Recording Enhancements Pack

[Mmmm]

I thought that this deserved its own thread... :-)

Already committed enhancements of the R.E.P.:

i) Petur's and my Gain control patch (no more gain in menu's, all on main screen, digital and analogue combined).
ii) Cliplight.
iii) Remote support for recording screen and peakmeter.
iv) Track split. The record button now acts as a real-time track split button (seamlessly starts to record into a separate file). To pause recording press the play/pause button. Also the track name is displayed on the main unit
v) Extra filesplit options - now you can split or stop at a given time or filesize. Options in recording settings menu.
vi) Statusbar shows recording status
vii) Switch off remote display by pressing vol- on remote (stops recording interference when remote plugged)
viii) Vinylivo's AGC patch (see http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/4748 for more info)
ix) Samplerate and channels displayed in the statusbar in the recording screen in place of the redundant repeat mode and shuffle icons. File type and bitrate displayed in place of the volume icon.

The Uncommitted (included in the patch below) enhancements are:

i) The recording screen will display the user font if it will fit but any smaller screen for which it will not fit will remain in the system font. Also, in the menu there is now the option to change the size of the peakmeter to n x the font height If the default font won't fit with this height it will try the height below for each screen, so you can simultaneously have different sized peakmeters.

ii) Vinylivo's histogram patch. Extra: long press mode to turn histogram off and option in settings to set default on/off (see http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5021)

iii) Rincewind's patch for a customisable record button, includes rec+play enter record screen and start recording (To enable go to: General settings->System->Button Config).  (see http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5555#comment8661)

iv) New Menu option "Timer options" contains all timer settings (including split timers)
 Â a) Countdown timer. Set in the settings menu. Max countdown time is 1 week. Press play/pause in recording screen to start/pause timer. Press record to override timer and start recording. If you are in the recording screen when the timer finishes, recording will start automatically. If you are not in the recording screen, the timer display will flash to inform you the timer has finished, on returning to the recording screen recording will start instantly.
 Â b) Repeat timer. Set this and make sure that split time < repeat time and your unit will start a new recording at regular intervals depending on the setting. So eg it is now possible to record every day between 3 and 4 o'clock without touching your recorder. Use this in conjunction with the Countdown timer to start the first recording at a specific time.
 (see http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/6297, Countdown timer forum thread, Repeat timer forum thread)

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        PATCH: Recording Enhancements Pack (all targets) (latest version)

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                         BUILD: My build for H120/H140 (also in my sig)

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                             BUILD:  Paulheu's Build for H3xx

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Build and patch updated to svn as edit time below.

[fizze]

wow the idea of a peak light is awesome
I guess those patches will work on a H300 as well ?

[Mmmm]

wow the idea of a peak light is awesome
I guess those patches will work on a H300 as well ?

Should do... I havent tested it though!

[Mmmm]

Remember that strange behaviour I mentioned in my first post? I found the culprit and stamped on it! :-)

Here's the new patch...

[attachment deleted by admin, too old]

[NK-A]

Hello Mmmm! (and all you others)

I'm very impressed by the work you have been doing to improve recording on the h1xx! I'm currently using your build and I'm very happy with it. Even though I know it's a bit off thread I have a question for you (since I'm still not a programmer and I have seen you doing good work with this and also quite recently on the metronome). In my opinion recording on the h1xx would be complete if some kind of line in mixer could be added (I know that it has been discussed elsewhere). There is a patch already, but it doesn't work on the h1xx. I asked some questions about the patch a while ago and "lokki" apparently had a look at it, but he said that it was for hwcodec platforms and not for swcodec. So my questions are (and I know I might be asking too much): What's the difference between the two codecs? and: How much work would it be for someone smart to make the patch work on the h1xx?
Since you seem to know quite a lot on how  the recording works maybe you are someone who could answer my questions and/or even make the changes that needs to be done to make it work. As I said before I know I might be asking too much and I have no idea about how many hours of work this would take, but I think that many h1xx users would be very happy if someone made it work.

