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Buy Mac Products Replay A/V 8 is released today! This is a major improvement over version 7. Here are the highlights:
– resizable window
– fully integrated with Replay Converter
– improved URL finder: more supported network cards and also finds downloaded videos from the browser cache
– YouTube, Google Video and customizations for other video download sites
– TV Tuner card and Webcam support
– custom MP3 tags
– new UI
– over 60 enhancements
Here are the details:
– added SWF filter to URL finder
– max URL size now 4096 bytes
– increased size of Sirius/XM password field to 32 bytes
– uses Replay Converter for conversions
– now checks for existing file before starting conversions
– improved ASF file fixing
– Burn/Copy dialog now contains conversion options
– Burn/Copy dialog now has delete option, radio buttons
– Added Custom MP3 Tagging option – with time and date codes!
– left click a show opens action menu by default (option in settings)
– action menu contains icons
– can drag items in show list to move them
– new resizeable UI
– list box rows have alternating colors
– added Media Pak functionality
– audio recordings now show status in item display – no more top countdown timer
– fixed problem with errant no sound warning when starting to manually record audio
– Quick Record now adds an entry to the shows list – makes recordings easier to find and manage
– added a top menu
– removed a lot of buttons
– no more status message area
– renamed Burn/Copy to Convert/Transfer
– made Basic tab for show properties as simple as possible
– nicer log viewer – can now pick the log date to view, copy the log filename, or delete log files
– URL Finder/Stream Capture works with USB,ADSL, dial-up connections now
– added undo last show delete menu function
– URL Finder looks in cache for FLV files (solves problems with people unable to capture FLV files)
– URL Finder adds names of files to cached display
– URL Finder now horizontally scrolls for long URLs
– program icon in task bar changes to red when recording
– slick new recording wizard
– pop-up menu now has icons
– added TV Tuner Card and WebCam capture
– URL Finder now has clipboard copy button
– makes an automatic backup of the recording schedule file
– added option to fix unseekable ASF files in Convert/Transfer dialog
– upon starting Replay A/V, if unfinished conversion jobs are found, user has the option to continue them or delete them. This replaces the need to edit the registry in case a conversion job gets stuck.
– tuner window now has name of tuned show in caption bar
– tuner now shows TV stations in properly sized window
– displays warning message on duplicate show names – prevents some conversion errors
– fixed bug with some Podcasts not writing to proper folders. Usually with many simultaneous downloads.
– streaming aac files (icyx:// protocol) now saved properly as .aac files
– XM and Sirius recordings now use larger tuner window
– added Preview option to URL Finder
– URL Finder remembers show/hide cache setting during the current session
– more audio/mp3 content types now recognized in URL finder
– Players no longer close when Quick Record ends
– tuner now always remains visible
– closing while recording now finishes processing files
– installer now has a “Launch” checkbox upon completion
– Quick Record no longer keeps tags from previous operation
– Update and some other Web pages now appear maximized
– QuickTime videos with no content-type now appear OK in URL Finder
– fixed crash when attempting to record long URLs
– WDBO now closes properly after recording (special case)
– sound card driver setup happens only after a sound recording is selected
– new option for Canadian Sirius users to log in and tune
– Now captures URLS of Live365 stations properly
– changed how USB devices are unhooked after syncing
– “pls” content-types are recordable now (i.e.e http://www.1.fm/trance.pls)
– manual conversions now run in the background
– veoh.com videos now appear in the cache locator
– Update All Podcasts no longer has long delay before we see stuff happening.
– default “connection time” is 12 seconds, not 30
– default Stream Capture Time Out is 300, not 180
Replay AV 8.0
Replay Converter 2.31
– Added “Hints” to improve user experience.
– Added code signing for file integrity checking.
– Replay Converter log file is now ReplayConverterLog.log so users can locate it easily.
– Can convert more types of FLV, QuickTime, and Real files.
– Can now convert MP4 files and RAM files that reference an online stream.
– Improved product registration.
Replay Music 2.51
– Made a fix for uploading playlists.
– Improved EXE file data integrity checking to eliminate false positives.
PERFORM act will kill Internet Radio
I just received this email from iPAc (reprinted in full):
Few power plays are as blatant and harmful as the PERFORM Act (S. 2644)
from northern California’s own Dianne Feinstein. Simply put, PEFORM revokes
your right to tape radio shows while imposing draconian DRM on all internet
radio.
The Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) explicitly allows a person to record
radio programs for their own personal use. In exchange, we all pay a
Hollywood Cartel tax on some blank CDs and tapes. It’s a bill that has
served us well for over a decade, but now with advanced satellite radio
receivers that allow paying subscribers to time shift their favorite
programs the Hollywood Cartels are asking for ‘backsies’ on the AHRA.
Always eager to please her real constituents in Hollywood, Dianne Feinstein
stepped up to the plate and introduced PERFORM.
But, if overturning the AHRA wasn’t enough, Feinstein slipped in a
provision that changes the Copyright Act to force Internet radio stations
to impose the most severe and draconian DRM possible. All of the Internet
radio stations that you know and love will be forced to abandon MP3
streams. Innovative companies like Pandora are already heavily burdened and
taxed by the DMCA, forcing them to spends additional money to license DRM
is an undue burden.
