Recording skypecasts

2nd November 2006

posted in webcasts |

In preparation for the upcoming 24 hour skypecast event “When Night Falls” for K12Online06 this weekend, I recorded two screencasts this evening for session moderators explaining how to record their skypecasts and convert the files to MP3 format. Both are linked from the tools page of the event wiki.

The first screencast (WMV format) describes using the free Windows version of PowerGramo to record a Skypecast, and then convert the OGG format file into MP3 using Audacity.

The second screencast (MPEG4 format) describes using the demo version of Call Recorder on a Macintosh computer to record a Skypecast, and then convert the MOV format audio file into MP3 using iTunes.

All the programs described in these screencasts are free except Call Recorder, but its demo is fully functional and just limited in how many days it can be used before it must be purchased for $12.95.

There are a lot of choices for free Windows-based programs that record Skype calls and Skypecasts, but the others I have tried all limited the amount of time you can record with the free version. Powergramo is not time-limited, so that is why I chose to use it. I am not aware of a free program on the Macintosh side for recording skypecasts. Call Recorder works very well for me, and I found its price to be quite reasonable. If anyone knows of free skypecast recording software for Macintosh please let me know, or of better free software on the Windows side than Powergramo.

Technorati Tags: k12online, k12online06

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 12:35 am and is filed under webcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On November 2nd, 2006, Joe Dale said:

Hi Wes,

I use Pretty May http://www.prettymay.net which is great for recording Skype phone calls. I tried Power Gramo and Total Recorder, but found that I could only record the other person, not myself. This may be because I have a USB microphone. Anyway, Pretty May records both sides of the conversation as separate channels and the quality is very good.

Highly recommended!

Best wishes

Joe

Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom – http://www.joedale.typepad.com

2 On November 2nd, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

Cool, thanks Joe. I had not heard of PrettyMay. We need a tool that can record for an hour for “When Night Falls,” so hopefully PowerGramo will work for people. I’ve added PrettyMay to my skype-related social bookmarks tho, and will check it out myself.