Replay
Radio 5.1 User Guide
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This is the User Guide for Replay Radio 5.1. Click below for User Guides for previous versions:
Overview Troubleshooting:
OverviewReplay Radio is best described as a TiVo-like software system for recording Radio broadcasts. It's a great way to ensure you don't miss your favorite shows. You can also use it to record commercial free music radio stations to an MP3 player, iPod or car CD, saving each song as a separate track. For recording from the radio, you can choose from the thousands of streaming radio broadcasts delivered by the Internet. Replay Radio has a list of hundreds of favorite shows and stations to pick from as well. Plus, you can even connect an AM/FM radio to your PC and record any locally broadcast show. To listen to your shows, Replay Radio makes MP3 files for playback on your PC or an MP3 player, or you can command Replay Radio to automatically burn an audio CD for playback on any CD Player. Replay Radio is really simple to use -- here's how the main screen appears:
Replay Radio is a great way to listen to what you want, when you want it.
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This adapter
is available at Radio Shack for about $4. |
Before connecting the adapter, check to be sure you get sound out of the microphone or line-in input. Often times Windows is not set up properly for this by default. You can check this by opening Sound Recorder from Start, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, and then recording something.
Configuring Windows for Recording from External Audio Sources
To record, you need to make sure Microphone or Line In recording is selected using the Windows Volume control. Here's how to set it up properly:
- Double-click on the speaker icon
on
the task bar tray.
OR
If there is no icon,
select Start, Settings, Control Panel. Click Sounds
and Audio Devices (or Sounds and Multimedia). Then
click the Audio tab, then click the Volume button
under Sound Recording.
This opens the Windows Volume Control.
- Click Options, Properties, Adjust
Volume for Recording.
This makes the recording inputs appear.
- Be sure Microphone and Line In are
checked to display these inputs.
(Some PCs may not have a Line In control, in which case just Microphone will appear.) - Click OK.
The Recording Control dialog appears.
- Depending upon your version of Windows, make sure that the Select box for both Microphone and Line-In are checked, and make sure that Mute is unchecked.
- Close the Windows Volume Control.
Replay Radio notes: When you record in this manner, be sure to select the proper Recording Source when adding a new show to record.
Editing a Scheduled Show
You can change your shows easily. Here's how:
- Click on the show to change.
- Click Edit Show. The Edit Show dialog
appears with the Show Summary:
- Make your modifications, then click OK.
See Adding a Show for details on the various options.
You can also double click on a show to open the Edit Show dialog from the main screen.
Deleting a Scheduled Show
To delete a show:
- Click on the show to delete.
- Click Delete Show.
- Click OK when asked to confirm.
The show is removed from the schedule. The
recordings from that show still remain on your PC.
Copying a Scheduled Show
Sometimes you may want to make a duplicate copy of a show, and modify it slightly to make a new show.
Here's how to create a duplicate show:
- Double-click the show you'd like to copy. The Show Summary
screen appears.
- Click the Duplicate button.
- Click OK when a warning message appears, then click OK to return to the list of shows.
- You'll see a duplicate show at the bottom of the list. Double click it to change it.
Important: The new show will have the same scheduled time as the original show, so you will need to change the scheduled time.
Organizing Shows
You can change the order which your scheduled shows appear on the main screen, either by sorting shows, or rearranging them manually. Here's how the main screen appears again:
To sort shows:
- Click the Name or Next Recording heading in the list of shows.
To rearrange the order of shows:
- Click a show, and then click the Move Up or Move Down buttons. The selected show changes position.
Viewing Recorded Shows
You can easily see all the recordings for a particular show, select several, and play them, burn them to a CD, or delete them. here's how:
- Click on a show to select it.
- Click View Recordings. The
View Recordings dialog appears:
Click on the shows to play, burn to CD, or delete.
As you click shows, they appear in the list on the right hand side,
as shown here:
When you've finished selecting shows, choose one of these options:
- Burn Audio CD: Makes an audio CD from the selected tracks. If you're making an audio CD from MP3 files, it may take a while to convert them to the proper format. Also, note that most audio CDs hold a maximum of 74 minutes of audio.
- Burn MP3 CD: Makes MP3 Data CDs. These can hold approximately 700 Mb of data, but you'll need an MP3 capable CD player to listen.
- Play: Plays all the selected tracks in order, using a default MP3 playlist player.
- Delete: Deletes the selected shows.
When you're finished, click Done.
Hint: To view every recorded show, click View Recordings from the main screen without selecting a show, or click the View ALL button in the View Recordings dialog.
Playing Recorded Shows
Use the View Recordings button to play your recorded shows on your PC. (See Viewing Recorded Shows.)
Burning CDs from Recorded Shows
Use the View Recordings button to make audio CDs from your recorded shows. (See Viewing Recorded Shows.)
Deleting Recordings
Use the View Recordings button to delete recorded shows from your PC. (See Viewing Recorded Shows.)
Recording a Listed Show Immediately
Sometimes you may just want to record a radio station that appears in your schedule manually.
Here's how to start recording a scheduled show immediately:
- Click the show to record.
- Click Record Now.
- When you want to stop recording, click Stop Recording.
- Answer Yes when you are asked "Would you like to save the current recording?"
Tuning to a Show Immediately
Sometimes you may just want to listen to a preset show or station without recording. To do this:
- Click the show to listen to.
- Click Tune to Show.
Configuring Replay Radio (Settings)
To fully configure and fine-tune Replay Radio, click the Settings button. The Settings dialog appears. Below are details on each section of the settings dialog:
- Save MP3 or WAV Output files to this folder: Pick a folder where your recorded shows are to be saved.
- Temporary Files Folder: This should be located on a drive that has lots of free space. In some rare cases, Replay Radio captures uncompressed audio, and then converts it to MP3s. Uncompressed audio can be as large as 4 Gigabytes, depending upon the length of your recording.
- Start Connecting : Since it takes time to load the radio feed, as well as connect to the Internet, Replay Radio starts the tuning process before the show is scheduled to start. This setting lets you decide how much time to allow for this process.
- Automatically Retune: If Replay Radio detects a certain amount of silence, it assumes that the network connection has broken, and attempts to tune to the station again. You can set the amount of time before a retune occurs. Some Internet radio stations have periods of silence during commercial spots, so make sure you set this value high enough.
- Tune with Replay Tuner: Selecting this option uses Replay Tuner to tune to radio shows. This appears inside of a small window below the Replay Radio program.
- Tune by Opening Browser: Select this option if you want Replay Radio to open your browser for tuning to an Internet feed to record. Using this if you have trouble with the Replay Tuner.
- Connect Via default Dial-up Connection: If your PC is on a LAN, DSL or Cable Modem, leave this unchecked. Otherwise, Replay Radio will use the default dial-up connection to connect to the Internet before recording the show.
- Test Default Dial-up Connection: This lets you test the dial-up connection to be sure it is working properly.
- Internet Connections use a Proxy Server: If you connect to the Net using a proxy server, enter this data here. Replay Radio uses Internet connections to download up-to-date program schedules and station lists.
- Sound Card Driver in Use: Select the active sound card driver to record from. Usually, Default works fine.
- Test Recording Sources: When you start a recording session, you need to pick a recording source. Many sound cards have several different options. Use the Test Recording Sources button to determine the best source for recording what you hear from your PC's speakers.
- Optimize Mixer Volume for Recording: Select this to have Replay Radio automatically set the input volume to a middle level for each recording. If you have sound quality issues, you may want to uncheck this and set the values yourself. but this should work well on most PCs.
- Setup Windows Sound Mixer: Click this to select input and output devices and sound levels (advanced users only).
- File Naming Format: This lets you customize how Replay Radio names recording files. (See Customizing Recording File Names for details.)
- Start Replay Radio when Windows starts: When you reboot your PC, Replay Radio is automatically loaded if this option is checked. Since Replay Radio needs to be running for a scheduled show to be recorded, this helps ensure you don't miss any shows.
- Run uPnp Server: Selecting this option lets Replay Radio stream recorded shows to WiFi Boomboxes and Media Extenders that support Universal Plug and Play (uPnp).
- Setup CD Burner: Click this button to configure your CD Burner.
Copying Recordings to your iPod
With Replay Radio 4.03 and later, you can have your recordings automatically added to iTunes, which will have them copied to your iPod the next time you sync up. You can do this using either Quick Record or by scheduling a recorded show.
In iTunes and on the iPod, your recordings are tagged as follows: The Artist will always be "0_Replay Radio", and the Title will be the show as you've named it. This way, all your recordings are easily located as the top entry in your list of artists.
To automatically add recordings to your iPod:
In Quick Record, select Add to iTunes Library, as shown below:
For recorded shows, select Add to iTunes Library:
Note: These options will only appear if
Replay Radio detects that iTunes is installed on your PC.
Troubleshooting using the Record Log
If you have trouble recording, the View Record Log button will show you all of the activity of Replay Radio. This may help in diagnosing some errors.
Customizing Recording File Names
With Replay Radio 4.0 or later, you can specify how you want the names of recorded files to appear. By default, a show named "My Show" saved as an MP3 file on December 1 will be named "My Show Dec 1.mp3". However, you can change this using the File naming format string in Settings.
Here are the various symbol options and what they mean:
%%s - This is the name of the
show, and must be present.
%a - Abbreviated weekday name.
%A - Full weekday name.
%b - Abbreviated month name.
%B - Full month name.
%c - Date and time representation appropriate
for locale.
%d - Day of month as decimal number (01 – 31).
%H - Hour in 24-hour format (00 – 23).
%I - Hour in 12-hour format (01 – 12).
%j - Day of year as decimal number (001 – 366).
%m - Month as decimal number (01 – 12).
%M - Minute as decimal number (00 – 59).
%p - Current locale’s A.M./P.M. indicator
for 12-hour clock.
%S - Second as decimal number (00 – 59).
%U - Week of year as decimal number, with Sunday
as first day of week (00 – 53).
%w - Weekday as decimal number (0 – 6;
Sunday is 0).
