HotRecorder - Record Skype Calls
The hot product of the week award goes to HotRecorder. With the capability to not only answer Skype Calls but record them as well. This is the first "free product" to enable one click SkypeCasting. I tested it today as both an answerphone and Skype Call recorder. It worked very effectively in both modes. It also enables you to insert "emotisounds" into any conversation whether you are recording or not.
A shortened description:
HotRecorder™ allows users to record and add sound effects (Emotisounds™) on voice communications held over the internet. It also includes voice mail for Skype™!The creation of HotRecorder™ responds to the growing demand of users throughout the world, for a tool that will allow them to record, play, save, send and search their voice communications, plus many other options.
HotRecorder
Observations:
Using it with Skype:
Now it's very cool that HotRecorder has captured windows audio so effectively. I can't yet vouch for what it does if you are in one call and get another while you are recording one as a podcast. You can disable the voice mail recorder however I think you will get the "ringing" of the inbound line in your podcast. The only way to fix that currently would be to put a silent ringer in your wave file.
HotRecorder doesn't dock with the SkypeAPI in anyway. Consequently any calls it answers for Skype are just listed as "Conversation with VoiceMail" with the date and time. This contrasts with the efforts of SAM and Pamela which captures who left a message and make it a simple one click to answer back.
Similarly HotRecorder provides no warning to other Skypers that they are now being recorded. If HotRecorder was integrated with the SkypeAPI then whenever the "recording" button was hit it could send a text message to the other caller. Similarly it could text that recording was stopped or paused. I really hope they come and ask us some questions. It would be a shame not to integrate it in this way. It's an obvious upgrade and would provide some significant new product features and benefits.
I've not looked too closely at the "recording" file format. The desire to have the capability to manipulate the file for podcasts means this format needs a converter. Who can provide it by Monday? Then again, If podcasters are comfortable recording and distributing in this format there will soon be a lot of HotRecorders out there.
Similarly there are some different quality setting. Which I've not experimented with yet. HotRecorder won't enable you to record iTunes and the Skype Call at the same time.
See also ZDNet
Comments
Great news Stuart, I will be testing it today. Is there a concern about the United Virtualities connection in the past to questionalble marketing strategies? I will be reading the Terms of Agreement closely.
Thanks again and great work today with the Voice mail info as well,
Graham J Wallace
Posted by: Graham J Wallace | March 26, 2005 10:31 AM
Graham, It probably is a good idea to look closely at the EULA. I certainly didn't like the advertising. Then that is part of the proposition. There's a thread on the Skype Forum here. http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=22255&highlight=
Posted by: Stuart Henshall | March 26, 2005 11:46 AM
It appears to work. But it also appears to use a proprietary audio format. What a shame, as this makes it that much harder to use for things like podcasting. The only route I can see is to use Hotrecorder to capture the skype call, and then to play it back and capture it again with something that grabs sound output.
Posted by: Julian Bond | March 27, 2005 11:22 PM
Wonder how this will effect SAM and Pamela Proffessional due out later.
Regards
adam Harris
Posted by: Adam Harris | March 28, 2005 06:27 AM
Impossible to uninstall, cannot use Add/Delete programs. The link in the "Programs" menu fails and the program in the Program Files is a dummy - does nothing except ask a question and does not uninstall - BEWARE! This could be a spyware scam. I still cannot get it off my machine.
Posted by: Walter Adamson | April 1, 2005 12:17 AM
Walter,
Thanks very much for your warning. Add/Remove was not something I tried before posting. I uninstalled using start / all programs / hotrecorder/uninstall. Hotrecorder was not running in the system tray when I did this. I asked Bill to try it via add/remove and he clearly couldn’t see it either. After using the above method I checked the program files folder. While a Hotrecorder folder was still there, it only contained the recorded conversations I had tested with. Bill using the same approach removed it from his machine. I agree it should link to the add / delete programs. United Virtualities appears to have a “reputation”, I know of no one so far that has identified any spam components in Hotrecorder.
If you remain concerned my approach is to use the Window’s system restore function and take the system back to just before you added hotrecorder. Many times I’ll use that approach after installing something that doesn’t work correctly. Unfortunately, if you have added other programs as well since hotrecorder then this action forces you to reinstall those. It also pays to create a hard restore point before installing new software. You won’t lose data files created for those programs.
If Hotrecorder was broken by deleting some files... you can reinstall it and then remove it using the start /all programs/hotrecorder/uninstall approach.
Posted by: Stuart Henshall | April 1, 2005 08:46 AM
The features are cool, but the window pop-up on every skype action is irritating. Also, sometimes it crashes skype.
Good ideas, mediocre UI and lack of sleek integration.
To go further on what stuart said regarding the advertisments - I think it's a wrong strategy. If you quickly develop a feel of detest to a software, you'll be less prone to purchase a license for it.
Posted by: Uri L. | April 3, 2005 05:42 AM
With HotRecorder you can always uninstall the unit whenever you want, but you need to close the HotRecorder application by clicking on the icon in the system tray to uninstall successfully. If you are having any problems, you can always contact support@hotrecorder.com and they will help you immediately.
Posted by: George Simpson | April 4, 2005 10:13 AM
A gauge for wisdom.- The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill-temper. ......
Posted by: tulley hugibert | November 6, 2005 10:42 PM
HotRecorder claims to have a convert to .wav or .ogg feature with the premium version. That should remove the problem with the proprietary format.
Posted by: Ann | January 11, 2006 03:35 PM
the premium version of HotRecorder has a converter to .wav or .ogg, so taking this file into an audio editor make it easy for podcasting
Posted by: shrutis | January 25, 2006 11:41 AM
There's now a Skype recorder for Mac users:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder
It ties into Skype just wonderfully!
Posted by: Sophie Hattman | June 19, 2006 08:34 PM
Use vEmotion
to record other VOIP clients. It provides music sharing for Skype users.
Posted by: livo | August 18, 2006 04:57 PM
Yes. vEmotion is a great program. I use it to share music with my friends and record ICQ / Yahoo voice. But why not provide Skype recording?
Posted by: wangchi | August 19, 2006 06:49 PM
Hi Guys,
I have bought the paid version and am using a usb phone but am having no end of trouble recording both sides of the phone call. Everytime I can hear the person I am calling but not me. Any suggestions? It is driving me crazy
Cheers
Brad
Posted by: Brad | August 21, 2006 03:15 AM
Also try PrettyMay which offers more features such as call recording,answering machine,share music in a conversation
Posted by: skype user | September 12, 2006 01:37 AM
Now I use PrettyMay to record Skype,It's very easy to use.
It's Great!
Posted by: Techice | September 14, 2006 06:20 PM
Check the new free beta - SoliCall - it works great with all softphones. In addition it reduces background noise thus making the call more relaxed.
Posted by: Jango | September 19, 2006 12:53 PM
Audio Vampire is a full-fledged audio editor. It can record any sound played on a PC, including VoIP calls. Skype, MSN messenger and Windows Live Messenger are supported. The sound quality of VoIP call recording is superior to other programs. It does not use the Skype API. The maximum recording length for VoIP calls is 3 hours and 20 minutes. Other audio sources can be recorded until disk space runs out. Also, Audio Vampire has an extensive range of sound editing/effect capabilities. It can even rip CDs. Check it out.
Audio Vampire is a shareware program, made by TechnoCraft.
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