Thank you Mmmm and all you other guys for the work you have done already to make recording what it is today! (even if nothing will ever happen on this one, you have done great work)

[AGI]

auto backlight on when clipping...
what a brilliant idea!

Thanks Mmmm!

[AlexP]

I'll preface this by saying I'n not a programmer, however:

Hello Mmmm! (and all you others)
So my questions are (and I know I might be asking too much): What's the difference between the two codecs?

hwcodec means hardware codec, i.e. the decoding and coding of audio files are done in hardware (a dedicated chip in the player), and any functions available are due to this hardware.  swcodec means software codec, i.e. the player has a cpu that is fast enough to handle the coding/decoding and the work is done by software, as on your pc/mac.

This can mean more opportunity on swcodec, as (to an extent) many more functions can be added by someone coding them - to do that on a hwcodec player you would have to add chips!

As to the second question on whether is is possible/how hard on a swcodec platform, I have no idea!

[toolmanwill]

I have a tiny request if it is possible, Can the recording screen have bigger fonts? i'm sure this has been asked before but i got a show coning up on march 10th and it owudl be great to have things a lil' bigger to record with.

[Davide-NYC]

Pardon my ignorance, but will this get rolled into the regular release or will it always remain a plugin?

If it's always going to remain a plugin I need to learn more about plugins.

This sounds like an amazing patch. Thanks!

[Meow]

I second that. This should ALL go into the main releases, stat.

And yes, a slightly bigger font would be even greater.

Thanks for your astonishing work for my iHP-140. Life has gotten so much better with rockbox!

[AlexP]

Pardon my ignorance, but will this get rolled into the regular release or will it always remain a plugin?

If it's always going to remain a plugin I need to learn more about plugins.

They aren't really plugins - the plugins are things like snake or sudoku, and once included in cvs appear in the regular release for all units that support them.  These are patches, and if they are written in rockbox approved style, don't break anything, and don't make any changes a dev disagrees with, will probably make it in the end once a dev has had time to review and commit them.  A patch can be written to provide a plugin btw!

In the meantime, either use Mmmm's build, or look at the other link is his sig for an excellent guide to patching.

[Mmmm]

Listen to BigBambi...He/she knows what he/she's talking about ! :-D

About enlarging the font:

I suppose it would be possible to use the same font in the recording screen as for the filebrowser/WPS, but the reason for not doing this is because of the non-customisability of the recording screen. Using a font that is too big would make the text run off the edge of the screen!

You may find that your chosen font for the WPS and filebrowser is just too big for the recording screen! Changing fonts each time would be annoying I think. It would also cause havoc with the other targets with different sized screens.

As far as I know, as it stands, rockbox has only two fonts that can be used within the program, the default font (which the recording screen now uses) and the user font. With the default font you are guaranteed to have the whole of the recording screen displayed every time you enter it.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm talking rubbish! :-)

[Meow]

I agree, it's also just a matter of getting used to.
Like on my PC, the more you use it, the less important the size becomes, since you know what it is saying anyway.

I don't really mind the small size, in fact, before it got mentioned here I wouldn't have asked either..

[Mmmm]

Ok... Petur has modified the patch so that each mode now has its own digital setting. This means that when you change between Mic in and Line in, the settings are saved and your previous settings for that mode remain.

I've merged it into the Recording Pack and I've decided to put a link in the first post in this thread to make it easier to find the latest version. So you'll find the new patch there.

I've updated the build in my sig too...

[AGI]

Like on my PC, the more you use it, the less important the size becomes, since you know what it is saying anyway.

that is very true, but...
for people with old and tired eyes like me (ok now you know I'm not a kid anymore ;-)) it's almost impossible to see if it is still recording specially when you are in a dark club taping the band of your choice. I use to check the increasing file size and/or the time elapsed for that. After all I woudn't care too much about bigger fonts (even if it would be better IMO) as long as I could have some feedback of what is happening, I think some sort of flashing icon would do the job too.