From: LoveLearn <LoveLearn_at_iw.net>
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 22:20:15 -0500

Linus correctly guessed that I haven't yet made long recordings with my
ARJ 20 recorder/player. He asked, "Have you ever tried to record with
Rockbox?" No I haven't made any long recordings. I made a couple short
test recordings with the built-in microphone, but they were so short
that I didn't notice hard drive cycling. I'll be making 4-hour long AM
time shifting recordings after my missing audio connector cable
reappears or I buy a replacement. Responses indicate that longer
recording sessions cycle the hard drive as the buffer is repeatedly
filled and transferred. So recording average power consumption is
probably equivelant to playback power consumption. That's good news for
those like me who didn't know they are equivelant. Am I correct in
thinking that recording at the highest bit rate per second consumes
power faster than recording at the lowest bit rate per second? The
higher the "quality" or bit rate per second, the more frequently the
hard drive must power up to accept transfer from the fixed size buffer
block. So replacing the stock 2 meg buffer memory chips with 8 meg chips
reduces power consumption during recording just as it does during
playback?

Linus continued saying, "You seem to assume that everybody has problems
with long recordings." Notes in the archive and bug reports seemed to
indicate that we can't safely assume that recordings will continue until
either available disk space or available battery power is exhausted. I
suspect others reading those reports may have gotten the same
impression. Responses to my note will explain in the archive that long
recording session troubles are exceptions rather than the rule.

Martin's report of successful 24 - 72 hour recording sessions is
comforting. I'll have to read more about "the time split feature" and
"the panic error" that Dave mentioned. Roughly 20 years ago I used a VHS
Hi Fi tape recorder to make radio time-shift recordings. For reasons I
still don't understand, most people only use VHS recorders for TV
recordings, even though they gave better reliability, better results and
lower use costs than audio-only alternatives then-available, except
outboard PCM encoder/decoders which I also bought. As a matter of fact,
people who own VHS Hi Fi decks sometimes buy expensive low-speed audio
cassette decks to enable them to make 4 to 8 hour recordings even though
the record/playback head speeds for the helical scan VHS decks enable
very high quality recordings rather than marginal audio quality slowed
audio cassette systems produce. But those systems were never
conveniently portable. Our options have certainly improved.
John LoveLearn
Received on 2003-10-09