flash object is. As an alternative, I would recommend using NoScript [mozilla.org]. It allows you to block JavaScript, Flash, Java, and other plugins and then whitelist sites that you go to all of the time. You can enable Flash, Java, and plugins by clicking to play like with FlashBlock. If you are just visiting for a moment then you can temporarily enable for that site just for your browser session. I've found that this fixes all of the sound issues that you are talking about.

    only to have some awful noise nearly blow out my speakers from one of their ads, for themselves.
    Then install AdBlock [mozilla.org]and the AdBlock Filterset.G Updater [mozilla.org]. Ads that play sounds are yet another reason in a long list why I block ads myself. Some people don't agree with blocking ads. Well, make up your own mind on what to do. Personally I take the approach that several bad advertisers ruin it for everyone so I block them all.
  • Updated Hosts file ...
    Firefox: Adblock (filterset.G), NoScript (set to block flash as well)

    No sound from any webpages yet!

  • Many sites play sounds at whatever volume level they found the file recorded at, which can vary from file to file, and Windows normalizes nothing. Also Firefox will play sounds not in the currently active window (or maybe it's just another tab in the same window, I'm not for certain), so I've had to hunt it down. To make things even worse, Midi and waveform generating files get different volume settings and it's not always clear which one you're dealing with.
  • Use Firefox with https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=722&application=firefox [mozilla.org]noscript extension.
    Noscript will block alle javascript, flash, and media files.
    You can then choose which ones to enable.

    Try it.

  • 2 soundcards maybe??? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by baton (70213) on Friday January 13 2006, @09:09PM (#14469105)
    If the reason you dont want sounds is because your say listening to music via another app you could get a 2nd sound output device (say a cheap usb 'soundcard') make that primary ound output and not plug anything into it. Then set your sound app to use the other soundcard that has speakers on it.

    You shouldn't have to goto these lengths to do it, but it would work.
    • If you're going to do this, why not just use /dev/null as the primary output device? Save the expense of using an extra sound card.
    • Chances are it's possible you're using the onboard sound from your motherboard anyway. What I did a while ago is buy myself a nice SoundBlaster, mostly because I wanted surround sound and my previous card didn't do it, My default sound device is my onboard card, and all "approved" apps have their ouput set to use the SoundBlaster which is hooked up to a nice surround sound set of speakers, the onboard sound is plugged into the shitty speakers built into my monitor (which are usually muted).

      This provides a n

  • Your bank? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by strikethree (811449)
    You say you were checking your balance. I would assume that this is your bank. Have you considered writing/calling them and letting them exactly how annoying a full-blast sound is? I am sure they would not tolerate such loud sounds inside of their bank, so I really do not think they would approve of such loud sounds coming from their website. The website was likely designed by an external company with little oversight by the bank.

    Of course, this only fixes one sight. Have you thought of writing a plug-in fo

    • Re:Your bank? (Score:4, Funny)

      by ClamIAm (926466) on Saturday January 14 2006, @04:20AM (#14470267)
      I would assume that this is your bank.

      Only one way to find out. Get the name of the president of the bank, stand directly outside of his office with a megaphone, and shout "Mr. Phillips! WOULD YOU LIKE A BIGGER PENIS?"

    • Re:Your bank? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by timmyf2371 (586051) <tim@timfarrellTEA.co.uk minus caffeine> on Saturday January 14 2006, @04:50AM (#14470313)
      An alternative to simply writing to your bank; you could use one of those Birthday cards which plays an annoying and repetitive tune when opened, and simply compose a clear and concise letter within letting the bank know how annoying sound can be when trying to work or relax. You'd also have the added advantage that the advisor dealing with your complaint would be able to fully appreciate just how frustrating unexpected and unwanted noise can be.
      • I have a great one: not only does it play sound, but it's got flashing LEDs too! My roommate's parents sent it to her from Paris.

        She was going to throw it away but I grabbed it because it has about two dozen white LEDs decorating the Eiffel tower on the front.
  • Ok, this is a little bit of work, but on the Mac, I can use Audio Hijack [rogueamoeba.com] (Pro) for this purpose -- hijack the browser, then hit the Mute button in Audio Hijack. I also find this useful when the browser's volume balance is out-of-whack with iTunes -- I can hijack the output volume and lower it. All in all, I've found Audio Hijack Pro very useful, for more than just these purposes.

  • Every now and then... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Gadren (891416)
    ...I think that Flash is one of the worst things to happen to the Web. Maybe it's just frustration, but do we really need to slowly fading buttons on a corporate website?
    • It's not just the web.

      Some of the colleges in my region use a product called LearnKey that relies heavily on Flash both for instruction and examination, and it's horribly broken. I don't think it's so much a flaw with Flash itself as that the person who wrote the software was completely clueless, but I've yet to see a session with the software where at least two or three of its Flash portions didn't crap out or lock up. Especially on multi-part questions in the quizzes... "Hey, it wouldn't go to the next pa
  • Many of the myspace.com profiles have 1 of these 3 ways of emitting sound

    1. flash
    2. streamed wmv
    3. bgsound src=

    I can block flash, but has anyone figured out the others, especially if I could specifically target it at webpages form myspace.

    greasemonkey script?

