--- Forwarded Message from "Waid, Alexander Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
---
>Subject: RE: #8561.3 (!) Time Line in Audio Players
>Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:46:25 -0400
>In-Reply-To: A<[log in to unmask]>
>Thread-Topic: #8561.3 (!) Time Line in Audio Players
>Thread-Index: Acep9GUZtZfoulGzTga5+x2cN3nvLQCMT0gg
>References: A<[log in to unmask]>
>From: "Waid, Alexander Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum"
<[log in to unmask]>
I've had good luck with two media players. In our lab, I use Tandberg's
(now Sanako's) Divace. It's got a couple of features that are helpful
to me: one, as I move forward/back it tells me to what point I am
scrolling (the timeline is also short, so on long audio/video, it's
tough to get better than to within three seconds of where I'm trying to
get) and it also has a great "replay" feature that goes back a few
seconds to the last gap in sound (which usually is the beginning of the
last utterance). Also, in regular classrooms where I don't have access
to Divace, Windows Media Player on full screen has a timeline that runs
almost the entire width of the screen! As with the Divace, it shows you
at what point the file is when you scroll around. It's usually pretty
easy to find a particular second of any digital file regardless of
length.
v/R
Alex
Alexander Waid, Ph.D.
Professor of Spanish
Department of Humanities
United States Coast Guard Academy (dh)
27 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320-4195
860-701-6866
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-----Original Message-----
From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of LLTI-Editor
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 1:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: #8561.3 (!) Time Line in Audio Players
--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> ---
>Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:26:04 -0600
>From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #8561 Time Line in Audio Players
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
> I've been asked by one of the teachers in our institute to recommend
> the best media player for classroom use. He's running audio and video
> files off of his notebook and he complained about the difficulty of
> working with the timeline in iTunes; apparently it's hard to find
> specific points in the recording because the timeline is so short.
Several of us were discussing this problem at the recent CALICO Annual
Symposium. All media players that I have used suffer from four
closely-related problems. 1. They lack precision in spontaneously
selecting a specific point in the timeline. 2. For all but the
shortest media files, they lack a way to make accurate, small
adjustments backward or forward from the current playhead position.
"Play that last sentence again" is a very challenging request. 3.
There is no clear way to relate a relative position or displacement in
the timeline to minutes and seconds.
I don't know if clicking half an inch to the right in the timeline will
take me forward thirty seconds or thirty minutes. 4. There is no
consistency between a short file and a medium or long one, in the
magnitude of timeline actions. Therefore, a teacher can't develop much
of an intuitive feel for a media controller, that would address some of
a player's imprecision.
The ability to bookmark a file, which Otmar mentions, is very valuable
in a media player. But that doesn't address spontaneous needs which
arise during a class or other presentation. Does anyone know of a
player which addresses some of the above limitations on the fly? For
those on this list who have helped develop media players, I wonder
how/if these usability questions were discussed. I've thought of a few
interface options that might be borrowed from other software, to improve
the usefulness of media players. I would be interested in whether
others think changes of this sort would be beneficial.
The ability to reliably replay the last few seconds of a media file
(problem 2, and partly, 4) is the feature that I wish for most often,
both in my own listening/viewing and when I am making presentations. To
address this, I would replace the dot or rectangle that indicates the
current "playhead" position in most media players with something giving
accurate and consistent control over small time changes. I imagine a
moving rectangle, containing three vertical lines. The center line
would represent the current playhead position. Clicking on the line to
the left or right of center would jump the playhead back or forward five
seconds.
Clicking on the left and right edges of the moving rectangle would jump
the playhead back or forward ten seconds. This playhead rectangle would
be the same size for all media files, regardless of length. I imagine
that this would give useful, consistent control of an important function
with a very simple (for the user) modification in the interface of the
media controller.
For problem 1 above, I'd like to see a pop-up time indicator, similar to
a tool tip, which would appear when I moved my cursor over the timeline,
telling me the minutes:seconds at that point.
I don't have as clear an idea on how to address problems three and four.
One possibility would be to divide the timeline with short vertical
lines indicating every thirty seconds. On large files, these lines
would be close together. On smaller files, they would be further apart.
In all cases, they would give a quick visual indication of the file size
and the amount of time represented by clicking in a given position.
There might be some advantage in making the spaces between the vertical
lines logarithmic, but I suspect that this would confuse more than help.
I would be interested in anyone's comments on these ideas or other
possible improvements on the media player interface and functionality.
Derek
Derek Roff
Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885
Internet: [log in to unmask]
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