%W - Week of year as decimal number, with Monday
as first day of week (00 – 53).
%x - Date representation for current locale.
%X - Time representation for current locale.
%y - Year without century, as decimal number
(00 – 99).
%Y - Year with century, as decimal number.
%z - Time-zone name or abbreviation; no characters
if time zone is unknown.
%#c - Long date and time representation, appropriate
for current locale.
%#x - Long date representation, appropriate
for current locale.
Use the # character to remove any leading zeroes, as in any of the following:
%#d, %#H, %#I, %#j, %#m, %#M, %#S, %#U, %#w, %#W, %#y, %#Y
The characters / ? : * \ cannot be used anywhere in the format string. Any other characters that appear are presented as-is.
Examples:
The default format string is:
%%s %b %#d
The above default string makes show names like "My Show Dec 1.mp3".
A format string like this:
%m-%d-%y %%s
Would make a show name like this: "12-01-03
My Show.mp3".
Note: Track numbers are always appended
to the END of each show, before the .mp3 suffix. For example:
12-01-03 My Show - 01.mp3
12-01-03 My Show - 02.mp3
etc.
Limitations of Replay Radio
Replay Radio is a lot of fun, but there are some limitations to what the software can do. You'll enjoy Replay Radio more if you know some of these limitations:
- Replay Radio can only record one radio show at a time.
- You can't listen to CDs or MP3s while a show is recording.
Using the URL Finder
The URL Finder is an advanced tool that helps you determine the URL for the audio feed when it's not listed in Replay Radio's pre-selected list of shows and stations. Many radio station sites have a pop-up window appear when you click on the "listen live" link, which obscures the actual URL needed to tune to the program. This tool makes it easy to retrieve the URL, and to test it before adding the show to your schedule.
Before using the URL finder, often you can get the URL for an audio feed as follows:
- Right click the link.
- Select Copy Shortcut.
- Paste the link into Replay Radio's URL field after clicking Add Show.
To use the URL Finder to get the audio feed:
- Open Replay Radio, and click the URL Finder button.
The URL Finder appears.
- The URL finder is a mini-browser. Navigate to the radio station site you want to capture, and click until you hear the station's audio.
- At this point, one of the following things
is likely to happen:
- The Windows Media Player appears.
- Real Player appears.
- A pop-up window appears.
- If a pop-up windows appears, click Get Popup URL. The URL for the pop-up windows appears on the bottom of the display.
Once you've located what you think is the audio feed, you should test it. If you're sure you have the proper URL, click Add Show next to the URL or pop-up URL to quickly open the Add Show dialog.
To test the Audio Feed:
- Close all open browser windows, and make sure no audio is playing.
- Copy the URL into the Address field of your browser, or the URL field of the URL Finder, and press enter.
In a few seconds, if your audio starts playing, then you've located the feed!
NOTE: If you have trouble locating the feed, email us, and we'll do our best to find the feed and add it to our database of stations.
Keeping Your PC Clock Accurate
You can configure your Windows 2000 or XP system
clock to synchronize with a government NIST time server, thereby
ensuring your shows always record on time. Click
here to read the NIST document.
Custom Conversion Options (WMA, OGG, etc.)
For Advanced Users Only!
With Replay Radio, you have the ability to automatically convert recorded WAV audio files using any command line conversion utility you choose. Here's the general guidelines to doing this:
- Create a file named custom.bat, and place it in the Replay Radio program files folder.
- When recording, choose Custom as the output quality.
- After the recording ends, custom.bat is run, with the name of the WAV file as the first parameter, and the prefix for the output file as the second parameter.
Look at custom_wma.bat as an example for converting to WMA (Windows Media Audio) format files.
For example, here's a custom.bat file for creating WMA files, and copying them to a folder named d:\My Recordings:
rem This batch file is a sample for converting WAV files to WMA files rem This uses the Replay Radio CUSTOM conversion option
rem The first parameter is WAV file path name, 2nd param is prefix of WMA file
rem To make this work, copy this file to the Replay Radio program folder, rem and rename it to custom.bat rem You will also need the Windows Media 8 command line tool rem You can get this from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm8/encoding.aspx rem Be sure to copy wm8eutil.exe to the Replay Radio program files folder as well.
rem Start the WAV encoding process
rem First, change to the folder and drive where Replay Radio is located rem (assume c:\program files\Replay Radio)
c: cd "\projects\replay radio"
rem Next, run the Windows Media 8 command line converter tool rem %1 is the WAV file pathname, and %2 is the title of the show rem This will create the WMA file in the Replay Radio program files folder.
wm8eutil -input %1 -output %2 -title %2
rem You may now want to %2.wma to another folder rem Watch out for quotes around %2 !!! This can get tricky. rem The below does this, albeit not gracefully.
copy *.wma "d:\My Recordings" del *.wma
You can build your own batch file custom.bat, and incorporate any third party command line tool you choose.
custom.bat receives two parameters:
- The first parameter is the full pathname to the WAV file. This is referenced in .bat files as %1.
- The second parameter is the name of the show.
This is referenced in .bat files as %2.
