Posts By: Natalie North

Know Your Recording Rights (and Your Super Bowl Commercials)

Posted | Category: Applian Software, Replay Video Capture.

superbowl-blog

Whew. What a game last Sunday! We could barely pull ourselves from our screen — especially in those last ten minutes. As we marveled in the replays and even went back to replay the streaming feed on NBC, thanks to our Replay Video Capture software, we realized that some customers and those non-Applian laymen might think that our insistence of recording this NFL game might be (*gasp) illegal. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not. But the NFL does a fantastic job at making you think so. An intelligent Ars Technica article that came out last week does a great job explaining why it’s not. Here’s a sample:

The NFL is also drastically overstating its case when it comes to actual copies of the game or pictures coming from it. You can record the Super Bowl. It’s been undeniably, unquestionably legal since 1984 that you can record the broadcast to watch later (and skip commercials, if you’re so inclined). And the fair use doctrine that allows you to do this also lets you use those recordings for other purposes, too. If you want to use clips for commentary or criticism or news reporting of some aspect of the game or the broadcast, that’s perfectly legal, too.

So don’t fear, Applian friends. Go ahead and get your Super Bowl re-watch on. Oh, and if you missed all of the advertising action because of the NBC stream, we highly recommend that you check out this full recap of the multi-million-dollar spots.

Our personal favorite, and slightly underrated, was the pitch-perfect Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler commercial from T-Mobile. We hope it’s an ongoing theme, because we love seeing comedians do what they do best — make fun of themselves and each other:

GET OUT OF THE BOX: Why You Should Cut Your Cable Today

Posted | Category: Applian Software, Media Business, Replay Capture Suite, Replay Video Capture.

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Much has been said of the Golden Age of television today, and now, more than ever, more is being done to take the TV out of the box and onto your more savvy technological devices. We’ve been in this industry for a long time and there has never been a better time to unplug from TV subscriptions and go in for online media subscriptions and computer software (like us!). Here’s why:

THE CABLE COMPANY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

It’s not difficult to notice your cable package getting more and more expensive every year. Analysts have discovered that the price of TV subscriptions have increased 32% over the last five years. At this rate, it’s already increasing faster than inflation. So, even if you’re in that steady job, you’ll need a raise every time you renew your platform to watch Judge Judy. Not to mention the Net Neutrality debacle to strangle the open playing field for Internet speed (we recommend watching this funny and honest segment by John Oliver for context) Basically, media companies are realizing that the new age of online content is happening like a tsunami and they want to tie you to the weight that is a cable package.

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MORE CONTENT FOR LESS EFFORT (AND MONEY)

There are so many great services online to find original content, television shows, and full-length movies. And, much of it involves very little heavy lifting on your end. Not only do you get to create your own “playlists” or queues of content to watch, but also you no longer get the incessant noise of near constant commercials. Here are some of our quick tips on the different sources for your “new cable”:

  • HBOGo: It’s not TV, indeed. HBO announced they are working on a subscription-only plan that doesn’t even need a cable provider, but for now, you can still access archives of award-winning television and monthly new episodes and movies online.
  • Netflix: Everyone’s favorite new media platform, Netflix has been breaking the mold with their original content and providing endless hours of syndicated TV and hundreds of great movies streaming. Additionally, they refresh their stock monthly.
  • Amazon Prime: Making news with their Golden Globe-winning “Transparent”, Amazon has been making waves in original content as well with their Instant Video subscription. Not to mention, they have a different hold on networks and studios, so they offer different options than Netflix has, and can’t get.
  • Google Chromecast: This is a pay-as-you-go service and TV plug-in device, similar to On Demand Movies (or Xbox, Apple TV, etc), wherein you pay for films you’d like to see. Many of them are recently released to theaters or just out to the public. There is also a ton of content if you synch your HULU Plus account and “cast” from there. Pretty much any computer screen can be “casted” to your television, so it makes YouTube a whole new world of entertainment.

This is just a sampling and a generalized description of the options that are open to the cord-cutters out there. Sure, some research is involved, but getting an extra $50 to $150 back in your wallet every month is definitely worth it.

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GET EVERYTHING YOU NEED

But what about live TV? With services like Pluto TV providing options for news and music channels, and more and more major networks making their primetime events streaming, for example the Super Bowl will be online for free for eleven hours (including pre and post-game coverage); it’s only fitting that the future is adapting to a whole audience of chord-cutters. In fact, geography doesn’t even matter if you integrate a VPN service to allow you to tiptoe over international restrictions to access sites like BBC.

Sure, there are now more places to find great content, but what’s the next step in storing and re-watching the media you love? Thankfully products like Replay Video Capture and our Replay Capture Suite can take all of the shows and movies you love, and keep them for “re-runs” whenever you’d like. You can also record and capture one-time streaming events or programs while you’re not around or at your computer.

