By Jim Bray
What happens
when you watch a particularly hot - or controversial - video on YouTube and
just have to have it for yourself, forever? Or what happens when you want to
listen to your favourite streaming talk show but have to be away from the
computer while it's on?
That's the
rationale behind Applian Technology's Replay Capture Suite, a series
of interacting apps that will do all that and much more. It's a pretty impressive
set of tools and it appears to work well.
The $79USD suite,
individual modules of which are also available separately, includes tools for
capturing video or music from any website, as well as conversion and editing
tools you can use to file the serial numbers off your purloined programming.
And that still isn't all the suite can let you do!
Netflix on
the go…
Potential
copyright issues aside (and if you're only recording for personal use it
shouldn't be a big deal), Media Catcher 7 will let you record Netflix, Hulu and
other such streaming services, which could be really handy if you're binge
watching something but are afraid the companies will delete the later episodes
before you get finished with them. Applian says you can download the stuff to
your computer and watch them at your leisure.
This can bite
you in the bum if the web page is full of disparate stuff, for example
commercials or other embedded videos, because it'll download the whole shebang
if you have configured the software that way - but you can also choose the individual
file(s) you want to record. That's my preferred way, but of course your mileage
may vary.
I imagine
this product could be quite popular with porn aficionados…
I've noticed
that Media Catcher can also find multiple versions of a particular video on a
page, and it'll give you the chance to download them all or to choose the one(s)
you want. This lets you download them all, in one swell foop, and then figure out
the one with the best quality (or smallest file size, or whatever) once they're
stored locally. Then you can merely dump the ones you don't want lest they
waste hard drive space.
As I did a
few years ago with an earlier version of the suite, I used Replay Media Catcher
7 to record a bunch of second world war videos I found on YouTube that I wanted
to burn to a DVD and give to my 97 year old father, who has no internet access
and even less interest in getting it. Yet these classic, World War II aircraft videos
would be of particular interest to him - a Halifax bomber airman (or, as Justin
Trudeau would put it, an "airperson") who served in the Royal
Canadian Air Force back then.
His aversion
to things technological, and the fact that he lives thousands of miles from me,
meant he'd never have a chance to watch these videos if I didn't record and
burn them for him. And it worked fine. Thanks, Replay Suite!
How easy is the
suite to use? Heck, all you really have to do is fire up the software and then
play the video, movie, tune or whatever - and the app will download it to your
PC (or Mac). There's a built-in media guide as well, which can help you find
the content over which you want to hoist your personal Jolly Roger - and once
you've started the recording you can leave the web page and go elsewhere and
it'll continue downloading anyway.
Applian says
the suite supports over 130 device and file formats. I haven't even scratched
the surface of the ones that are available and can't imagine ever needing most
of them, but it's nice to have such flexibility built in because you never know
what you'll need at any particular time - today or tomorrow.
Replay
Converter will also let you burn DVD's, CD's and other disc formats, for
archiving, sending to Dear Old Dad, or whatever.
Once your
files are downloaded and stored, assuming your home is configured with a
network and you have some smart devices such as TV's, Rokus or the like, you
can stream them to another part of your house. And it works great! I downloaded
a couple of YouTube videos and streamed them to the Bose SoundLink in the
living room, via the built in media player of the Roku Express that's installed
there.
The Video
Capture component lets you record video that's playing on your monitor. As Applian
says, you can "make production quality videos from ANY web site or program
by recording directly from your PC screen. If Replay Media Catcher can't
record it, Replay Video Capture will."
It works,
too. All you have to do is mark out the area of your monitor screen that you
want captured, via the transparent window the software creates (you drag and
drop the edges to surround the area you want to record), press
"record" and Robert's your parent's male sibling.
Replay Music
lets you record music from any web site or player and it supposedly adds
artist, title, lyrics, art and more, automatically. It tries to, anyway. The
first time I tried it I recorded a Who track from my music library and, while
it saved it as a FLAC file just fine, it labelled it as a Dan Hartman song. Yep,
nothing's perfect - and I have a sinking feeling it might have been my fault in
how I'd configured it. I'll blame the software, though…
Replay
Telecorder for Skype lets you record phone calls, video chats, conference
calls, whatever: anything that you can do with Skype. I haven't tried that one,
since I Skype rarely but imagine it would be a pretty neat way to archive
family calls and the like. Or maybe just to cover your bum legally, depending
on the conversation…
Video Padlock lets you encrypt your videos (or ANY file on
your computer) securely.
The Suite
does appear to work as advertised, mostly so far, anyway (obviously, I'm still
in the learning curve but enjoying it very much!), and the apps are easy to use
and pretty flexible. Applian has even included a bunch of introductory videos
on its website.
The suite is quite
affordable, too, considering the power and flexibility you're getting.
Copyright 2018
Jim Bray
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