Web Stream Recorder

Our daughter has dreamed of playing soccer for Santa Clara University since she was 9 years old (she will begin playing for them in the Fall of 2013). Because of that and since we live only about 35 minutes away from the school, we are season ticket holders and have watched about 10 matches per season for the last few years. One of the nice things about college soccer is that most schools now stream their matches live over the web, so even when Santa Clara is not playing at home, we can still watch. We’ve done that three times so far this year.

But sometimes, even when a match is being streamed over the web, our daughter has a prior commitment (tonight she’s at a practice for her high school’s homecoming activities). I’ve thought about trying to record the live stream so she could watch it later. I tried it once this year using Camtasia Studio, but the quality was not very good (I don’t think that was because of Camtasia Studio - which is not really designed to record live streaming video - it’s a screencast program). So I had resigned myself to not being able to record the live stream.

But today, on a lark, I did a search on Google for software that would record live streaming video and audio. That search took me to a forum thread where someone recommended Web Stream Recorder. I downloaded the free trial this afternoon and just finished recording the live stream of a Santa Clara University match.

When I played back the recording of the live stream, I was honestly astounded at the quality - I can’t see really see a difference between the live stream and the recording. To me, that’s proof of the excellence of the software - it does what it should do, and does it well.
From their website, here are the features of the software:

• It allows you to record various stream types — Windows Media, Real Media, and Shoutcast
• It will capture streaming video automatically while you surf the web
• You can also record YouTube and other Flash videos
• You can save on-demand streams to your hard drive
• It is compatible with native 64 bit apps
• No third-party drivers are installed
• You can schedule recordings

You can download a free, 7-day trial to evaluate the software yourself. From what I can see so far, it meets my needs perfectly.

If you’d like to see the software in action, you can view a video tutorial below:

New Website For My Daughter

I’ve recently launched a new website for my daughter at EmilyJohnson.tv.

As you can see from the screenshot above, my daughter is a soccer goalkeeper. She is passionate about the sport and wants to play in college. So we decided to create a website for her that would highlight her skills (both athletic and academic), display video of her highlights, and publish her news throughout her social media presence.

If you have any comments or questions about the website, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

My 6-Week Nightmare With Adobe Support

I am in the midst of a 6-week saga with Adobe Support. Hands down, it’s the worst experience I’ve ever had. I wrote a running commentary on my situation while I was on hold at various points in my last phone conversation with support (and other departments) on January 8. The commentary is included in a letter I sent to Lambert Walsh (apparently the VP of Technical Services at Adobe, at least according to this post on an official Adobe blog) and Tracy Moisan (on Mr. Walsh’s staff) on January 11. I live about 20-30 miles away from Adobe headquarters, so I’m assuming the letter has now been delivered. But I’ve heard nothing from them yet. So I can only assume that no one at Adobe is interested in solving my problem.

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A New Blog About Digital Media Strategy

Welcome to FrankNJohnson.com!

I have been a digital media strategist for eight years, first for E-mu Systems, Inc. and then for the Multi-Channel Commerce division of Imaginova Corporation (telescope.com, livesciencestore.com, and starrynightstore.com). I also provide digital media strategy consulting services for businesses and organizations.

I’m starting this blog as a way of memorializing various thoughts regarding internet marketing and digital media strategy. While I have my own thoughts, I hope even more that the comments sections of articles will become a vehicle through which we all (including me!) can learn from each other. So please feel free to add your thoughts to mine, to disagree with me, to answer my questions, to mention additional resources, etc.