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newbie asks: why no sound?

K

kris1212

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2009
18
0
Philadelphia PA home of the Fightin' Phils!
New to mac, running OS X 10.5.8 on iMac 9,1. I couldn't play .wmv files, so I downloaded VLC. Now I get video but no audio. Also, I get no sound when I run pps files. I have no idea what settings I might need to change. Can anyone clue me in? :confused: :confused:

Oh, and another thing while I'm here: I also can't get my HP Officejet 6310 to install properly. I keep getting HPIO Trap Monitor Quit Unexpectedly and then Setup Manager won't detect my printer. Any help here?

Thanks to any and all macGeniuses who can guide me through the tribulations of migrating from PC to Mac!!
 
Gregg2 said:
System Preferences > Hardware > Sound

Does your keyboard have a Mute key?
Click to expand...

Gregg2: thanks for the reply. The answers to your questions are 1) I already checked the System Preferences and, as far as I can see, the output settings are correct. 2) I do have a mute key, but that's not the problem because I get sound from any application I run natively from the mac. It seems to be that I only have this problem when I try to run files that originate from a Windows-based source file, like those .pps and .wmv files -- stuff I download from emails. I thought that downloading VLC would fix that, but it didn't. Is there some compatibility issue I'm missing?
 
Try downloading perian and then try the wmvs in quicktime.

If there's still no sound, maybe the file itself is corrupted?
 
Regarding the printer - First make sure you have the latest driver from the hp site. Also, hp says the driver installation can have problems when you have startup programs and recommends you remove them until the printer is installed and working.

Regarding the sound, VLC has a way to display the video and audio codecs - I'm not sure if it give any indication of whether or not it is supported.
 
Meltdown said:
Try downloading perian and then try the wmvs in quicktime.

If there's still no sound, maybe the file itself is corrupted?
Click to expand...

OK, I downloaded Perian. Interestingly, Perian does not list wmv or pps in the file types it supports. But I tried it anyway. Neither of the files I have been working on had sound.
Then I tried opening the wmv in Quicktime, but I strangely got an error message saying the file is not a movie file. Weird, because it sure looks like a movie with all those moving images playing (albeit without sound). So I went on to step 3 and checked the files on a Dell laptop I have lying around. The Dell played the pps with sound but I couldn't access the wmv file for some reason. So I tried another old wmv file I had downloaded a week or so ago (on the mac) & lo and behold! It played! So maybe the other file I was trying to play was actually corrupted, as you suggest. I'll try to find some more wmvs to experiment with, but that still leaves the matter of the pps files unsolved.
 
ScoobyMcDoo said:
Regarding the printer - First make sure you have the latest driver from the hp site. Also, hp says the driver installation can have problems when you have startup programs and recommends you remove them until the printer is installed and working.

Regarding the sound, VLC has a way to display the video and audio codecs - I'm not sure if it give any indication of whether or not it is supported.
Click to expand...

Whoa there Scooby! You're going way beyond my level of expertise (or lack thereof) here.

OK, 1st: I will check the hp driver. But what "startup programs" are you referring to? Do you mean all applications that automatically startup when I turn the computer on? I don't even know how to identify those on this machine. (I could do it on the pc, so I'm not a total loser -- just a macLoser.)

2nd: I did check the audio/video codecs tab in VLC preferences, but that was an exercise in futility, as I have no idea what a codec is or what the proper setting is for that. Here's what the screen says when I click on the Input & Codecs tab: Default Server Port 1234; Default Caching Level Normal; Post-Processing Quality 6; Repair AVI Files Ask; Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding None. On the Audio tab, Enable Audio is clicked, Force detection of Dolby Surround is on Auto, and Visualization is set to Default. Does any of that tell you anything?
 
What is the sound output in system preferences?

Do you have sound playing other files?
 
Consultant said:
What is the sound output in system preferences?

Do you have sound playing other files?
Click to expand...