    I use flashblock and ad block already, I will check out this no script thing. Anything else?
    • OK I am dumb, I just updated my hosts file with this

      127.0.0.1 www.videocodezone.com
      127.0.0.1 videocodezone.com

      I believe that is where most of the wmv music videos come form on myspace.

      Looking for hightech answers and it turns out the old school hosts file does the trick, no more annoying sounds.
  • I got so tired of unexpected sounds, I leave on mute. When I want to hear sounds, I unmute. Not very elegant, I grant you, but it works.
     
  • Kind of esoteric, and not extremely practical, but you can have one sound card (or even your voice modem's audio channel) as Windows' default sound playback device with no speakers attached, then play your desired program through the second card. This will only work with apps where you can specify where to send the output, but it's an option. I'm running on-board sound plus a mult-channel rackmount sound interface, and it'll do this.
  • I find that an awfull lot of game sites nowadays come with flash trailers with sound. This is perfectly acceptable up to a point. They are trying to sell me a full 3D surround sound feast for the eye and ear and well doing that in pure HTML is apparently to difficult.

    So completly blocking flash or just disable all sound is not worth it to me.

    So gee, what other option do I have to disable sound from ads. Hmmm. Though one.

    Oh wait maybe I can block ads? Nah, I am not skilled enough for this and I am sure no

  • If it's ads that contain these annoying sounds, just block the ads. Hit them where it hurts. I recommend Proxomitron [proxomitron.info] because it runs as a proxy and hence covers all all your browsers simultaneously (but you can ad rules for individual browsers with header matching).

    Alternatively, if you just use Firefox, you can try the Adblock extension but, personally, Proxo is alot more powerful. If you're comfortable with regex, willing to learn a few $commands()'s, it's the way to go.

    Unfortunately it's Windows only, an
    • For those not using Windows, Privoxy [privoxy.org] is also capable of blocking ads based on both location and other characteristics (eg. size). I also successfully used it to block Opera's ads and replace them with a grey bar the same colour as the rest of the window, back when it was ad-supported.

  • How about Vista? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by David Horn (772985) <david AT pocketgamer DOT org> on Saturday January 14 2006, @07:09AM (#14470548) Homepage
    Yeah, I know it's a wait and I know it's Windows, but apparently you'll be able to control the volume of individual programs.
    • Yeah, I know it's a wait and I know it's Windows, but apparently you'll be able to control the volume of individual programs.
      Yeah, and it comes with Duke Nukem Forever and a cure for cancer, oh and I hear there's a winning lottery ticket in every box too.
  • You are posting this to the wrong place. This is a great idea and would make a fantastic addition to firefox other options. But you should really suggest this to the firefox team.

    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product =Firefox&format=guided [mozilla.org]

    You can enter the feature in bugzilla as a "Wishlist" item. You never know they too might think this is a great idea.

    N.

  • Just use Linux (Score:2, Funny)

    by fatrat (324232)

    Just put linux on a cutting edge laptop - volia, no sound :)
  • This seems pretty straightforward to me...

    If it's flash (as many claim), then you have your answer: no flash.

    If it's not flash (doesn't *have* to be), then just disable the ability of the browser to play it automatically:

    Tools->Options->Downloads->File Types box. Remove anything that makes sound :-) Granted, you'll break other things (I'm thinking movies - make those play by something with seperate volume control), but you won't get sound!

    HTH and that I'm not missing anything :)

    --LWM
  • Simple - use an older linux kernel with oss drivers and play whatever you want on xmms, maybe have a "silent" track that just repeats (but don't violate Cage's copyright on silence either now....) xmms will lock /dev/dsp, and nothing else will be able to play sound. Oh, and other things trying to play sound tend to lock up...

  • Is there an audio equivalent to the CSS "display:none" property that can zap specific page elements?

  • Along with many annoying things showing up as Flash content, having the plugin enabled gives us one more place for potential security problems [eeye.com].

    Known or not, vulnerabilities relating to images and Flash existed for a very long time. Considering that offsite content greatly increased the potential exposure of even a selective surfer, perhaps it's worth reconsidering very aggressive blocking/filtering and disabling non-essential plugins.

    I haven't looked closely enough at the control offered by Firefox plugins
  • It's cure rather than prevention but when I'm faced with these things (and animating ads that pull the eye away from whatever I'm trying to read) I use this nifty Zap Plugins bookmarklet [squarefree.com] which I keep within easy reach on my browser's toolbar. Apparently it works on IE, Firefox and Opera.
  • It's called volume control!
  • Naviscope is what I use to solve problems like this. It's a Windows only freebie that is, unfortunately, no longer supported or in development but I've been using it for over five years without any problems save one (more on that later). I'm afraid you'll have to search for it. Version 8.70 was the last.

    Naviscope is a web proxy that I have successfully used with IE, FF, and Opera, has programmable prefetch (can be set to delay on page load), DNS caching, and time sync and more. It has a default block

    • Not the idea. It definitely works.

      It's pathetic that you would even think of it.

      It's more pathetic that I understand what you're saying.

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