REPLAY CAPTURE SUITE
http://applian.com
Reviewed February 2010
| What’s It Do?
Replay Capture Suite is a group of programs with which the user can capture streaming flash videos, MP3 audio, and YouTube videos; make production quality videos from anything playing on the PC screen; record thousands of broadcast radio steams including XM and Sirius and schedule recording to listen later; record high quality MP3s and automatically split and tag individual tracks; convert to/from all popular audio/video formats; encrypts personal video files; edit, slice, and join audio/video files; and, more. Does it do what it promises? Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: During my testing, I was able to perform all the functions with no significant problems. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: Yes. This is a suite of programs designed to capture, convert, and edit audio and video files. Once one gets past the initial complexity, it does a very capable job. My favorite functions in this suite were those that allowed capture and conversion of audio and video files and streams. I did not find much use for the encryption function, and did not care for the audio/video editing capabilities. Overall, I was pleased to use this suite of programs. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes. With this suite of tools, I was able to capture video and audio files using both Opera and Firefox as my browsers. I have often been quite unsuccessful in being able to do this in the past, so I was somewhat worried that I would find myself in a morass of failed attempts, or that files, once downloaded, would refuse to play or display with the graphics or media programs I have on my computer. However, the Replay Capture Suite was not all that difficult to use, and provides a lot of jargon-free help that I found useful when I did run into difficulties. Was it easy to install? Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: Replay Capture Suite is a 12.7 megabyte download to start. When all the applications are installed, the final load is 133.6 MB. The install process seemed to be a bit tedious, as it required each module to be installed as a separate program. The resulting folder under Programs contained 22 separate items, including individual uninstallers for each module. During the install, there is an option to add a shortcut on the desktop for each module. In my opinion, individual shortcuts are not required. There is one "master" shortcut called "Applian Director” that has links to all the individual modules, which eliminates a lot of desktop clutter. Examining the “Operating System Requirements” table on the Web site revealed that not all modules support all Windows operating systems nor did they work on a “pure” Mac OS based system. They did support the “Intel/Mac system running Bootcamp or Parallels. All modules seem to support Win XP up through Win 7. Only the Media Splitter, Replay Music and Player supported Win 98. Except for the Replay Video Capture module, Win 2K was supported as well. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: No. The initial downloaded file triggers sequential downloads of the full installation files for each of the individual components of the suite. Thus installation was a lengthy and multi-stepped procedure. After the installation was complete, a Web page appeared offering help should the large download files not install properly. Options included having a CD sent to you, or downloading the files individually. I requested a CD through their customer support on 12/2/2009 since their automated site did not show a record of an order for my evaluator’s copy; I received neither a reply nor the requested CD. The license agreement contains heavy jargon regarding music rights and “fingerprinting” the files submitted under the service(s). There is a hold harmless clause where the user agrees to defend and indemnify the company. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: The installation is quite complicated, because there are actually eight different programs to install: Replay Director, Replay Media Catcher, Replay Video Capture, Replay Music, Replay Converter, Replay AV, Replay Media Splitter and the Video Padlock. Each program is installed separately, so to maintain structure within one’s Program Files folder will require preparing “receiving” folders in advance. That said, I was able to manage the installation folders as I wished, as well as the locations of the program's shortcuts. The downloaded file was only a link to downloading the actual files. As each one was called up, it downloaded itself first, then began the installation. A good, fast Internet connection is needed to install the Suite and/or any of the modules. Some modules are installed separately, although a number of the smaller ones all install together. A program called WinPcap will be installed and used by the Applian Suite to improve the transmission of the files for viewing and capturing. Since audio and video files are obtained from different sites on the Internet, the E.U.L.A. (End Users Licence Agreement) is quite complicated. Applian Technologies Inc (the developers of this software) exempts itself of any violation of copyright of other third-party software: This licence grants rights to use this software, but does not grant any legal rights to content owned by any third party, nor does the licence release the user from any responsibilities regarding the rights of third parties. This theme is repeated throughout the EULA. The licence for the Replay Media Capture Suite is valid for use on only one computer. Good points. Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: Applian offers an extensive list of "How To" videos and tutorials on their Web site. It is quite easy to work out how to use each of the modules. There is also a very active discussion forum with comments and responses as fresh as two days in most categories. After watching the videos and tutorials I found it quite easy to utilize each of the modules. I was able to capture a very interesting video presentation from TED.com and several from YouTube. This "All-in-one" video and audio capture suite consolidates all of the functions into one set of programs that works well together rather than needing to use multiple, unrelated applications to perform the same function. On the Replay Director screen there is a listing of the status of each installed module that tells if an update is available. Replay Media Catcher will grab streaming video like found on most Web sites in .flv (flash video) format. Media Capture is more of a “point and shoot” application. Provided it is started before playing the Web-based video, it will save the video and then display the file name, size of file, and time. From the “tools” menu of the capture window, various options can be accessed such as extract MP3 from the .flv video, convert it to another format or choose where to store the video file. Right clicking on the file will allow renaming it, deleting it, and rerecording it. Replay Video Capture, on the other hand, is more “hands-on”. It can be used to do screen captures of almost anything such as a DVD being played on the screen, Web cam sites, PowerPoint presentations, Skype video calls or other video chat sessions. This video capture application has a lot more flexibility as far as settings to include the audio and video bit rate, the frames per second rate, whether audio or video or both, maximum file size, and output folder. Video Capture has the option to click a button called “show markers” which puts a re-sizeable box on the screen with drag handles. Using this allows one to constrain the areas that will be recorded as opposed to capturing the entire screen and this reduces the ultimate file size of the capture. Replay Audio Capture provides two choices, to Replay Music or Replay AV (as in audio and video). The Replay Music option is targeted at recording MP3 tracks of streaming music from the Internet radio stations such as ShoutCast, MySpace, Music Videos or other subscription services. It features “auto-tagging” of Artist, Title, Album, and Genre and splits the stream into individual tracks automatically for saving. Replay AV, on the other hand, has a built-in “Media Guide” for scheduled recording of XM/Sirius radio feeds, Podcasts and Video Blogs. The list is impressive with 1297 radio shows, 6134 online radio stations, over 90,000 podcasts, and 448 Internet TV stations. It also has a converter to output 37 different popular formats, including converting to iPod/iPhone format. A built-in burner feature allows one to make CDs or DVDs. I use this one to “time shift” a few radio shows to a more convenient time. The Replay suite contains applications to convert video and audio files from one format to another and to split and combine files. The latter could be used to clip out a section of a video for saving and emailing to someone rather than needing to send the entire clip. Video files can be huge. My testing of the Replay Converter involved converting various video formats into MP4 videos for use on my smart phone and that worked great. My “FlipVideo” camera records in a format that is incompatible with my phone and this application allows me to convert any of my videos and put them on the phone for sharing with friends. The process is simple: open the application, drag the video file you want to convert into the list, pick the output format and location and hit the “GO” button. It was fast and worked on everything I tried it on. The Video Padlock application simply encrypts a video file for security. It allows one to set a password the first time it is opened and then requires the password each subsequent time it is used. It was very fast and worked exactly as advertised. Once a video is encrypted, it is only available through Video Padlock application and will not play from the normal location with any player. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: “Replay Director” is the program that coordinates all of the other programs in this suite. It has a clean interface where the update status and the function of each program in the suite are clearly described. Replay Media Catcher is the program that captures streaming video and audio files. It is useful for recording video from sites such as YouTube. It is a “smart” program in that it captures the specific file stream specified and is not confused by pauses in the file streaming or by other files being downloaded or played at the same time as the recording. By accessing the Video History option under “Tools”, one can browse previously viewed video files. I certainly was surprised that so many of these files were not only present, but also were still intact for viewing. Since these files are already downloaded, the conversion process is faster than capturing a streaming file from the Internet. Not every file in my video history was intact, but I was able to view them before converting them. The video is saved in the .flv format. The converter tool can then extract just the audio portion of the .flv file and save it as an .mp3 or .mp4 file with a wide variety of file size (audio quality) options. All of the above options worked smoothly on my system. Replay A/V functions similarly to a digital video recorder. It can search for a wide variety of audio and video