diff --git a/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Player.java b/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Player.java
index 43c12a80ea236e2acf20b971fed2a347288721a1..b5302ff9e5b1ca94c5d056800113724db423f69f 100644
--- a/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Player.java
+++ b/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Player.java
@@ -164,8 +164,10 @@ public class Player
   
   private void showCounts()
   {
+    // use carriage return \r for transient display output as a run-time developer diagnostic
+    // (possibly as part of earlier diagnosis of threading-related problems with dropped packets)
     if (scenarioPduCount != null)
-      System.out.print(pduCount + " " + ++scenarioPduCount + "\r");
+      System.out.print(pduCount + " " + ++scenarioPduCount + "..." + "\r"); // TODO where are the ... ? not appearing in output
     else
       System.out.print(pduCount + "\r");
     showPduCountsOneTime = false;
@@ -205,6 +207,7 @@ public class Player
       showPduCountsOneTime = true;  // get the first one in there
     }
     else if (s.startsWith(STOP_COMMENT_MARKER)) {
+      System.out.print("Total PDUs: ");
       showCounts();
       System.out.println();
       System.out.println("End of replay from " + f.getName());
diff --git a/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Recorder.java b/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Recorder.java
index bbe81259a5dd7a6089c38e89df158d8a9f321db2..9710cf189b9ff25af52c250faf61e3dc2ddd2fff 100644
--- a/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Recorder.java
+++ b/src/edu/nps/moves/dis7/util/playerrecorder/Recorder.java
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ public class Recorder implements PduReceiver
   private void writeHeader() throws IOException
   {
     String template = "Beginning of DIS capture file, %s.";
-    String startComment = String.format(template, logFile.getName());
+    String startComment = String.format(template, logFile.getName() + " (show transient progressing PDU count, then final total)");
     bufferedWriter.write(START_COMMENT_MARKER + startComment);
     bufferedWriter.newLine();
   }