How to play SystemSounds in the Blackberry 10 Dev Alpha Simulator? - qml

Question

I am just trying to run the provided sample code which, as far as I know, should work just fine. Is there anything I am missing or is this a limitation of the simulator.
If so, are there any workarounds?
import bb.cascades 1.0
// To use the MediaPlayer, we must include
// the multimedia library.
import bb.multimedia 1.0
Page {
Container {
id: mainContainer
layout: StackLayout {
orientation: LayoutOrientation.TopToBottom
}
topPadding: 50.0
Label {
id: titleLbl
text: qsTr("SystemSound and MediaPlayer\n Sample App")
multiline: true
textStyle.fontSizeValue: 9.0
textStyle.fontWeight: FontWeight.Bold
textStyle.fontFamily: "Verdana"
textStyle.color: Color.DarkBlue
textStyle.textAlign: TextAlign.Center
horizontalAlignment: HorizontalAlignment.Center
}
// Part 1 of the sample: Playing system sounds.
Container {
id: systemSoundsContainer
layout: StackLayout {
orientation: LayoutOrientation.TopToBottom
}
topMargin: 100.0
horizontalAlignment: HorizontalAlignment.Center
DropDown {
id: soundSelectorDropdown
title: "Sound: "
maxWidth: 600.0
Option {
text: qsTr("Battery Alarm")
value: SystemSound.BatteryAlarm
selected: true
}
Option {
text: qsTr("Browser Start")
value: SystemSound.BrowserStartEvent
}
Option {
text: qsTr("Camera Shutter")
value: SystemSound.CameraShutterEvent
}
Option {
text: qsTr("Device Tether")
value: SystemSound.DeviceTetherEvent
}
Option {
text: qsTr("General Notification")
value: SystemSound.GeneralNotification
}
} // soundSelectorDropdown
Button {
id: systemSoundPlayButton
text: qsTr("Play Selected System Sound")
minWidth: 600.0
onClicked: {
systemSound.play();
}
} // systemSoundPlayButton
} // systemSoundsContainer
// Part 2 of the sample: Playing custom sound files.
Container {
id: customSoundsContainer
layout: StackLayout {
orientation: LayoutOrientation.LeftToRight
}
topMargin: 100.0
Button {
id: customSoundPlayButton1
text: qsTr("Play Sound 1")
layoutProperties: StackLayoutProperties {
spaceQuota: 1.0
}
onClicked: {
// Here we could have created a second MediaPlayer object to
// use to play our sound, but instead we programmatically
// changed the sourceUrl property of the current myPlayer
// MediaPlayer object, and re-used it to play our sounds.
myPlayer.setSourceUrl("asset:///sounds/Doorbell_001.wav")
myPlayer.play()
}
} // customSoundPlayButton1
Button {
id: customSoundPlayButton2
text: qsTr("Play Sound 2")
layoutProperties: StackLayoutProperties {
spaceQuota: 1.0
}
onClicked: {
// Same as above, here we also could have created a second
// MediaPlayer object to use to play our sound, but instead
// we programmatically changed the sourceUrl property of the
// current myPlayer MediaPlayer object, and re-used it to
// play our sounds.
myPlayer.setSourceUrl("asset:///sounds/Doorbell_002.wav")
myPlayer.play()
}
} // customSoundPlayButton2
} // customSoundsContainer
} // mainContainer
// The SystemSound and MediaPlayer objects are attached so
// they can be used in our QML code to play sounds.
attachedObjects: [
SystemSound {
id: systemSound
sound: soundSelectorDropdown.selectedValue
},
MediaPlayer {
id: myPlayer
// sourceUrl: < Set in the Button control's onClicked event handler. >
}
] // Attached objects.
}
Source: https://developer.blackberry.com/cascades/documentation/design/audio_video/playing_sounds_code_sample.html

Answer 1

I suspect that that System Sounds are actually .mp3 or .ogg files internally, where the "Cowbell sample" and "Pull My Beard" are using .wav files. It's a known issue, and has been discussed on the Blackberry Developer forums here and here, and also here, that the simulator does not have the correct codecs to play any sounds except .wav files. The sounds should play correctly on actual hardware.