I am getting ready to purchase a new Ultrabook. Is a 12.5'' or 13.3'' screen size large enough to effectively use BIAB 2014 & Real Band?

Welcome to the forum. Many of us use BIAB on laptops with success, including on gigs. The only machine I just couldn't work with was my 10" netbook (remember them?). No question though, the bigger the screen (and the younger the eyes), the happier you will be. But I have run BIAB for decades on screens of all sizes, and only could not function on that one netbook.

The owner of the company, Peter Gannon, has stated he develops BIAB on a laptop.

Eyesight is the key. A few years ago at a gig one of the young guys was reading some charts using iRealB on his 5" IPhone from 3 or 4 feet away. If you can do that then a small lappie is ok.

There's a lot going on with Biab's GUI so the rule is the bigger the screen, the better.

Bob

While it would probably run BB, I would recommend that since you are purchasing new, that you seriously consider paying a little bit more for a model with a larger screensize.

If for no other reason than my favorite at purchase time, I try to let the idea of "future proof" guide part of the decision.

Never know what new thing is coming down the pike, but in this instance I think its safe to say that the trend has been moving to larger and larger screensize and having that available when needed can solve problems even before they arise.

What I can tell you via empirical observation is that, during the beta testing and afterwards now, I've broken out an older laptop with 14" screen to check out the new BB on, and while it is usable, I've got to say that the more modern widescreen laptop I've got here is MUCH easier to view, easier to see the Chord Sheet or Lead Sheets when playing and practicing, so I wouldn't think that the choice you are looking at here would be the best situation for such.

Have Fun,


--Mac

A 13" notebook should be ok, iff it comes with a 1920x1080 screen.

And you happen to enjoy the 20/15 vision of a young fighter pilot...


--Mac

[img]https://plus.google.com/107270018323680035656/posts/VoYwr9qptLQ[/img]

Click on the link above to see a side by side comparison between new and just prior GUI. If you're used to reading while you play, as opposed to playing from memory with backing tracks, it appears that the viewing space for chords, and associated details, has been reduced approximately 16% vertically (two thirds to a half dedicated to chord space), and the fonts are less bold than before, as well. Not easy to see on a 13.5" screen.

I would buy the largest laptop you can afford. I have an ASUS Q500 series with a 15.5" screen. I have 2/3 of the screen for the chord grid and the tool bars take up 1/3. My resolution is 1920x1080. The size of the fonts, (default setting), depends on how many bars are in your song. The font size in a 32 bar tune will be larger than a 64 bar tune. Later, Ray

My ThinkPad 13.5" screen only goes up to 1366 x 768, and displays only 1/2 vertical space for chord display, as shown in my link, above. As a workaround for the cramped viewing, and the chord font display challenge, you can use a custom font with bold option and a larger font size, though you may need to limit the number of rows you can see at once, as there is a trade off in the # rows and the chord font size. Is there no way to remove the mixer, and re-size the upper left to be fully horizontal, as before and open up some more vertical space to display the chords screen portion?

The capability to resize the toobars and hide the buttons you don't use is in the works by PG Music. Hopefully the update will be soon. Later, Ray

I got 2/3 before on my 15.5" screen with 1366 x 768 resolution, not needing a full blown gamer laptop to see and read the chord display. The image in my link shows the 15.5" screen on the right at 1366 x 768 resolution. I ask again, for all those who don't possess large screens or ultra high resolution displays - is there a way to reconfigure the subcomponents of the GUI, like removing the mixer and resizing the upper left transport portion towards the right and add vertical space to the chord display portion?

Thanks, Ray. Didn't see your response before sending.. Sorry, and I appreciate the prospect, as well as so many of the other updates, especially the New Orleans styles. Looking forward to using those.

And I say again (and again if you're reading other threads on here) that we've been promised such in a future Update file.

But none of us can tell you when to expect that to appear.

They've also promised to restore the ctrl-t to working order as well. With that, we should be able to Toggle between just Chord Sheet display of full view as in the past.


--Mac

For this reader, that is a welcome prospect. Thanks Mac, and Happy Holidays.

Thanks for posting those pics, that's a very dramatic comparison. Seeing the two side by side like that makes you wonder what were they thinking?

I sure hope we don't have to wait too long for a fix.

