The VideoLAN Forums

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

Hi,

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

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.

(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...)

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.