Parental Skype recorder
  • stealth mode (no icons in system bar or system tray)
  • recorder automatically starts on Windows startup
  • automatic recording of all Skype calls (P2P, landlines)
  • records are stored in very compact MP3 files

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TODO. Future features. Things to be done in Skype Call Recorder

Sat, 12/06/2008 - 20:35 — VOIP

This topic for posting any ideas of features to be done in next versions of Skype Call Recorder
TODO:

  • Logging call information and call records links in tables
  • UI (User Interface) for easy access, sorting, playing and deleting recordings
  • Answering machine

I appreciate any wishes and ideas left in the comments below.
Thanks
P.S. any bugs and error reports please post in the other topic - Skype Call Recording bug reports

Comments

Tue, 06/01/2010 - 15:26 — Skype user

Hello, thx for this nice little proggie.
Because there is no portable Skype on market which really isn't destroying some skype-files of the host-system and there is no one w/ multiple instances and a backup-system of the host-skype, I wrote  my own portable Skype w/ multiple instances.
Now I have the problem, that your Call-Recorder can record only the latest startet instance, but not the previous startet ones. Pls make this cool recorder recording calls on ALL instances of portable and multiple Skype.
Thx from Germany from Skype-Recorder@blue-worx.net

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:49 — Skype user

Hi, many thanks for writing this great little tool! May I suggest you make the automatic file naming customisable? You could include tags that the user can choose as a basis of how files are going to be names, for example %time, %date, %contactID, %callDuration, %bitrate and so on. This way you wouldn't have the words "Peer-to-Peer Call" inserted into each file's name (personally, I have to rename each file in order to only leave the relevant information inthe file name).
 
Thanks again & keep up the good work!

Sun, 08/02/2009 - 14:09 — Skype user

Hello.
I use Portable Skype to save my history and setting together while changing computers. This is just a small program that runs Skype with tha appropriate command line options. All the files (Skype.exe, database) are stored on my USB flash.
Skype Call Recorder cannot find my Portable Skype and there is no option to help it.
I would also appreciate if Skype Call Recorder is available in portable version.
Thanks

Fri, 06/19/2009 - 11:48 — Skype user

I would highly appreciate if you can implement also other VOIP software like the Betamax products and one that doesn't give problems with USB headsets (I tried many recording programs, but usually only manage to record my own voice, not the other party). I won't mind paying for it, since no other product I tried has been without problems so far.

Mon, 06/15/2009 - 14:33 — Skype user

Please add position "Turn On recording..." to tray icon context menu. Thx :-)

Wed, 06/17/2009 - 17:31 — VOIP

Hi
This will be implemented in the next version coming out in a few days

Mon, 06/01/2009 - 14:34 — Skype user

Hello,

I also would like an option for minimizing to system tray at startup. And also a context menu from the system tray icon with the program's commands, for quicker access. The answering machine is not a bad idea as well. But the interface for managing and previewing of the made recordings has more priority for me (but that is only my opinion, of course). Hope that this app continues its good development and best wishes to its author!

Sun, 05/31/2009 - 10:02 — Jonte

Hi! Thanks for this great app!
Something that really is needed and wouldn't take long to implent is having the option to start minimized to tray. It's nice to have the program start with windows startup but it would be a lot cleaner if it could start minimized. Thanks!

Wed, 05/06/2009 - 15:13 — Skype user

Hi great program and im having no problems with it good work the only thing i would like is the option to start minimised would be nice so it just sits in the system tray
 
keep up the good work

Tue, 04/28/2009 - 05:56 — Skype user

Fantastic product! Worked flawlessly within two minutes of downloading. Far cleaner than the other things I've tried for recording Skype calls. Very clean and simple. Well done!