broadcasts and capture them automatically for playback at one’s leisure. I found this program to be the most complex of all of the programs in this suite, probably because of the wide variety of choices available. The “Open Recording Wizard” guides through the process of choosing and recording the selected content. Deep menus are available to choose from Internet TV shows, podcasts, and Internet radio stations. Content can be recorded now or scheduled for recording when it is broadcast at a later time. Audio and video streams can be recorded from one’s own external input. Subscribers to XM radio can also be record that feed. In short, one can easily capture more content than could possible be attended to. Replay Music starts with a generally well-composed set of pop-up hints to orient one to the capabilities and options of this program. This program is designed to record a continuous stream of music, break the stream into individual song files, and appropriately tag them. Once I had it configured, it did an excellent job recording music streams from Pandora and Slacker, accurately tagging about 90% of songs with their title, album, year, and recording time. It smartly edits out blank spaces. By default, recorded fragments of less than 35 seconds are not saved. This is useful for avoiding the recording of commercials or the beginning of songs one decides to skip. Under ‘settings’ one can choose: where you save files, recorded sound quality, how files are split and tagged, and more. This program can be run when the computer is unattended and will efficiently chug along capturing music, splitting it appropriately (with customized options if desired), tagging, and saving it at the chosen location. This was one of my favorite programs in the Replay Director suite. Replay Converter is designed to convert video and audio files from the computer or DVD into files on the computer or burned on disk. It worked well in converting non-commercial video from DVD into .avi format on my hard drive that could then be played back in Windows Media Player. The quality of the converted file was indistinguishable from the original for my purposes. It detected two files to convert from the DVD and reported one conversion succeeded and the other failed. When played back, however, all of the video content from the disk was viewable on the file that succeeded. Replay Media Splitter is more geared towards splitting and joining video files, although it can also handle audio files. Finally, Video Padlock is a program to encrypt files. It is geared towards encrypting video files with the option to just encrypt the initial portion of the file. This makes the file unplayable, but speeds up playback by limiting the amount of media that needs to be unencrypted. It can encrypt any file, but I did not see any advantage in doing this over the encryption capability included within Windows. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: The Replay Capture Suite is actually a set of individual programs, that altogether allow “capture” of all kinds of video and/or Audio events that pass through one’s computer. Once captured, the events can be played, converted from one format to another, annotated, edited, and organized, using one or several of the tools in the suite. The Director is the Command Center, where each of the individual modules can be managed. Besides being able to launch any of the programs, the Director advises when a new version of any of the programs is available and provides the necessary download link. There are also links to the How-To videos, Discussion Forums, Customer Support and Ordering, as well as a Tip of the Week. Although it is not essential, I found that it was an excellent program that helped me manage my Capture Sessions and reminded me of some of the other tools which I might otherwise not have explored. My broadcast media of choice is the radio, and although I do listen whenever I can, I miss many programs that I would like to hear. So, my first choice in this suite was the Replay AV. I was pleasantly surprised at the actual simplicity of this program. Under the "Shows" Menu item, I found thousands of possible online and recorded radio shows, podcasts, Internet TV stations, and even shows suggested by other “Replay Members”. (This same screen is actually a page on the Applian Web-site: the Replay Guide.) Using the links here, I was able to zero in on my favourite radio stations, and found the podcasts of many of the shows that I like to listen to. I know of the podcasts, but had not had great success in figuring out how to get them to play on my computer. Now, I can select the ones that I want, and using the built-in scheduler, set them up to record when new podcasts of those programs are published. As long as I have Replay AV running on my computer, it does all the hard work. Whenever it is off for a while, I open it, and can tell it to check the pod listings and update any that it has missed. My only problem now is to find time to listen to them all. I did this before having looked at any of the explanatory videos on the Applian Site. I do recommend at least scanning through the Demo Videos. They give very good descriptions of the functions of each of the modules. The explanations are presented in a friendly fashion and avoid unnecessary technical jargon. They are fun to watch and I often found little tricks pointed out there that I would otherwise have missed. Replay Music functions like most of the others. By selecting "Start Recording" and navigating to the Web site where music is playing, Replay Music will start recording it.. Then with your web browser you navigate to the site where your music is playing. It will attempt to recognize and rename the recording, or you can select the name of your choice. When you stop recording, you can move the tracks up and down in your list, and edit, delete, or burn the tracks to CD. For Video Recordings, I tried both modules and the Replay Video Capture and the Replay Media Catcher. They function similarly to Replay Music but require use of the Converter or Media Splitter if one does more than save and play the recordings. Weak points. Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: I was quite unhappy with the update process required. Since this is essentially a "bundle" of stand-alone applications, each has a different version number and they're all over the map. At least Applian provides a way to keep track of them and when each has an update available. While attempting to do the updates, I discovered that each one required that I remove the existing version and reboot the computer before installing the new version. That, to me, is a significant shortcoming in the update process. The Replay Media Splitter application reportedly supports: AVI, WMA, WMV, MP3 & ASF file formats. I had some problems with this one. It never did load a small 6.5 MB video clip so I could not get a proper test to work. It just became unresponsive and I had to kill it with my task manager. In digging for information on this problem in the Forum, it appears that this is an issue for many. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: This is a complex and powerful suite of programs. Therefore, there is a learning curve, which must be climbed in order to learn which program works best for a project. The process to upgrade components needs to be automated and streamlined. They get off to a good start in Replay Director where the components are displayed along with their current version and an indication of whether it is the most up-to-date. If there is an update, clicking on the update link navigates to the appropriate download page of their Web site. The file is saved in the selected location. At that point, a message advises that optimal updating is done by installing the current version of the program, rebooting, and then installing the updated version. This part needs to be automated. This is further confused by the presentation of the option to update without uninstalling. It should be either ok to update without uninstalling or not; this should be decided by the developer, not left up to the less-informed end-user. This became even further complicated when I did uninstall older version of programs, rebooted, and reinstalled and found that reinstallation of other already installed components were being pushed and this process was not easily circumvented. In this process, I ended up with a copy of “Appian Director” on my system in addition to the original “Replay Director”. Appian Director appears identical to Replay Director, but would load when Replay Director would not, as described later in this review. One annoyance, which should be easy to fix, is that each program under the Replay Director umbrella needs to be registered separately the first time it is used. Since these programs are sold as a suite, there should be one registration entry that is automatically applied to each program in the suite. In Replay A/V’s show-scheduling function, a popup hint would appear every time a show was scheduled. The hint form had the option to “don’t show this hint again”. Checking this box only meant that it did not pop up for scheduling that particular show. However, when the next show was selected, the very same hint popped up again and again. The Media guide could use some additional refinement in helping find appropriate content. For example, a checkbox that limits shows to English language content would have been useful to me. Also, I was surprised to see the first page of content on the podcasts page linking to hardcore porn sites. Perhaps a parental controls checkbox would be useful as well. Replay Music did not initially recognize the audio stream from Pandora or Slacker on my system. I uninstalled Replay Music and installed the most recent version. Then I closed my browser (Firefox) completely before allowing Replay Music to reopen the music site from its menu. With that combination of corrections, it did recognize Pandora and begin recording. By default, the Input Source is “Audio Driver”; while this is apparently the best source under this program, it will record all of the sounds through one’s speakers, including sounds from other programs should the user be multitasking while recording. I was hoping that Replay Media Splitter would have more automated options. Audio and video files can be played and break points (markers) selected, but there is no automatic location of break points between songs or scenes, and navigation is choppy. There is also no visual representation of the content (such as a graph showing the waveform) other than a simple bar. One can move along the progression bar (which represents file length) by clicking on it with the mouse, or in jumps of 2 minutes or 1/20th of the file length. The mouse movements can be refined by zooming in, but overall, I found the process to be awkward. After selecting one of the individual programs through Replay Director, Replay Director would often disappear from my screen and taskbar. Closing the individual program would not make Replay Director reappear, yet attempting to restart Replay Director would result in a message saying that Replay Director was already running. It could not be seen again until the system was rebooted and the program reloaded. I found no personal use for Video Padlock, the encryption program although it would be useful for keeping sensitive files private. I use the encryption function available in Windows XP for encrypting my password list. Video Padlock seems like it would be just as capable of a job, but would require extra baggage to install on one’s system for use of its interface. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: I found that it is usually preferable to set up recording times to correspond with times when the computer is not too occupied. Quite frequently, while one of the Replay programs was actively recording, the CPU activity would spike to 100%, and stay there, often for 15-20 seconds. If I were trying to do other work on the computer, particularly when copying or moving files with Explorer, the computer would freeze completely. It seemed that these periods of intense CPU activity corresponded with times when anti-malware programs were active and would overload the computer, causing it to freeze. Each of the programs saves its files in a different directory, which is chosen by the program by default. I try to use my C:\ drive only for the Operating System and Program files, and store all my data on separate drives. I would appreciate an easy way to save all my Replay Data files somewhere other than in the default folders in “My Documents” (on the C:\ drive). It would be handy if an additional function could be added to the Applian Director, where the different settings for all the programs in the Suite could be managed by the user from one central location. Developer's Web site. Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: Generally, the Web site was well laid out and easy to navigate. All the options were clearly explained including a try-or-buy feature for each one. I did run across a few broken links and not all of the modules display the purchase price. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: The Web site has a series of video tutorials that step through the specific activities possible with this suite. They were generally clear and understandable. The Replay Guide helps find a wide variety of TV and radio stations, and podcasts. It is extensive in scope and user-friendly in having a clear and understandable interface. The forums are devoted to each individual program and posting is moderately active. I found useful tips inside the forums that were not found elsewhere. Much of the Web site had repetitive prompts to download a trial or to buy the software. This wore thin after a while, but was not nearly as offensive as other programs’ Web sites I have seen in the past. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Easy access to the site is provided from the Applian director. The How-To videos are prominently displayed and take up a significant portion of the site. There are also “How-To” Help files, with each step extensively illustrated with screenshots of the program, showing how to achieve results step-by-step. The Support section houses the Discussion Forums, where users can post questions and problems, and get help either from support staff or other users. A nice touch is the CEO Blog. There are sections of the site concerned with orders and sales, but they take limited space. The site is well-designed, easy to navigate, and interesting. Other comments. Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: As with any bundled set of programs, not everything may be useful or needed. There is an option during installation to pick and choose which ones to install. In the Replay Capture Suite, all the modules are included in the $79 purchase price, a bargain if more than a couple of modules are needed because individual pricing ranges from $20 to $40 each. Each module has a "Try before you buy" option. For testing purposes, I installed everything available but will probably not keep all the modules installed since I have no real need for some of them. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: Trial versions of the components are available for download. They are mostly limited in the number of files they can process. The features I would most like to see the most in the next version is the addition of more visual cues and customizable automation when editing files. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Unlike many computer users, I do very little downloading of audio and video files, so I was a bit apprehensive when starting on this project. However, I need not have worried, for this very complete package is easy to use. It is clearly in continuous development, for there are updates to one or another of the programs quite frequently. For those who use mobile appliances to listen to music or watch videos, this program has a special module devoted to converting downloaded files into the formats required by the mobile, and vice versa. There is even a module called “At-large Recorder” for those who use SlingBox. The whole Suite is quite expensive, so I would recommend trying out the free demos of the programs first. Will you continue to use it? Reviewer 1 - Dana Bostick: Yes. The video and audio capture capabilities are useful and I do have a need for a video and audio conversion utility now and then. This puts them all in one place, avoiding the need to have multiple applications from different developers installed to do the various functions that Replay Capture Suite provides. Reviewer 2 - Name withheld by request: Yes. For all of its quirks and complexities, this is a very useful program to capture and convert audio and video content. Reviewer 3 - Peter Royle: Yes. |
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home, XP Media Center, Vista Premium Home
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