Bob

I don't see two pics in this thread, but if you are referring to the differences in how XP displays the new GUI as vs any of the newer Windows OS's, this was duly noted and reported by several of us during the beta testing. We've been promised a fix in upcoming Update, apparently "they were thinking" that it would take a bit of time to implement such properly.

Likely a case of the way the newer OS's do things internally as to screen display, after all, even the laptops out today feature plenty of graphics enhancements over poor old XP.

There may be a few other reasons besides OS here, for example, the use of different monitor sizes, differing video and graphics hardware and drivers, etc.

PG music enjoys a rather excellent reputation at going after both backwards-compatibility as regards older OS's and equipments, I'm sure that they will come up with ways to make the new GUI work and look great for as many different cases as they can.

Not fair to denigrate this great hardworking Develooment Team with that, "What were they thinking?" line.

IME they are always thinking about ways to better serve the customers.

Ask that question about other outfits that simply turn last year's expensive hardware or software into nonsupported unusables. PG's never done that and I don't think they ever will if it is in their power to do so.


--Mac

Look at Edwins "DrDuBose" Google link. He's posted a pic of two laptops side by side, one displaying 2013 and one displaying 2014. XP has nothing to do with it. The 2013 display is exactly what it looks like on my new Win 7 64 bit machine as well and then 2014 is what it looks like here too.

Bob

Takin' a look...

How many times we gotta say that the new GUI is still a work in progress?

Enhancements are still being worked on, Updates will be issued, viewing areas should have solves, etc.

BTW I can tell that the LH screen in that google pic must be running XP because of the amount of screenspace taken up by the upper area.

On the newer OS's, the upper area only takes up about 1/3 instead of about 1/2. I beta tested on three different PC's and also on a Macbook just to see all the differences and such, and duly and instantly reported my findings about that, complete with screenshots to development. And PG did indeed promise an upcoming fix.


--Mac

And I reported that's exactly what it looks like on my setup running Win 7. Again, XP has nothing to do with it at least not here. The upper and lower is about 50/50 and those proportions are directly related to screen res. My max res is 1366 and that takes it to maybe 45/55, not a big diff. You don't get to the 25/75 ratio until you take the res up to around 1920 and that makes it unreadable to a lot of folks. Like you said it takes a young fighter pilot with 20/15 eyesight to read the Biab GUI at that number.

Wationtlypaiting for the patch.

Bob

Not sure what impact any OS should have on this issue -> it's all a matter of screen resolution. On a Win 7 system here with a 1366x786 notebook about half of the screen real estate is occupied by toolbars, mixer and stuff. On bigger screens it's less of course. The bigger the screen the better it looks.

PG representatives promised work in progress with respect to swapping toolbars and customzing the ordering of buttons.

No promises as of now with respect to providing more real estate for the chord chart window in case of smaller notebook screens, say. No promise as of yet to make the mixer optional in order to free space for shifting toolbars e.g. or to provide an option to go with the old UI style.

Guess we just need to see what options PG will eventually be providing.

Yes, we're looking forward to an upcoming fix that will give us more flexibility in this area.

Did anyone else notice that Dr. DuBose said he was running BIAB version 2013.5 as his prior version? (grin)

Poorly worded, what I was trying to say is that, along with the larger screensizes and bigger resolution capabilities of the more recently made laptops - which were made to ship with newer OS's, comes the ability desired here. The older laptops that shipped predominantly with XP, for the most part also shipped at a time when the 14" screen was the big hooptydoo.



Yes indeed.



Some of us are merely passing on info learned during the Beta, not just what has been posted on these forums.

I'm sure that PG will provide what they reasonably can, and judging by the posts about this particular issue, are going to do the best they can to provide solutions.


And, as we have seen many times in the history of it, the PG solution might just go in directions that are not predictable, or, at the least, quite innovative.


Meanwhile, I'm just Having Lots of Fun with BB these days anyway.


--Mac

Asus Q500A i7 8GB ram 750 HD 15.5" touch screen 1920 x 1080





Win 7 64 bit, AMD Phenom 6 core




Win XP SP3, HP Turion 64 laptop w/14" screen, 1024X768

I am really not sure what you're trying to relate here ...

As to your subsequent post -> it would be good if you could attach screen resolutions to each of your screenshots.

The Asus screen is 1920 x 1080. Later, Ray

Edited my post to show the 1920 x 1080

thanks, Ray.