Record indicator?

[hornetster]

Probably obvious, but can't find it...
Trying to record a network stream, but I can't seem to find any indicator of whether a recording is happening, or not (Record button doesn't change at all?). The only way I can actually tell if it is recording, is by watching the recorded file on disk, and that is not a 100% indicator either - seems to be a bit hit and miss.
Is there anything in the VLC window to indicate that a recording is happening?
Opensuse Leap15 x64 - VLC 3.0.2

[chubinou]

Hi,

the record button is changing state while recording (View > Advanced controls)

[ginobean]

Can you guys make this visual difference, when recording, more obvious to the end user?

As it is now, the change in state is so subtle, it's almost invisible.

[e2020]

(I was about to wish this for a NEW FEATURE when I found this searching for 'recording visual')

YES, I often sit far away from the screen and need to stop & restart the whole video after using the record button, because I can NOT see if I hit the button correctly the second time to stop the recording...
...then I fill up all the disk space accidently,...
so to be SURE I stop & restart the whole video - this is safer but UNcomfortable...

so, mister "Developer"
I also would like to have a MUCH MORE BIGGER indicator, something much more like a WARNING:
one BIG RED *BLINKING* *Rec" all over the screen - SO BIG!, even people from moskow would see this on my little screen here in germany and SO FLASHY (blinking), it would wake the dead/drunk

technically maybe like 'a logo overlay' with 50% tranparency while blinking,
but ALL OVER the screen, THAT would by nice

thanks a lot for your nice software!

(edit: oh, I just saw I'm in 'linux troubleshooting'?! I personally need this for windows, but ALL version would profit from/with a better indicator...)

[thuhreb]

So I was fighting with the same issue this morning. Here's something I did that might help.
Now I can have vlc playing a live stream in the background, press ctrl+r, and hear a sound that lets me know my recording is started. Then a different sound when recording stopped.

I used the free app called TheFolderSpy. It monitors folders for changes and runs specified files when a change is detected.
Here's how I set it up...
I created 2 items
1 (recording started) : If a file in VLC recording directory is CREATED, run a sound file. Example - "C:\Windows\Media\Windows Balloon.wav"
2 (recording stopped): If a file in VLC recording directory is CHANGED (indicating recording is stopped which updates file size), run another sound file.
Note: These sound files will run in the background, without opening a visible media player or interrupting VLC.

Once those are saved, you can set TheFolderSpy to auto-start at startup and click run in background (systray).

Along with that, inside VLC preferences, I set a global hotkey. While Shift+r is the default hotkey for recording, if you set it under the global column in vlc hotkey preferences, it will work regardless of VLC being the active window.