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Buy Mac Products This update to Replay Converter has been a major rewrite of our core conversion technologies.
– Conversions are now faster.
– Added the capability to burn DVD’s, audio CD’s and data CD’s.
– Can now convert DVD’s to other file formats.
– Removed optional user DirectShow settings. Replay Converter now will convert files automatically using the best method.
– Added a progress bar while files are being converted.
– Can convert to more file formats: MOV, FLV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and FLAC.
– Improved audio and video sync with converted files.
– Improved success rate of converted files.
– Fixed “Minimized” button bug while converting files.
– No time limit in demo mode video conversions. Adds a watermark to the videos instead.
– New right-click option opens the folder where converted files reside.
– Added a “Convert with Replay Converter” right-click option to Windows File Explorer.
Replay Converter 3.0
Pandora may be going dark
This article in Ars Technica does a nice job illustrating the demise of Pandora may be just days away. The problem is with the royalty fees they are being asked to pay, in contrast to what broadcast radio pays (nothing) and satellite radio pays (about half). The music business needs a big restructuring, as it’s a sad day when cool services like Pandora go belly up, especially when they have revenues of $25 million(!).
Read the entire article to learn more.
We’ve been Slashdotted!
An article about Applian, Replay Media Catcher and RTMPE protocol recently was posted on Slashdot. While much of it is a spirited debate about DRM, there is an inaccuracy that we need to clear up. Some of the posters seem to think that we are breaking Adobe’s encryption in this latest version, which is false. The content we download is actually unencrypted.
It looks like this was a stopgap solution by Adobe. It appears Adobe made a technical tradeoff between continuing to support their existing ad insertion technology, and fully encrypting their content. There are a lot of really talented engineers at Adobe – I just don’t think they have yet built a DMCA compatible system due to time constraints. Their Flash Video server technology is really well done, and after a major re-architecting, they will probably discover a better balance between ad serving and encryption.
As far as the DRM issue goes: never, ever redistribute anything you’ve recorded without the express written consent of the content owner. Recordings are always for your personal use only. Applian’s intent is not to encourage customers to violate copyright laws.
Replay Media Catcher 3.0
This new release version contains all the additions from the August 5 and July 30 betas (see below).
– Fixed minor bug fixes relating to start-up issues.
Replay Media Catcher RTMP plug-in 3.6.6.9
– This updated plug-in greatly improves the automatic video naming of RTMP files. No need to reinstall anything, as the plug-in is downloaded automatically.
iPhone and Remote iTunes
Apple Insider has an article about a new Apple (AAPL) patent filing regarding iPhones accessing iTunes libraries from anywhere. The gist is that your desktop PC can have all your media (songs, videos, Podcasts, and more) on it, and your phone would be able to download and play anything from your desktop PC.
This would be a huge bonus for Replay A/V users. Imagine having your favorite radio shows recorded on a PC at home, imported to iTunes automatically, and available for listening wherever you are. This can be done now with the YouSendIt plug-in we provide (as you can email yourself recorded files automatically), but this mechanism would be much slicker.
Go Apple!
Replay Music 3.4
– Uses a new, improved song recognition engine.
Recording the Olympics, Part II
Alex has looked into more of the technical details behind how NBC is streaming the Olympics, and has made an interesting discovery. Apparently the stream formats are different for live streams vs. pre-recorded streams. This means that you can make digital recordings of live events, and record from the screen for “rewind” or cached events. Below is his technical summary.
The Silverlight NBC Olympics server uses Windows Media Player for live streams and VP7 for prerecorded videos. VP7 is the format used by web sites like abc.com or fox.com and can provide very high quality (lossless) video compression including HD. The problem with this format is that it cannot be reliably streamed for longer periods of time like the live broadcasts. The math used to compress the video and the audio does not allow recovery when packets are lost which results in out of sync audio. Currently Windows Media Player is the only format that can do this. The live stream Olympics can be recorded with WM Recorder or Replay Media Catcher but the prerecorded clips can only be recorded with WM Capture.
Recording The Olympics Online
This year NBC has teamed up with Microsoft (MSFT) to provide a wealth of Olympics footage at NBCOlympics.com. If you’re really into specific events that aren’t shown over your broadcast TV station, then you can likely watch them online. Very cool.
The Microsoft contribution is via the Silverlight video player, which you must install in order to watch video. Few video providers use Silverlight, which is why there are no programs (yet) that can record those feeds via stream capture.
If you’re looking to record some of these events and save them forever, the best program to use is WM Capture. This on-screen recorder makes great quality videos from the Olympic feeds.
To burn these recordings to DVD, try the new Replay Converter 3.0, which is currently in beta. You can also make iPod format videos, or AVI files to import them into your favorite video editor.
Oh yeah – Go Team USA!
UPDATE: I noticed that you need to enter a zip code and your Cable provider to watch some online feeds. Try 94118 and ComCast Digital if you’re disallowed access.
Replay Media Catcher 3.0 Beta 2
– Fixed occasional crashes on start-up for some Vista users
– Automatically updates the plug-ins which are geared to downloading specific media types.