Right now the sound output is set to Headphones because I have an external speaker system hooked up. But I have disconnected that and tried it through the built-in speakers and it still doesn't work.

I do have sound playing other files. Anything I open from Safari plays perfectly, and now that I have downloaded VLC, most of my wmv files play.
 
kris1212 said:
New to mac, ... I have no idea what settings I might need to change. Can anyone clue me in? :!
Click to expand...

kris1212 said:
I already checked the System Preferences and, as far as I can see, the output settings are correct.
Click to expand...

Now, that's a different story! ;)

See that little '+' next to the Quote button? That allows you to quote more than one previous post in your new post. Of course, you can edit out the stuff you're not specifically responding to.

Good luck with your sound issue!
 
Gregg2 said:
See that little '+' next to the Quote button? That allows you to quote more than one previous post in your new post. Of course, you can edit out the stuff you're not specifically responding to.
Click to expand...

tee-hee :eek: See?! I told you I was a flaming amateur!! Thanks for the tip, Gregg2! See how quickly I learn? (Hint: check out the way I edited your reply. Amazin', ain't it?)
 
fluffyx - I downloaded Flip4Mac, but the problem file still wouldn't open. As a matter of fact, now even the one wmv file that played before won't open. I get an error message saying "the movie could not be opened. the file is not a movie file." I know this is wrong because the file played just a little while ago when I was testing this stuff. So ---- now what??? :(
 
kris1212 said:
OK, 1st: I will check the hp driver. But what "startup programs" are you referring to? Do you mean all applications that automatically startup when I turn the computer on? I don't even know how to identify those on this machine. (I could do it on the pc, so I'm not a total loser -- just a macLoser.)
Click to expand...

Here is a link to the troubleshooting articles on the hp site. They have pretty good instructions.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ry&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=1119598

kris1212 said:
2nd: I did check the audio/video codecs tab in VLC preferences, but that was an exercise in futility, as I have no idea what a codec is or what the proper setting is for that.
Click to expand...

I really wasn't suggesting any changes in settings - just a way to let you know what the video and audio codecs were. Basically a wmv file is just a package that holds video and audio information. A codec is sort of a protocol in which the video and audio data is stored within that file. To get that information about the file in VLC, right click (if you have right click enabled) or control-click the file (within VLC), and choose "Media Information" A window will open up with the codec info. I'm not sure how much this will help, but it if shows no audio info, that's the issue.
 
download handbrake, select the file u want to encode, the select mp4, then a little below that click the mpeg4 one, its got like parenthesis that have ff in them and someother numbers.
 
ScoobyMcDoo said:
Here is a link to the troubleshooting articles on the hp site. They have pretty good instructions.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ry&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=1119598
Click to expand...

Scooby- Thanks for that link. It does look like that one article might be applicable to my problem, but I can't figure out how to do what it says to do. Maybe it's due to the particular version of OS X, but I can't open Startup Items in the Library folder. I can only get to it through Utilities/Systems Profiler, and then there doesn't seem to be any way to "move the files to the Desktop" as the article suggests. Systems Profiler opens in a new window & I can't drag the files out of it. I can click on them & highlight them, but they don't go anywhere. Finder doesn't seem to be able to locate a Startup Items folder at all, which I don't understand, but that's another thing...
Anyway, I'll keep playing with it & see if I can figure anything out, but if you have any advice on either what I'm doing wrong or how I can fix it, or if you just want to moan about how pathetic I am, please reply to this. ;)
 
kris1212 said:
It does look like that one article might be applicable to my problem, but I can't figure out how to do what it says to do. Maybe it's
Click to expand...

...because I'm ignorant!!! Seriously, sometimes I amaze myself with my own stupidity! Well, thanks to you, dear ScoobyMcdoo, I did get my printer installed! Yay! Now I will work with HP on the rest of that issue.

Still haven't worked out the audio/video problem, though.
 
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