 

With all of these options out there, it only makes sense to make the leap into this brave new cordless world. And, we’ll be here to guide you confidently through it!

Enjoy the Super Bowl with Replay Video Capture 7

Posted | Category: Applian Software, Miscellaneous, Replay Video Capture, Video.

superbowl-blog

What a season of football! And it’s all about to end in a week with the Super Bowl. Specifically, a game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. If you’re like us then you aren’t just watching it for the end score, but also for the halftime show, the expensive commercials, and the pre-game commentary. Now, you don’t even need to watch it from the ugly jumbo TV in that noisy pub you hate, you can actually stream it LIVE on your PC through NBC. Which also means that you can record all of the spontaneous action and hilarity with your copy of Replay Video Capture 7.

In fact, one of our favorite parts of watching the NFL is pretending we’re the Bad-Lip Reading folks and coming up with our own witty quips in the mouths of 200+ lb. athletes.  If you record and capture the game on February 1st, you can even make one for yourself! And just in case you missed it, they released the new NFL Bad-Lip Reading 2015, so be sure to check it out below for inspiration. Oh, and don’t forget to grab Replay Video Capture before kickoff on Sunday!

Try it for FREE today!

 

Dr. Wilson’s Possibly humorous Distraction – Vol 9

Posted | Category: Miscellaneous.

We love Lego just as much as we love technology, which is why this hilarious video is this months’ PhD Video! Eddie Izzard, the British rambling funnyman takes on technology as his jokes and ideas are mirrored with Lego pantomimes. Get some laughs today, and check out the video below.

On the topic of Lego, your Applian Doctor himself, Jeff Wilson, had his nudge with fame as his Flickr photoset got published on io9. In his words, “I don’t know about the “subversive” bit, other than I was trying to show that the much maligned Lego Friends series for girls can be a lot of fun if you think outside of the Heartlake City boundaries”.

Lego’s ‘Friends’ dolls are a popular, if problematic, piece of gendered merchandising – but in the hands of creative Lego fans they can become something much cooler. We’ve had Lego Superfriends, and now thanks to Flickr User Jeffrey Wilson we’ve got the Lego Girls donning Mech suits.

Pretty cool, huh? See more here.

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The End of Grooveshark Recording?

Posted | Category: Media Business, Replay Music.

It looks like Grooveshark is in a heap of trouble, according to this article in Ars Technica.

A judge found that Grooveshark employees were encouraged to upload thousands of songs to the service. As far as I understand the legality, if users upload it’s OK for Grooveshark, but it’s pretty obviously a copyright violation if employees of the company are doing it – especially when directed by management. This violates the basic rule of thumb of copyright law: Don’t redistribute other people’s stuff without their permission.

There’s still a lot of great music sites out there (which Replay Media Catcher and Replay Music record from nicely). But Grooveshark is one of my favorites.

YouTube MP3 Fridays

Posted | Category: Applian Software, Music, Replay Media Catcher.

For the last couple of Fridays, YouTube has changed how they are delivering videos, which has broken our downloading software (as well as all of our competitors). In particular, the Vevo branded music videos seem to be the ones that get the new technology first. Nevertheless, we are on top of it, and have managed to get new releases ready within a day or two of the changes. The bad news is that our engineering team is starting to loathe the end of the week.

The latest format is called MPEG-DASH — according to our alpha geek. We are having to do a little extra work to turn this format into a playable file, but the end result is as good as ever.

If you’re an avid YouTube downloader, you might consider trying Replay Video Capture for Video, and Replay Music for Music if you don’t want any downtime. Both of these products take an “analog” approach to recording, and will record video and music in high quality no matter what YouTube does behind the scenes.

Replay Media Catcher is still the fastest way to download from most video and music sites, and it makes a perfect digital copy of the original file. So no matter what changes happen in the future, we’ve got you covered!

Comcast will Double my Speed – after I Visit The Comcast Store

Posted | Category: Miscellaneous.

Calling Comcast about my internet service is always an adventure, but today was especially interesting. I was getting less than my promised 20 Mbps download speed, even after upgrading to a DOCSIS 3 model like they told me to three weeks ago, and so I gave them a call. The really polite gentleman on the phone had me read the MAC address and serial number of the modem to him, and then told me that Comcast speeds would be doubling in a week or so. Good news, right?

Next, he told me I had to go visit the nearest Comcast store, and give them the same information I had just given him about my modem. I asked why, but never got an answer. When I finally persisted, explaining that the nearest store was all the way across the city, he told me he could just use the information I had given him over the phone, and that I didn’t really need to visit the store after all. WTF?

