If you are in the market for a streaming recorder, I hope this brief article will describe some of the key advantages as well as providing you essential information and facts on exactly how this is really carried out the right way, and providing assured results 100% of the time.
I happen to record streaming video somewhat regularly these days and it has got to the position that my personal computer has turned into some kind of ‘centralized data center’. I virtually have everything I need in one single location: my personal computer. Not only do I have my work documents but I also have my private data files which includes all my favorite songs, photographs and now, nearly all my favorite videos and shows all on the same hard-drive. This came quite by accident and occurred when I started going a bit nuts having all types of multimedia in several places. I had my music on CD’s, my iPod and lord knows just how many memory sticks, and then there were movies on DVD’s and on my home hard-drive / DVD player. It was all over the place and to be frank, a tad of a pain to manage.
Now it’s all very well having video and music made available on-line but what happens when you are out of town? Of course, you could use your mobile data connection, find a coffee-shop or mall with free wireless Internet access, or even utilize the hotel’s WiFi service. But I’ve noticed that this is normally awkward or even turns out to be somewhat expensive in the end (try watching a movie on your mobile data connection and you are going to fall down when you receive the bill!).
Thus my solution was to basically download or record the video from my favorite websites and then watch it any time and wherever I want (when I had some time, when I felt like it, and so on.).
In this brief article, I’m going to focus on recording streaming video. Most streaming video or audio is sent to your personal computer using something referred to as RTMP (“Real Time Messaging Protocol”) which is really a specific method of communication to handle streaming content over the internet (RTMP was developed by Adobe Systems – a respected player in the multimedia software business).
There are a couple of ways to record streaming video. The first one is to use a software program to download or record the online video into a file located on your hard-drive. It does this ‘in the background’ whilst you actually view the video itself. The principle benefit of this method is that the quality of the video and sound is rather high. However, there are some broadcasters (for example, the UK’s Channel 4 on-demand service) that have somewhat clever detection mechanisms which prevent users from achieving this. So if this doesn’t work out, you have to go on to the other technique which is called ‘screen capture’. Once again, using special software, you can literally record your computer monitor (or just an area of it) and once the program finishes, you simply click the STOP button and a video file is stored on your hard disk. Whilst the quality isn’t as great as the first approach, at least it works 100% of the time but somewhat annoyingly; you cannot use your computer whilst it’s recording. So yes, it’s annoying but at least you get to record the video.
With these two techniques, you’re assured to get the video onto your computer with no trouble whatsoever.
If you’re interested in understanding more about what a streaming recorder can do and other subjects related to personal multimedia, please pop over to my blog for further information: http://www.streamingrecorder.org/
Multimedia LearningFor hundreds of years verbal messages such as lectures and printed lessons have been the primary means of explaining ideas to learners. Although verbal learning offers a powerful tool, this book explores ways of going beyond the purely verbal. Recent advances in graphics technology and information technology have prompted new efforts to understand the potential of multimedia learning as a means of promoting human understanding. In Multimedia Learning, Second Edition, Richard E. Mayer examines whether people learn more deeply when ideas are expressed in words and pictures rather than in words alone. He reviews 12 principles of instructional design that are based on experimental research studies and grounded in a theory of how people learn from words and pictures. The result is what Mayer calls the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, a theory first developed in the first edition of Multimedia Learning and further developed in The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning.