what do you want on the recording screen?

[JdGordon]

so to mix things up a but I've started work on a brand new recording screen (using petur's idea of a static area and a list area)..
so its going to look like this...
recording statusbar, then 2 lines for the filename and recording length, then the peakmeter.. now the rest of the screen will have a list with whatever info you guys tel me to put in. the list will probably be a mix of info and in=line settings (not exactly sure how it will work.. but we'll figure it out)

We could actually stick the entire recording setting menu in it if thats wanted...

I dont usually record so I dont know whats useful to put there... so let me know and hopefully we can get some patches going pretty quickly.

[TaperChuck]

I love the balance meter in Mmmm's REP. Unforunately, that build isn't being updated anymore.

[Davide-NYC]

This is huge! (for me at least)  

I am posting right now to let you know that I will be seriously pondering this over the next 24 hours and that I have been thinking about this since Mid-2006. Stay tuned!

[QUESTION 1] Will this be viewports enabled or are we still talking about line by line display?

[QUESTION 2] Where can I find an accurate description of Petur's "static area and a list area" idea?

[QUESTION 3] Do you plan on reverting the statusbar to "vanilla" rather than leaving the special extended "recording statusbar" as-is?

[QUESTION 4] Are we going to attempt to reconcile these screens over multiple targets or will the displayed elements scale based on screensize? What about the remote screens?

[JdGordon]

1) yes
2) in his head? :p
3) I have no plans.. im going to do whatever suggestions get suggested :p
4) yes, the plan is to have the same screen on every target.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8069/dump080311231246yp3.png is what I have setup atm... it doesnt show much but its probably better than my description...

The idea is to change nothing above the peakmeters and put the various settings under them in a list, so it wont matter if there is one line or 10 lines, all settings will be easily accessable.

[Davide-NYC]

4) yes, the plan is to have the same screen on every target.

For the record the Archos Recorder screen is VERY VERY cramped already.

===========================================================
IDEAS / REQUESTS

These are my long standing (old) ideas.

• 1. Since the "recording statusbar" tells the user about encoder-type, bit-rate, sample-rate and channel configuration, the only thing that I'm *crucially* missing at the top of the screen is the input source. (Mic, Line, FM, Optical). An easy way to solve this is that when recording is stopped the filename of the file that *would* be written should be displayed in parenthesis and with the part of the filename that designated the source always visible.
• 2. I feel that a two line high, right justified *recording status icon*, across from the "Time" and "Size" lines would be very beneficial.   Square (stop) Double Vertical Bar (pause) and Circle (record).   Also implementing a blinking (invert/normal) time line during pause would be great. See attached image.
• 3. User selectable font in the WRS would be great of targets with higher resolution.
• 4. An option to increase the just size of the peakmeters *or* at least have them scale with the font selected (dependant on request #3) would be fantastic.

===========================================================
NOTES / CONSIDERATIONS

• The trigger should continue to live at the bottom of the screen (when activated) with the scrolling list sandwiched between the peakmeters and the trigger.
• The "R_" portion of the filename is unnecessary IMO. The input-source could start the filename. i.e. "MIC_####.mp3" in stead of "R_MIC_####.mp3".
• The filename should display scrolled all the way to the right, hiding the end of the filename, not the beginning of the filename.
• The "Filename:" label should be reduced to "File:". This is especially important for the smaller screens. (Recorder and RLCD)
• The background should be cleared. Currently it shows the Rockbox logo in the lower right by default which can obstruct important information. This is especially bad on grey scale targets.
• Filesplit options need to be taken into consideration. If only two lines exist above the peakmeters how will we handle displaying the various filesplit settings? Maybe we should display Time:, Size: and File: on most creens and just Time: and Size: on small screens as it is now?

===========================================================
SMALL display WRS vs All other display WRS.

For the SMALL DISPLAYS (Archos Recorders and iRiver remotes) I have an idea to get all the required information on the screen at once. (Or sort of at once anyway.)

IDEA: When having the top-most line selected in the list (in this case "Volume:")  if a user holds the UP button, the Size: line (directly above the peak-meter) will be replaced by the (normally hidden) File: line, but only for the duration of the UP keypress.  This interferes with nothing if I am not mistaken.

