12 replies to this topic

[Michael Hecht]

I don't think I can take this back to the courthouse to have them burn it again for me, so how can I convert this myself so that someone who's not allowed to download and install your FTR player can still hear the files? Or maybe I would be able to convert this to an MP3 so I can put it on an MP3 player or phone?

[Mark D'Arcy]

You can use a standard free version of Player to save in Windows Media format, there are many freely available applications on the internet to convert from Windows Media format to many other formats.

If you would like to save directly in MP3 using Player then you will need to purchase TheRecord Manager. This will enable Player to save as MP3 as well as a number of other features.

[Fred Bungy]

You can use a standard free version of Player to save in Windows Media format, there are many freely available applications on the internet to convert from Windows Media format to many other formats.

If you would like to save directly in MP3 using Player then you will need to purchase TheRecord Manager. This will enable Player to save as MP3 as well as a number of other features.

How about an option to simply decode your proprietary files to a standard WAV file without any interim re-encoding? All these conversions from one lossy format to another reduce the quality of the audio. I can't believe this is STILL not an option.

[michael hallas]

I find your whole business, as far as accessing hearings and public records, wildly inconvenient because 1) you don't run on Macs (easily...without purchasing Windows, running boot camp, etc.) and difficulty converting to other formats. It seems to me that if you offered the software to record, but just recorded on .wav or mp3 formats you'd still have a good business model.

[Ada L. Sanchez]

Please help us! We won't change to the competition! For me, it's just my way of confirming what was said in court proceedings, such as a trial. I cannot do a good job if they (at court) did not make sure that they were recording good quality audio or not. I cannot decipher some of the things they say, mostly the judge! They did not do a good job. Now, please tell us how we can convert those files into mp3s or other formats so we can do a good job! It's a matter of just confirming. Thanks a lot.

[Mark D'Arcy]

Hi Ada,

The information on how to convert is listed in the second post, unfortunatly converting will not help you to improve the quality of the audio all this will do is convet it to another format with the same quality issues.

[Fred Bungy]

Hi Ada,

The information on how to convert is listed in the second post, unfortunatly converting will not help you to improve the quality of the audio all this will do is convet it to another format with the same quality issues.

It may not help improve the quality of the audio in *your* player, but converting the audio from FTR to a standard WAV file will allow the audio to be played on many other programs that have features like equalization, volume normalization, background noise reduction, etc.

Since you are well into version 5 of FTR and these features are still missing, it's apparent they never were or will be considered. So please...please...let us free your audio from FTR, which, as far as I can tell, is the only program on the planet that can play your audio without going through at least one stage of lossy conversion (to low bitrate WMA).

Converting FTR audio to non-proprietary WAV is trivial from a programming standpoint, so there's no reason it hasn't been added yet except to force the end user to use your program. We just want to do our jobs, Mark. You already have the money from the courts for your system. There's no reason to hold your audio hostage from a transcriptionist's point of view.

[t knepper]

Michigan recently updated our minimum standards for Video Recording.
Our current configuration of FTR is not compliant.
I'm hoping that FTR will release some updates that will allow us to become compliant without changing platforms.

http://courts.michig...rds/dv_stds.pdf

Required:
Recording format
A system must store the converted audio and video signals in an open, publicly available
(non-proprietary) digital format. Examples include M-JPEG and MPEG I. Lossy
compression algorithms (in which the decompressed file does not contain all the
information present in the original file) are permitted if they do not detract from the
playback quality of the file or inhibit the creation of a complete, true, and correct
transcript.

[Mark D'Arcy]

I am curious as to whether you want 2 or 4 channel recordings?

The issue with most of the 'publicly available' formats is they do not support 4 separate channels. which then makes the two statments below confusing as it simply isnt possible with any standard formats (well with any of the formats i know about with any of the available players i know about) with 4 channel recordings

Voice isolation
A system must be able to isolate the voices of speakers who speak simultaneously."

Separate volume controls
A system must provide separate volume controls for each channel.

I would also be interested in what they consider 'proprietry' we do allow conversion to Window Media format which some people consider a Microsoft proprietry format however others consider it to be an open format.

[jeffmefun]

You can use a standard free version of Player to save in Windows Media format, there are many freely available applications on the internet to convert from Windows Media format to many other formats.

If you would like to save directly in MP3 using Player then you will need to purchase TheRecord Manager. This will enable Player to save as MP3 as well as a number of other features.

Hi Mark -

Can you explain how to save as standard Windows Media format? I can't seem to figure out how to do this. I've tried to do this by hitting "Save" but this doesn't seem to give me the WMF option.
Also - the web site indicates there's a free version of TheRecord Manager available in the community site, but when I search for it, I come up empty handed. Am I missing something?

Thanks!
Jeff

[Mark D'Arcy]

I will first assume you are using player 5.5? in which case you will need to use TheRecord Manager - Basic Edition, if using older versions of player then you should be able to just click the save button and there will be an option to save to Windows Media Format (depending on the version of course) if using 3.3 you would need to use Reformatter and if using 2.2 this option was available after installing save to format

You can read through the user guide on how to use manager to convert content here
http://community.for...users-guidepdf/

You can find the free version of TheRecord Manager - Basic Edition here.
http://community.for...-basic-edition/

[sduis]

When converting an FTR recording to WMA format, the newer version of FTR creates separate WMA files whenever the original recording file contains breaks. We used FTR to record Council and Commission meetings, and in long meetings or for closed sessions our audio recordings often have breaks. We have always converted these files to a single WMA file to provide to the public online and for backup copies.

In the past versions (2.0 and prior), we were able to create a single WMA file for the entire meeting, even if there were breaks in the recording. I cannot find any setting in the current version to remove the breaks and/or create a single audio file output when the FTR to WMA (or MP3 or WAV) conversion takes place. My computer will not run version 2.0 so I can't just go back and use the old program, which worked perfectly fine for us. I am frustrated that the newer versions of FTR do not offer me an option to create 'tracks' or a single WMA file for one meeting.

Any tips/ideas? I have tried using the Record Manager but it does not have any additional options available, either. We have an older computer that still runs 2.2, so if all else fails we will have to save our older recordings to that PC and convert them on that machine. Hoping that is not necessary, however ...

[Mark D'Arcy]

It is not possible to do this with the latest version using WMA, it is possible to convert to MP3 as one continuous file using TheRecord Manager "Access Edition".