Who does Dianne Feinstein represent? Is it Northern California, the
economic engine for the entire state and the nation? Or is it Southern
California, the repressive monopolists that seek to limit expression and
technology?
You can find out how you can stop Senator Feinstein’s PERFORM Act at
http://ipaction.org/action/perform
Thanks very much for your continued support of IPac.
Sincerely,
Jake Fisher
Executive Director
IPac.org
Finetune vs. Pandora
Just got wind of an interesting new Music/Radio site: Finetune. Check it out!
You can build playlists, and then let others listen to them. Plus, it can build custom radio stations based upon a favorite artist and it’s playlist data.
The design is neat, and once you know it’s a radio site, it’s a great way to start listening with no hassles. And if you want to become a DJ, building your own 45 track (or more) playlist/station is easy.
And it works great with Replay Music too.
Check it out!
Unbelieveable
I just learned today YouTube posted it’s first video online in December 2005.
Is that amazing or what???
Look for some amazing YouTube recording tricks from us in the near future.
Fair Use Threatened
I received this email from Jake Fisher of iPac today, and I’m taking the liberty of reprinting it in full. It’s an important topic – the Big Media companies are threatening to take away our Fair Use recording rights.
Here’s the letter in full:
Dear IPac supporter,
In June we brought attention to S1RA (The Section 115 Reform Act), which
has the laudable goal of bringing mechanical licensing into the 21st
Century. However, buried deep within the legislation was a provision that
required all incidental copies of a song to have their own separate
license. In other words, a copyright holder could charge you for every
copy that exists in a caching server, your ISP’s own cache, or even the
buffer on your computer. It’s double dipping, redefining fair use, and now
it’s back and worse than ever. S1RA lives on under the title of the
Copyright Modernization Act of 2006. Sounds ominous enough. It still
includes all the terrible provisions of S1RA by taking aim at Internet
radio and satellite radio by gutting the Audio Home Recording Act, which
explicitly allows devices to time-shift radio.
CMA is trying to elbow itself into law by wrapping itself in a good bill:
the Orphan Works Act of 2006. This bill is an important piece of
legislation that removes significant hurdles that artists have to jump to
create their art. Right now, with our over-reaching copyright regime, if a
documentary film makers wants to include an image, film clip, or song in
their work, but no copyright holder can be found, the film maker is out of
luck. OWA allows the artist to include the work, assuming they employed due
diligence to track down the copyright holder, and would severely limit any
damages stemming from an infringement suit if the owner suddenly
reappeared.
However good the Orphan Works Act is, S1RA is worse and negates the
benefits that come from OWA. We cannot sacrifice our technological future
by imposing an innovation tax on internet and satellite radio.
For a FAQ on CMA and to find out how to stop it please see:
http://ipaction.org/campaigns/cma/
Thanks very much for your continued support of IPac.
Sincerely,
Jake Fisher
Executive Director
IPac
To the Zune, Alice!
This article from the EFF highlights a curious feature of the new Microsoft Zune – namely that it won’t play songs purchased using Microsoft’s own Plays For Sure system. And it apears they may be abandoning the technology altogether.
If you were unlucky enough to purchase songs using Plays For Sure, you can at least re-record them for your own personal use.
I guess now that Microsoft is competing against its former partners with their own Media Players it’s time to throw them all under the bus. While Microsoft does use their hardware/software business model effectively in the PC business, burning your hardware partners can’t bode well for future projects. Microsoft PC anyone?
Personally – I’m a big fan of the iPod, and I also welcome a serious challenger to the media player space. I hope the Zune does well, but if this flops, nobody’s going to break Apple’s stranglehold for a long while.
TimeTrax goes belly-up
TimeTrax – the hardware/software combo that let people record XM and Sirius radio – is no longer. If you recall, these are the guys that made XM discontinue the XM PCR because of worries people were recording and splitting songs off of the radio.
It’s not that surprising – the business model was fundamentally flawed – as people weren’t willing to pay $200 for hardware to do this when programs like Replay Music and Replay A/V do a better job for a lot less.
Replay Music 2.5
– Improved recognition engine.
– Fixed m3u playlist feature.
– Better recognition support for LaunchCast and Yahoo Music engine.
– Added a new setting to add leading zeros to track number in the file name for better file sorting.
– Removed Eliminate Similar tracks functionality since it caused too many errors.
– Added capability of users to record offline if they uncheck the Auto tagging setting. (Only for registered users).
– Added “Always tag with Artist name” and “Always tag with Album name” check boxes which correspond to text boxes in the “Start Recording Session” dialog box, so if Replay Music is not able to identify a song, then artist name and album name will already be tagged correctly.
– Changed name of Replay Music log file to ReplayMusicLog.log so users can find the log file more easily.
– Added a specialized Replay Music playlist feature – customers can import a playlist text file in the order of song, artist, and album delimited with a “|” for better song recognition. Each line of the file would correspond to the order of songs played.