Feature: iChat RecordingHow it works: Pretty much like anything else with a Record button -- you're on an audio or video iChat, you press that big red button, iChat thoughtfully notifies your participants that they're being recorded, and off you go. Audio gets saved as AAC and video as MPEG-4 (perfect for iPod/iPhone usage, perhaps a bit less perfect for sharing online) when you're done with the conversation. For presentation use, especially when combined with screen sharing and Quick Look, this instantly creates a no-frills alternative to recordable conferencing tools like Adobe Connect, GoToMeeting and WebEx -- at least for small meetings where everyone has a Mac.
Who will use it: iChat collaborators, podcasters, conference callers, and grandparents/grandchildren -- but only those with hearty hardware, as I'd expect iChat video recording to chew up quite a bit of horsepower. For those not quite ready to make the move to Leopard, ecamm's excellent and inexpensive Call Recorder 2 offers similar functionality.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-26-2007 @ 4:14PM
Rafe H. said...
"Audio gets saved as AAC and video as MPEG-4..."
That makes playback tricky. Do we open iTunes and Quicktime and hit the Play buttons simultaneously?
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10-26-2007 @ 4:27PM
rhett lee said...
This is a bit off topic but does anyone know why Dashcode has been left out? It is included on the feature list on Apple.com...I hope its not out for good. Anyone?
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10-26-2007 @ 4:29PM
Daniel D said...
Idiot
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10-26-2007 @ 4:48PM
rhett lee said...
I dont see why that makes me an idiot. But, fine. Could you at least elaborate a little as to why Im an idiot and tell me why its no there?
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10-26-2007 @ 4:48PM
Sean said...
Rafe: That's just the format each stream is encoded as. Both streams are included in he same file, which you can open with Quicktime.
rhett: Dashcode is actually part of the Xcode tools. It can be installed from the Leopard Retail DVD separately.
General Note: This article is about the Leopard version of iChat, but that looks like the Tiger version of the iChat icon :P. The Leopard version doesn't have the thick blue border at the bottom.
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10-26-2007 @ 4:52PM
Macroy said...
#4: Maybe he was referring to post #1? Just a thought. (Not that I'm calling post #1 an idiot! This is why I use "#x:" to address people on here!)
Anyway, no Dashcode? Nooooooo!
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10-26-2007 @ 4:54PM
Gabe said...
Now does this work with AIM clients as well? Or just fellow Mac/iChat users?
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10-26-2007 @ 4:57PM
rhett lee said...
#7, iChat is just a client that allows you to use multiple Instant Message services, including AIM.
#6, yeah maybe he was referring to #1...and WTF? no Dashcode blows! Seriously does anyone know why? Or maybe its coming later? I dont know but I was so excited for it and now it is not there. And it is on the feature list! Just to tease us
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10-26-2007 @ 5:01PM
rhett lee said...
sorry, didnt see the part about dashcode/xcode separately...sorry
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10-26-2007 @ 10:29PM
Plugtwo said...
The post doesn't mention: The new recording feature requires Leopard on both ends of the call. Ecamm's Conference Recorder will still be needed if your chat partner is a Tiger user or Windows AIM user.
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10-28-2007 @ 11:30AM
Alex said...
Dashcode is on the Leopard install disk together with XCode 3 etc.
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10-28-2007 @ 11:34AM
Alex said...
Another pretty neat feature in iChat 3, which finally replaces Chax for good for me, is auto accept:
http://www.lypanov.net/Web/Blog/Entries/2007/10/28_Auto_accept_in_iChat.html
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10-29-2007 @ 5:43PM
sjk said...
Thanks for posting that auto-accept script screenshot link, Alex. That's won't replace Chax for me in 10'5's iChat since it's not a feature I use. But maybe the new capability to run AppleScripts with events in iChat provides a general hook for Growl notifications that I currently rely on Chax for with 10.4's iChat .
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11-05-2007 @ 9:40AM
paulryan21 said...
Do you know whether it records the two sides of the Ichat conference on different audio channels.
Would be much easier for editing and balancing levels if it did??
Any ideas??
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