Video Recording through Skype

[Tom McHale]

Does anyone have experience using a Skype Add-on that records the video conference? I'm looking to edit down the video that is recorded with files recoded from video cameras through MovieMaker or Adobe Premiere Pro. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

[Alecia Berman-Dry]

I have tried a few of the "extras" and none of them work exceptionally well. However, there is a Skype alternative called Oovoo (http://www.oovoo.com/) that allows you to do exactly that, and it does it quite well. In fact, with a free account, you can video chat with more than one person and it shows the screens together. The professional version (which is not so expensive) gives you an ad-free interface. I discovered it when our partner class in Belize told us that their phone company (nationalized) blocks Skype!

[Tom McHale]

Thanks Alecia. I tried using SkypeCap today. It costs $50. I haven't started to work with the video capture yet, so I can't really comment on the quality. I did have a few problems with the video freezing and problems with audio on the other end, during the conference call. Do you run into many problems like that with oovoo?

[Alecia Berman-Dry]

You know, I have had that problem with EVERY video conferencing software I've tried, from the least expensive to the most expensive (Adobe Connect, Cisco Telepresence). That's just the unreliability of the internet...I think.

[Lois Smethurst]

Hi Tom
Call Recorder records a video conference on Skype and saves it as a .mov file. It is not very expensive but the quality depends on the bandwidth for the day. I find it is fairly reliable.
Lois

[Tom McHale]

Thanks Lois. An .mov file would work. I've been using SkypeCap for the project were doing. It seems to be working fairly well, but if the Skype call gets interupted (which seems to happen often) it no longer offers the two separate video feeds for the people on each end. It kind of jumbles them together into one video that is unusable. The audio isn't affected. Did you have any problems like this with Call Recorder?
I had one response on a Skype forum that said Pamela worked well, but I've yet to hear a ringing endorsement for any product. I'm not sure if there aren't many people using Skype video in this way or whether there just isn't anything really good out there yet.
Tom

[Valerie Becker]

We use Call Recorder for years - inexpensive, easy and is as good as your connection http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/