Streaming Recorder

If you’re looking for a simple and effective way to record online TV programs, videos, grab radio or music to your computer for personal use, then please goto THIS SPECIAL POST that I put together which includes a simple video demo on how I actually go about recording streaming video (or, for less techy folks, recording online videos) using a streaming recorder.

I use this method to grab all sorts of things online (I mean, almost everything is going online these days…) : TV programs, radio, music, online conferences or ‘webinars’  and even online training or marketing videos. When it comes to recording online TV programs, once I’ve got it on my computer, I typically connect my laptop to my TV (just to be a bit more sociable!) when my wife & I want to watch something in particular. If you’re interested in connecting your laptop to your TV, there’s information on how to do this further below in this blog.

For me, the main benefits of using this approach are:

(i) First and foremost, I can record TV / video, music, online training videos, etc.. and watch them anytime I want. When I eventually find the time, I can watch what I want, when I went (and also wherever I want if I’m travelling).

(ii) Once I’ve got what I want downloaded, I don’t need an Internet connection to watch or listen to my favorite stuff. This is really useful if you’re travelling since it gets really expensive downloading through your mobile connection or via WiFi charges in a hotel or airport (last year on one trip alone, I blew $120 in wireless charges!….now I just use wireless for email or other essential things). Also, if you don’t happen to have a high-speed connection at home, with this method you can even record stuff with dial-up or other slow connection methods (like satellite). Ok, you have to wait until it downloads but at least, when it’s done, you’ve got on your computer to watch or listen to it whenever you like.

(ii) Since the media you record are nothing more than electronic ‘files’ stored on your computer, this makes it easy to change the ‘name’ of the program just by renaming the name of the file. It’s far less irritating than writing on a DVD (I never seem to have one of those DVD-pens handy…..do you?) and on harddrive DVD-recorders or home ‘media’ centers, changing the name of a program can be a real pain in the neck, and certainly time-consuming.

(iii) You can organize your favorite media into seperate folders on your computer. So for TV, you would put all your documentaries in the “Documentaries” folder, your favorite sporting events in “Sport”, etc. Now you don’t have a stack of DVD’s with different programs on them and saves you the hassle of finding the exact thing you want to watch.

(iv) Even if you don’t want to drag your laptop around at home, it’s very easy to ‘convert’ the grabbed videos to make them compatible with a standard DVD-player. I plan to make a seperate post on how to do this in the not too distant future.

(v) For better or worse, my faithful laptop has become my central ‘repository of information‘. I have my work, my personal photos & home videos and now my favorite programs and music in one single place. I don’t have ‘data’ spread around on that DVD, this HD-recorder, that memory-stick (is my data on that blue, red or yellow one?) and that video-camera. With data being nothing more than a bunch of zero’s and one’s, I’d rather have it all in one place. Obviously, if you’re interested in this approach, you ‘re going to need a large hard-drive but even external drives aren’t outrageously expensive (at least, I don’t think so considering what I’m doing) and in any case, they’re getting cheaper year after year. And of course, it’s vital to keep backups in this situation. In my case, I use software to make automatic backups every night to an external hard-drive to have peace of mind. Of course, some of you may view this as a little bit extreme but I tend to think that with more and more things going ‘electronic’, I simply like to have everything in one simple place. When it comes to backups, needless to say, losing my precious family photos and videos would leave me pretty heart-broken.

Anyway, if you’re interested in recording online media to your computer instead of recording to a DVD or DVD-Harddrive recorder or messing around with DVDs and memory-sticks all around the house, as I said please check this special post I put together which will explain things clearly.

With kind regards, Andy

written by Andy \\ tags: record online marketing videos, record online music, record online video, record training videos, recording online video, streaming recorder, streaming recorder benefits

Firstly, may I wish you a warm welcome to my blog. Streaming Recorder is dedicated to helping you understand how you can grab or record streaming video or music to your computer so that you can watch or listen to it without being connected to the Internet and, therefore watch or listen to what you want, whenever you want and even wherever you want.

It seems like we’re connected to the Internet 24 x 7 these days; I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing but one thing I do know is that there are quite a few times when I could do with an Internet connection but simply don’t have it to hand or find it rather expensive. For example, when I’m travelling (happens to me quite a bit), I tend to rack up a heap of expenses on either wireless data connections or WiFi hotel charges. Using techniques and software (which I explain on this site), I must have saved literally hundreds of dollars.

And although broadband back at home is pretty reliable, sometimes I get the occasional problems (especially if the family are on the ‘net as well) watching streaming video. And then there are those video sites which offer programs but, have time limits before it ‘expires’ or gets archived somewhere (the BBC iPlayer is a good example). And what about keeping a collection of those favorite programs on your computer ?….it’s certainly something I like to do…

Of course, it goes without saying that you should be careful here. I only record programs for personal use at home just like the good old days when we had a VCR in the lounge. So piracy or any form of redistribution is a definite no-no. And, personally, if I’m really interested in something passionately, I’ll often just go and buy a copy of the DVD or even, better, Blu-Ray. For example, I have a massive collection of Wildlife documentaries and now with Blu-Ray providing stunning HD quality, I just can’t resist buying it either online or from my local store.

Anyway,  I hope to provide you with really useful and practical advice on how you can record streaming video and audio in a non-techy and no-fuss way. I also plan to provide other useful content related to personal multimedia.

Your comments are welcome anytime. Just leave a reply on the blog post or send me a mail to :  ajtaylormedia@gmail.com

Enjoy!

Andy

written by Andy \\ tags: streaming recorder