For ALL OTHER DISPLAYS we could either have more lines above the peak-meters or keep a unified WRS and use this hiding/unhiding idea.

We could also just have momentary UP presses toggle through a variety of settings display lines.

Remember that the filename contains the input source thus solving the input source not being displayed.

==========================================================

There is a tiny piece of statusbar that is currently being unused on the Archos Recorder bitmap screen. It is where the volume icon usually resides, right between the charger icon and the Q factor. In the WRS it is not needed because the volume is indicated in the first line below the peakmeter. This could be of great use to us. (input source indicator maybe?)

Also, the hold switch is shown in my mockup WRS but is currently not implemented. This a bug IMO and can be found here.
We should consider that space (for the hold switch icon) "reserved".

Lastly, if it deemed to be acceptable, FS#8269 should be accepted into SVN as it really helps to test WPS and WRS screens.

[Llorean]

If you have part of the screen be display, and part list, those bottom three lines can be scrolled, so you can have a list of infinite length that can be scrolled without ever causing the top two lines and peakmeters to leave screen.

I'm *guessing* that's the overall intent. This means that, so long as you can fit all the non-list elements on-screen, the list itself just needs a minimum of one line (though it'd probably be best to have more).

[JdGordon]

yep

[petur]

My idea was indeed to have a top section containing recording status (filename/length, recording duration and status, peakmeters) with a live settings list below

Initially, I'd go for the list of changeable items that are there now:
- monitoring volume
- gain (L/R) -> it would be nice to keep the current way of combined gain change but I fear this will be more complex to program, so maybe make it three lines: L+R, L, R
- AGC mode
- AGC limit (now combined on same line as AGC mode for space reasons, needs its own line
Beware that this list changes depending on source (example: internal mic is mono so only one gain line)

For each line, I would keep the way you change values. So we have up/down to select an item, and left/right to change it.

Beware that this also has to work with the remote

The reason we do not want many of the 'settings' items on here, is because most of them are not live changeable (source, bitrate,...) and I only want stuff changeable on the recording screen that does not restart a recording.

I will be very much AFK the next days, back on monday. So any input from me will be delayed until then.

[JdGordon]

better screenshot on how its going to look....

edit: doh, no remote in the dump the remote shows the same but only goes to line1

[XavierGr]

Does that mean that we can finally change the default Rockbox font on the recording screen too? That way we could avoid the nastiness of untranslated strings for languages with non latin characters.

The idea, overall, seems to me wonderful. The recording screens is one of the most difficult UIs to manage in Rockbox.

[JdGordon]

atm it will change to the sysfont if there is < 5 lines visible with the user font. still not perfect, but really the only option because we cant display 2 lists on the screen at the same time (although that might have to be fixed later anyway)

[Davide-NYC]

The reason we do not want many of the 'settings' items on here, is because most of them are not live changeable (source, bitrate,...) and I only want stuff changeable on the recording screen that does not restart a recording.

This is absolutely correct. Anything that cannot be changed while a recording is in progress should not be "below the line" (peak-meters) but the current recording settings should be displayed above the line as much as is necessary. Right now what's crucially missing is "input source".

[Llorean]

Why is "Input Source" critical? It seems a waste of space to me, as it's something the person should simply set before they start, and it's never going to change while recording.

[JdGordon]

Ill reply more fully later, but please dont edit posts unless noone has replied to the thread already. it makes the thread harder to follow

[Davide-NYC]

I fixed the thread by moving my reponses around so that they follow a more logical order. Sorry about that.  

Why is "Input Source" critical? It seems a waste of space to me,

Because 'knuckleheads" (like me) will hit record button and not realize that they are not recording anything for a few seconds or, if they are distracted, even minutes!

It's not really wasting any space as the filename has the input source info in it. It's just not always displayed since the front of the filename is sometimes 'hidden'. Insuring that the front of the filename is visible solves this without using up any extra screen real estate. See attached image!  

This image presumes the idea to swap out the "Size:" line with the "File:" line by pressing the UP button.