Sound Issues--Intermittent or No Sounds at All

[vp49p3 216]

I have been running Pilot2ATC on a networked machine with P3Dv4.4 about 5 weeks and everything was working fine.  Both machines are still on Windows 7, but also work fine.  Several days ago a sound problem arose, which I can't fix.   I am using Bluetooth headphones.   I check the Windows control panel and sounds work fine on my headphones, as does the microphone (2.4 ghz).  When I start the P2ATC program, sometimes (but not always) there are no sounds--no voices, no sound effects (such as button pushes)--nothing. When I start the program even if all sounds are fine to start, after a few minutes all sounds go off. Sometimes If the sounds do work when P2ATC starts, as soon as I connect to the flight simulator, sounds again go off ands won't come back on.This problem only started a few days ago. 

I did a system recovery of the P2ATC networked computer back to when everything was working, but this did not fix it.  I restarted the computer several times, but no dice.

What's wrong? I really love the program--it's the best ATC out there, but it has become really frustrating.  Any solutions?

[vp49p3 216]

Have now uninstalled and reinstalled P2ATC--still same problem.

[vp49p3 216]

After more testing, a pattern has developed.  Sounds work until I connect to P3d and a flight plan has been loaded into both P2ATC and P3D.  As usual, the radios are tuned to ATIS, which comes from P2ATC and I hear the first loop of ATIS then nothing. P2ATC keeps working in all other ways but no sound output.

[vp49p3 216]

More detective work.  I turned on the speech practice while I was connected to the simulator, flight plan validated and filed, all while the problems above persisted.  When I spoke a practice phrase, it was recognized, and when I pushed "listen" a P2ATC voice came on and read back the phrase to me.  However, when I pushed the button to listen to myself as I had spoken the phrase, it would not read back my speech.  So, the voices work to read something back to me when practicing, but won't play back my speaking the phrase, and there is no sound at all in P2ATC.  I must have pushed some button someplace which is preventing me from hearing what is said in P2ATC during an actual flight.

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

When you press "Replay" on the Grammar Helper screen, it replays your actual voice, not one of the TTS voices.  The "Listen" button does use the TTS voices to read the phrase in case English is not your first language.  I suspect the volume may be low on the Replay, because if the program was able to interpret what you said, it had to hear your voice.

I assume you have the headset plugged into the P2A pc and you're using some sort of software to get P3D sounds across the network to the headset.

I would suspect the settings in that software are doing something to the sound from the voices on the P2A machine.  I can't explain the intermittent nature of the problem or why you were able to hear voices with the Grammar Helper Practice "Listen" button.

Dave

[vp49p3 216]

Thanks, Dave.  There is no software sending sounds from the flight sim computer to the P2ATC client computer.  P3d is hooked to a separate external sound system which plays all P3D sounds over speakers except voice, which is unchecked in P3D settings.  The client computer with P2ATC sends all P2ATC sounds to my headphones.  How do I turn up the volume you suggest? Also, if nothing fixes the problem do you recommend a complete uninstall from within the P2ATC files as mentioned in the user manual, cleaning out all P2ATC files and doing a fresh reinstall if nothing else works?  I've got the time to do this.  Thanks.

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 870]

You can turn up the volume for the entire program using the Windows Volume Mixer, accessed by right clicking on the speaker icon in the Windows task bar.

Also, check the volume level on the Voices tab of Config for each individual voice.

Also I would recommend going back step, by step, to check the sound settings as described in the installation and troubleshooting areas of the User's Guide.  There is one setting dealing with Communications where you want to be sure "Do Nothing" is checked.  Otherwise, Windows will turn down the volume of the application to 20% when it thinks a "communications" program is in use.

While I don't think a reinstall will help, you could try it.  

Dave

[vp49p3 216]

Thanks Dave--solved the problem.  Somehow the Speech Output Device under the Speech tab had changed to the wrong source.  Once changed to the correct device, all worked great.  I appreciate your quick responses almost as much as I appreciate you developing this great program.  It's just terrific!