How to shut off the sound MediaRecorder plays when the state changes

Question

My Android application uses MediaRecorder on a SurfaceHolder to show a live preview of what the camera is capturing. Every time the user presses the REC button on the app, t

Answer 1

Ok the accepted answer did not work for me. On a Galaxy Nexus Running 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean) when recording via MediaRecorder I needed to use AudioManager.STREAM_RING because AudiManager.STREAM_SYSTEM did not work. It would always play a "chime" sound at beginning of each recording.

Here is my solution using "STREAM_RING" and others.

// disable sound when recording.
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM,true);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_DTMF,true);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC,true);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_RING,true);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_SYSTEM,true);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_VOICE_CALL,true);

// re-enable sound after recording.
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_ALARM,false);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_DTMF,false);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC,false);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_RING,false);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_SYSTEM,false);
((AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE)).setStreamMute(AudioManager.STREAM_VOICE_CALL,false);

Also as the documentation states be sure to re-enable audio in the onPause() method.

I hope this helps someone tearing their hair out over this problem. This disables all sound streams. You can go through and work out which ones you specifically need. I found that different versions of android use different streams for the chime when mediarecorder runs. ie, STREAM_RING works for android 4.2.1 but for ICS it doesn't work.

Edit: As my comment below mentions, I can't get the sound disabled for Android OS 2.3.3 on a Samsung Galaxy S1. Anyone have luck with this?

Darrenp's solution helps to tidy up code but in a recent update to my phone (galaxy nexus android 4.3) the volume / recording beep started up again! The solution by user1944526 definitely helps. In an effort to make it easier to understand...

Use something like ,

// class variables.
Integer oldStreamVolume;
AudioManager audioMgr;


enableSound() {
        setMuteAll(false);
        if (audioMgr != null && oldStreamVolume != null) {
            audioMgr.setStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_RING, oldStreamVolume, 0); 
        }
}

disableSound() {
        audioMgr = (AudioManager)activity.getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.AUDIO_SERVICE);
        oldStreamVolume = audioMgr.getStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_RING);
        audioMgr.setStreamVolume(AudioManager.STREAM_RING, 0, 0);       

}

For completeness each of those functions you could also call either darrenp's solution in a function or include all of the above STREAM_ lines. but for me now, these combined are working. Hope this helps someone...