Wed, 04/22/2009 - 15:00 — Skype user

  hi:
I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH DEPURATION JIT.
tHE PROGRAM DO NOT WORKS AND NO CONECTS WITH SKYPE.
ANY LITTLE HELP, PLEASE???
tHANK YOU VERY MUCH
EDUARDO

Thu, 04/23/2009 - 09:26 — VOIP

Hi this is wrong topic for your comment, please use error report section for problem reports.
If you have System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80040154) then please check that extras manager is installed
Otherwise check that you allowed Skype Recorder to connect to Skype

Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:38 — Jean

Hi,
I enjoy using the program. It works perfectly from PC to PC. However, when I call my party on their phone (PC to phone), I recording a lot of clipping from them.  My voice never clips. Is there a way I can fix that?
Regards,

Thu, 04/16/2009 - 23:01 — VOIP

Thanks you. I'll check this out. By the way, what audio settings are you using (stereo, joint stereo or mono; bitrate)?

Sun, 04/19/2009 - 11:37 — Jean

Mono, bitrate = 64

Tue, 04/07/2009 - 17:39 — Skype user

Any way to to have a PC-less handset phone be recorded? Maybe by a PC on same IP network?

Thu, 04/16/2009 - 22:57 — VOIP

No, sorry. It will be absolutely different program.

Wed, 04/01/2009 - 14:33 — Skype user

 There are so many other VoIP clients apart from Skype (e.g. Betamax products, Yahoo messenger, Gtalk, MSN messenger etc.) so it will be really good if its possible to record conversation from any of these. I wonder if its possible to make a sort of generic version i.e. whatever passes through your soundcard during that time, is recorded.

Tue, 03/24/2009 - 21:32 — Skype user

This is a great little program, and I just made a small donation which I hope helps in its development. The only requests I have are an option to record in VBR, an option to have the program start minimized to the system tray, instead of popped up, when it's set to start with Windows, and for the MP3s to be tagged - for instance, artist could be the parties to call, track could be the type of call (inbound/outbound/Skype-to-Skype), and date.

Thanks and keep up the great work.

Wed, 03/25/2009 - 13:17 — VOIP

Thanks for your support. I'll check what I can do with VBR and mp3 tags.

Tue, 03/17/2009 - 19:32 — Jean

Is it possible to have the recording button show when the program is actually recording? If could flash or glow for instance. Thanks for the good work.

Fri, 03/06/2009 - 18:46 — Skype user

I´d like to suggest adding a "minimize" window option, so the Recorded doesn´t take up space on the taskbar.
Thanks!

Fri, 03/06/2009 - 22:51 — VOIP

To minimize the window to system tray, click the cross button in the upper right corner

Wed, 03/04/2009 - 20:27 — Skype user

One suggestion: Instead of having a "start automatically at Windows startup" checkbox (which I´m not sure if anybody really uses because it takes time from the startup), why not make it something like "start automatically when Skype starts", which is exactly what we´d need this great tool for?: Available when we use Skype.
Thanks!

Thu, 03/05/2009 - 23:04 — VOIP

Unfortunately there is no way to make Skype starting our program.
But you can start Skype Call Recorder manually and it will start Skype automatically, anyway it will be one click.

Fri, 03/06/2009 - 10:40 — Max

You can create small invisible service which will just check periodically that skype is in memory (sleeping most of the time) and works and will start GUI for active user in case it's on or will exit it in case it's off.

Fri, 03/06/2009 - 11:51 — VOIP

That's true, I was thinking about this,  but in this case this service will be started at windows startup anyway.

Tue, 02/24/2009 - 11:41 — Skype user

Hello
Great thing you've done.
Some recommendations:

