20.0.16 (9/15/2014)
5. Fixed: Volume protection would override the startup volume setting. Now startup volume has precedence.
When I saw this change I decided to turn Volume Protection back on, having played with it before and being unhappy that it set the volume to 20% every time I woke my HTPC and started to play something.
Unfortunately this fix doesn't seem to work the way I was expecting (hoping?). Since turning on Volume Protection the volume is again being set to 20% even though I have just woken the HTPC from sleep. I was expecting MC to treat a wake from sleep in the same way as a restart or just a new start of MC. But unfortunately the 30 minute timer since last playing something still gets triggered, and the volume is set to 20%.
Volume Protection
Volume Protection is a feature to prevent unexpectedly loud output. It is useful in cases where you connect Media Center to a high-gain amplifier where unexpected output at full volume could damage equipment or your ears.
Volume protection does the following:
1. Makes it so that it isn't possible to increase the volume by more than 5% at a time (so accidentally clicking 100% on the slider will not go to 100%)
2. Makes it so that the volume can not be increased by more than 20% a second
3. Makes it so that starting playback if nothing has played for 30 minutes sets the volume to 20% (unless the volume is already lower)
Startup Volume
In Options > Startup, there are a few volume related options under the header 'Startup Volume'.
Optimize volume for best sound quality This option maximizes the wave-out volume slider on startup. This prevents double volume and related sound quality issues on Windows XP and earlier. The option is harmless but unnecessary on Vista and newer.
Set volume This option will set the volume in Media Center to the specified level when launching the program.
I am using Internal Volume, with a Startup Volume of 80%, and control the actual volume output of the speakers using the volume control on my receiver, via remote or manually.
I would like to use the first two functions of Volume Protection, but not the third if MC can't differentiate a "wake from sleep" from a restart of MC. If it could differentiate, fine. If not, could the three functions included in Volume Protection be split out to individual settings?
Not a huge issue as I can just turn off Volume Protection. But still a niggling issue.