I’m sure this is a ploy by Corporate to get more people to the stores so that they can be talked into upgrading to some new DVR or service, but was it really necessary – or even a good idea? Had I not kept asking why I had to do this, I might have spent half a day just to become victim to a sales effort. Not cool.

Anyone else have this experience? Let us know in the comments.

Will Google Ever Let Us Advertise? Help me Susan Wojcicki.

Posted | Category: Applian News, Media Business.

Until about five years ago, we used to be good sized advertisers on Adwords. Google abruptly changed their policies, and with very little warning banished us from Adwords and AdSense. Forever. We never really had a good explanation as to why this happened, only some vague references to “hacking and cracking” in their Terms of Service. (We are fully DMCA compliant, so this is quite puzzling – and unfair.) It was more frustrating at the time because our competitors were allowed to continue advertising. And even today, we still see Google ads for competing products. Google even subsidizes RealPlayer, which offers a basic download functionality along with the bloatware (IMO) that makes up the rest of the product. Today – I’ve finally had enough.

At Ad:Tech in San Francisco, I watched an excellent presentation by Susan Wojcicki, Google’s SVP of Advertising, on the future of online ads. After her speech, I cornered her backstage and explained to her that we never really got a fair hearing, and that Google being the #1 advertising platform has a duty to keep an open playing field. She took my card, and promised to get their Policy Team on the case. She wouldn’t give me her contact info, but I know where she works 😉

I’m not optimistic that Google will change for us. I believe the MPAA and other studios pressure Google to block downloading products. That being said, I wonder why the MPAA doesn’t raise a fuss about RealPlayer being bundled with Google Toolbar and Chrome – both of which subsidize Real’s downloads. Our tools are superior, but it’s still a competitor we have to deal with, and having exclusive access to Google’s products in our category gives them an unfair advantage.

Susan Wojcicki – I’m awaiting a reply…

Downloading Media and Copyright Trolls

Posted | Category: Media Business.

People are getting their media fix in a variety of ways these days. Some use our software to record or download for their personal use, others go to clearly illegal download sites, and some use BitTorrent. While downloading is the most convenient and fastest way to capture video or audio, it does have some inherent risks. And some unscrupulous people will try to take advantage.

Take the case of Prenda Law, documented by blogger Popehat and others here. (Read the link backwards for a good history.) In a nutshell, a few lawyers allegedly bought the rights to worthless adult movies, had them posted on BitTorrent, and then watched as other people used Torrent software to download them. They captured the IPs of the downloaders, and then subpoenaed the internet providers to get the name of the customers. Then they filed copyright actions against these alleged downloaders, in the hopes that they would settle rather than going to court to defend themselves from downloading porn. A pretty clever scheme.

This is starting to fall apart, as many bloggers and opposing lawyers claim the very same lawyers who were doing the suing also formed the company to buy the copyrights, and tried to hide this fact from the courts. Oh – and these guys apparently did some identify theft to make a CEO for these holding companies. One federal judge is particularly not amused, and has ordered all the parties to appear in his courtroom April 2. A lot of people are following this, as it’s pretty unusual for a judge to take these steps.

Nevertheless, I understand from reading articles about this that many people caught downloading have decided to pay up to $3000 instead of fighting this in court, which is the preferred outcome to begin with for these (alleged) schemers.

The moral – when you download something from a file download or torrent site, your IP address is available, and anyone motivated enough can find out who you are. Using products like ours – where the server logs look like normal use – is one way to protect yourself.

Play the Search Suggestion Game

Posted | Category: Miscellaneous.

I’m at a SEO conference today, and one of the best presentations was by a group of Google employees on some of the moral and ethical challenges of running a search engine. Matt Cutts – the Google official SEO blogger – was on the panel, as well as a couple of other people.

I was amazed at how a lot of issues come up with how to handle certain Google search results. Some of the panel’s examples were interesting. Should a suicide note left on a web site come up when searching for the victim’s name? Should a white supremacist hate site about Martin Luther King come up in the search results for MLK? Should posts warning about the dangers of vaccinations come up when searching about the safety of vaccines appear – in spite of sound scientific evidence against and the fact that misinformation could cost lives? And in some cases, Google execs in foreign lands have been arrested for videos appearing on YouTube – what does Google do about that? I had no idea.

Another fun aspect of this debate was the search suggestions that Google provides. These mirror what people are actually entering, and aren’t censored or edited at all – in spite of the fact they can be offensive to some. Try entering “asians are b” or “americans are f” and see what Google expects you to type next. It’s both funny and horrifying.

At our family dinner table, I shared this with the kids, and we tried the Search Suggestion game on their names. We tried “Bryce is” and “Laurel is”, and got some hilarious results – both complementary and insulting. Try this with your own kids names for fun!

Recording Online Media Since 1997
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