Monday, June 16, 2008

Ventrilo on a Mac - Setting it up.


If you are a Mac user like myself getting Ventrilo set up can be a tricky process. I thought I would take the time to write up a step by step set of instructions to help guide other Mac Addicts through it all.

I hope you find this useful.



Getting your Mac ready

  1. Open your Mac's System Preferences
  2. Select the Universal Access option.
  3. At the bottom of the Universal Access window you will see a check box labled Enable Access for Assistive Devices. Make sure that option is selected.
  4. Close the system preferences window and restart your computer for the change to take effect.
Download the Ventrilo Client Software.
  1. Click Here to go to the Ventrilo downloads page.
  2. Select the appropriate software for your machine and download it.
  3. Run the installer.

Setting up Ventrilo
  1. Start up the Ventrilo program
    1. Click on the black arrow next to the User Name drop down window
    2. Click on the New button and enter your user information.
    3. Click OK to save the information
  2. Click on the black arrow next to the Server drop down window.
    1. Enter the IP address that your guild has provided for you.
    2. Enter the Port number your guild has provided for you.
    3. Enter the Password your guild has provided for you.
    4. Click OK to save the information.
  3. Click on the black arrow next to the Bindings drop down window
    1. Click on the New button in the Setup Bindings Window
    2. Name your new Binding settings. I called it Push To Talk
    3. Click on the Add button in the lower left hand corner of the Setup Bindings window.
    4. Push the button you want to be your Push to Talk Button in game and write it down, you will need this info later.
    5. Verify that the PTT Advanced option is selected in the function drop down list.
    6. Click OK to save the options.
    7. A new window pops up called Edit PTT Advanced. Select Current channel from the Transmit Style drop down window.
    8. Click OK to save your settings.
  4. Click on the Setup button on the right hand side of the main Ventrilo window.
    1. Verify that outgoing voice communications and Use Push-To-Talk (PTT Mode) are both enabled.
    2. Select your PTT Hotkey in the Hotkey window. It is the same that you set the binding for earlier.
    3. Check the Sound Output and Sound Input windows to be certain your headset is selected.
    4. Click OK to save your settings.
  5. Push the connect button to connect to the Ventrilo server and see if you can talk to your guildies.
Setting up in game
  1. Start up World of Warcraft
  2. Press Esc. to bring up the Options window
  3. Select Sound & Voice from the Options window
    1. Select the Voice tab at the bottom of the new window
    2. Make sure that Push To Talk is selected under the Voice Chat Mode drop down window.
    3. Beneith the PTT selection enter the key on your keypad you want to activate your mic. It should be the same that you entered earlier in this set up process.
    4. Make sure your headset is selected in the Microphone and Speakers drop down windows.
    5. Click OK to save your settings.

Test it out. Push your mic hotkey and see if your guildies can hear you.

Common Errors

If you can talk to your guildies when you are in the Ventrilo program itself, but NOT when in game go back to the Getting Your Mac Ready section and make sure you have enabled assistive devices.

If you get the following message:
Failed to get encoder for secified Codec. This client platform currently supports only the Speex codec. The server and/or channel is configured to use the 'GSM 6.10' codec'

It means that your guild's Ventrilo server is not set to use the Speex codec.
You will need to approach your guild leaders about changing the settings in the main Ventrilo account. This may need to be changed in both the global settings and in the individual channel settings.

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

TY m8 - spend hours looking for this. Nice description. And it worked 2 :-)

Viktel said...

Glad it helped. This was a big problem for me.

Have fun!

Anonymous said...

thanks a ton, almost had it but your text just helped!

Joseph said...

One small problem, it works if I have any key EXCEPT the 'grave' or 'tilda' (aka ` ~) key ... *grumble*

Viktel said...

Hey Joseph,
I use the 'grave' key on my set up. It is a little borked though.

WoW needs to be the program in front, otherwise it will give you an error sound each time you press the PTT key.

For some reason it is just the 'grave' key that does this.

Sad cause it is the natural button for to press if you are a keyboard mover.

Joseph said...

The problem is more than just WoW.... if I use the grave key (`) for my PTT in Vent it only works if vent is in the foreground. Even if I click over to finder and hit the ` key it doesn't work! I've checked the assistive devices in preferences, rebooted, etc .. Everything else works fine though.

Anonymous said...

thanks so much all my friends use windows so they couldn't help at all. your instructions are so good if i ever hear anyone needs help with their mac and ventrilo i'll suggest they go to this site.

Viktel said...

Hi,

Glad it worked for you! Good luck out there.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the clear directions! A Windows person set it up for me and it was ok except my hotkey wouldn't work if Ventrilo was in the background. Works great now! Yay!

Viktel said...

Hey there,

YW. Nice to know this post is still helping out.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! My guilds been bugging me for weeks to finally sort this out

Very straightforwards - many thanks!

Anonymous said...

i cant seem to get working.

ive set it up according to the guide 100%, and still seems to not work.

i cant get any sounds from my guildies, and they cannot hear me either.

im on a macbook, and am trying to use the built in microphone, and the default output if that helps.

also on osx, but i assume everyone else here is.

Monkey said...

Thank you so much for posting this. I was beating my head against my desk for hours.

Anonymous said...

I am getting a "Contacting server" message for like forever and doesnt connect... any ideas?

Done everything here step by step...

Viktel said...

Hey Amandor,

I had this problem setting up my guild's new TypeFrag account.

It turns out TypeFrag uses a Hostname rather than an IP# and I had it misspelled.

Once I retyped the name of the host the problem went away.

Hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

I am having troubles on the setup page. On the sound input/output i can't seem to find my headset as a option only options for me are built in or default any help would be gr8t thnx.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I was looking for ever and trying to figure out myself how to make it work and wus trying to use the grave key as the hotkey but i found out that didnt work and i finally got it to work with wow. thanks

Anonymous said...

Now if i can just get the vent admin to change the codec i will be all set.

Anonymous said...

errrgh everyone has the codec set to gsm >.<

Anonymous said...

Any one know why any time I key in to talk everyone can hear any sound from my computer?

idenis (DJ trooth) said...

Thanks a lot, but how do i start a vent server for my guild???

Anonymous said...

Great directions!! followed them correctly but people still can't hear me??? any suggestions! tx :)

Anonymous said...

how do you set up hot mic? ptt works fine for me. but i cant seem to set up the hot.

Anonymous said...

What should I do if I get "Unable to resolve hostname."

Anonymous said...

when i try to click on push to talk hotkey (PTT Mode)
it comes up
In orser to use a PTT hotkey you might need to:

"enable acces for assistive devices"
in "universal Access
of your Mac "system preferences"

Would you like to open the systeam preferences window now?

Anonymous said...

when i try to click on push to talk hotkey (PTT Mode)
it comes up
In orser to use a PTT hotkey you might need to:

"enable acces for assistive devices"
in "universal Access
of your Mac "system preferences"

Would you like to open the systeam preferences window now?

PlayingonaDream said...

Thanks! This covered that extra step that I managed to skip over to screw up the whole process.

gomama said...

k... i did all this and when i go into setup i cant see my hotkey "Tab" in the box suggestions plz.

Anonymous said...

Thank you thank you and again....
THANK YOU!
I am a master at trying combinations of settings and this had me beat. But I followed your instructions to the letter and now I can tell my guildies exactly what I think of them in real time :-)

Anonymous said...

Cool article you got here. I'd like to read more concerning this topic. The only thing I would like to see on that blog is some photos of some gizmos.
David Watcerson
Cell phone jammers

Chris said...

HI,

my guild is using a .clanvent host name, and every time i try to log into it (everything typed correctly) i only get "unable to resolve hostname"

any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

so i have done all of this and i still like can't get my hotkey to work! when you said there was like a check box next to the input and output thing, i was looking and mine doesn't have a check box!


can anyone help me?!?

Namy said...

I'd set up vent before on my mac, and couldn't figure out wtf I was doing wrong this time...

Something you should note: if vent is open when you enable assistive devices, it won't change anything. You need to restart vent.

Anonymous said...

Splendid!
Thanks a lot for taking the time to set this up. Succinct, and functional. Well done.
\m/(>.<)\m/

Anonymous said...

ok ive had one problem with setting up my vent. when i selected the PTT mode box in setup. i had the message about system preferences as you said i would. is selected the box, restarted the computer and when i reopened vent upon computer restart the PTT box in setup was unselected, so i selected it and i still got the same notification box about system preferences. i opened it up to make sure the box was selected...and it was, any thoughts as to why i'm still getting this message? does it only pop up when it knows i will have problems because it's reading it as unselected or does it notify me that the box must be checked in system prefs every time i selsct PTT mode? please brainstorm possible solutions.

Unknown said...

Quick quesstion....I wonder if any other mac user out there has the same problem my husband adn I have...Once in a while we sound like robots to our guildies and it's totally random...Sometimes it will be me who sounds like that and other times is the hubby...Anybody with this problem and any suggestions if any you can give to this problem? Any help will be apreciated :)

Anonymous said...

Wow.. just thanks so much for taking your time to write this. I've been searching the internet for weeks trying to figure out how to fix my vent issues. Finally!!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the guide,,
was a great help and took all the hassle out of setting Vent up...

Anonymous said...

Great Post!
Thanks for taking the headache out of this. I really appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the post!
helped huge.

MG said...

Thanks! Very helpful post. Now I just need my codec changed at the bosses end.

Anonymous said...

so helpful! vent's home site was useless!

Anonymous said...

"Seek and you shall find...."

Thank you ,m8 - really appreciate that you did take the time to do this - very usefull!

"..It's a miracle...I can talk and hear!.."

Sincerely

Anonymous said...

this WORKS! thank you!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE U!! I WAS GETTING SO FRUSTRATED ALL MY FRIENDS HAVE WINDOWS I EVEN TOOK A HEADSET BACK BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS DEFECTIVE.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post- it's still helping people out even now!

Unknown said...

Thanks! Worked perfectly!

Axeuide said...

Thank you for that info, it's not for me since Im on PC but hopefully it will help my friend.

Anonymous said...

Will this solve the issue i have when i hit my PTT button it keeps transmitting even if i let it go, i will have to hit it again to cancel transmission. I know it can be set to cancel transmission on release of PTT button since it worker like that on windows. But mac is different.

Anonymous said...

hey i dont want to use push to talk all the time for my game and when i disable it they cant hear me is there a way to do this ?

Anonymous said...

Wow thanks alot i was on that for hours untill i found this website and it took me 5 minutes, not even.

Anonymous said...

In the sound input and output option my headset is not showing itself as an option. any ideas why that is?

Anonymous said...

I have a question for ya... on a Mac how do I turn up one person's volume? I can hear everyone else but cannot hear this one person. Yet everyone else hears him fine. What do I do?

Anonymous said...

There is no "Universal Access" option in 10.9. Can you update the instructions? I can't get Vent to work when it's in the background. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I'm running Mac OS X 7 and it isn't showing a "universal access" please help