  1. Go open source with SVN (GPL/LGPL/Dual License). Community will help. Sourceforge/codeplex/google code
  2. Use VBR MP3 as an option - that saves a lot of space in call recordings
  3. Use SQLite .NET for storing call information - fast, simple, embedded, reliable, free.
  4. Use background noise removal + silence detector (google some open source available ones) as an option. Together with VBR it will save HUGE amount of space.
  5. Change from mono/stereo/joint stereo to always use joint stereo with the same info in both channels. See next point also.
  6. Make checkboxes: (x) Record all voices in the same file (x) Record each participant voice in separate files. And allow select both or just one.
  7. Think about separating code into library without GUI and ability to acquire voice data in .NET in-memory streams.
  8. Use some of the nice freeware grids with sorting, filtering and by column grouping for showing calls
  9. Think about using Vista speech recognition engine for creating text logs and placing in DB. Together with SQLite embedded fulltext search will blow away your competitors.
  10. Mp3 files should be stored in folders like calendar month, otherwise after some time folder will be very slow.
  11. Make an option to never show notification icon (settings and GUI in separate application).

Keep up the good work.
Best Regars, Max (mash@subpixel.com)

Tue, 02/24/2009 - 11:44 — Skype user

12. Make an option to auto-check for updates at least instead of showing html with text and better would be to have auto-update option.
13. Place information in tags of MP3 - use http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/TagLib_Sharp for that.

Tue, 02/24/2009 - 12:26 — VOIP

Thanks for that post. Great tips!!! Lots of ideas to think about.

Wed, 02/25/2009 - 10:04 — Skype user

Привет :)
Would be nice to get your thoughts about those things.
And I have some additional proposals:

  • in notification area it's reasonable to make some sort of real context menu:
    Open Skype Call Recorder 0.7.1.1                      (bold)
    ------------------------------------------ -                    (separator)
    (x) Recording Enabled [64 Kbit]                           (checkbox)
    Show Records [17Mb/251 records]
    About Skype Call Recorder
    --------------------------------------------                    (separator)
    Exit
  • In case you are showing notification icon you should use some sort of current color for recording turned on and gray for turned off. Rotation of icon (like rotations in tape recorders) during recording can help those users who want a feedback that recording is in progress and that will also bring notification icon from hidden icons store - that can be done by having ~10-12 icons of different angle.
  • Hint should show version, state of recording and name with spaces ;-)
Wed, 02/25/2009 - 10:14 — Max

registered. Hope that will send me notifications about new comments ;-)

Wed, 02/25/2009 - 22:10 — VOIP

Привет. Спасибо :)
Thanks for your ideas. I'll try to include some of the above in next versions.
Actually I was already thinking of animating tray icon, still looking for icon designer to help me with this.

Fri, 02/27/2009 - 09:04 — Max

Привет.
Your icon is good enough. May be UI should be adjusted, but IMHO you anyway need to make dialog for records review with grid, so it's unreasonable to adjust form now... Just use photoshop to save rotated icon at different angles and animation is done.
Max

Mon, 02/23/2009 - 05:54 — Skype user

I totally agree with the last message: a LED flashing bar would be a great help!
Yves

Sat, 02/21/2009 - 00:55 — ljnelke

If possible, I would like to see some sort of reassurance that the program is, indeed, recording.  This could be a simulated LED bar that flashes in sync to the voices being recorded or simulated needle guages like on the old reel-to-reel recorders. You could have two such guages - one for each side of the stereo or just the left side for mono.
But to keep it simple, any light flashing in sync to the voices to assure the user that he/she is, indeed, capturing the recording.  I know "on" means "recording" and "off" means it isn't, but with nothing else to catch the eye, it's possible somebody might screw this up and miss a very important recording.
Some recorders also offer the option to sound an occasional recording beep, which is required in some states.  Other recorders offer the option to sound a pre-recorded message, such as "recording started" and then at the end, when you push the stop button, "recording stopped."
I record telephone conversations as part of my job as an investigator, but I always obtain permission right there at the beginning of the recording and then again at the end. 
My most important request here, though, is for a visible, reassuring signal that I am really capturing the recording.
Thanks,
ljnelke

Mon, 02/16/2009 - 03:38 — Skype user

Recorder doesn't work if I use it on one account and then switch to another account. And it still doesn't work if I switch back to the first account. Only if I reinstall it does it then work again, but once I switch to the other account it fails again.

Mon, 02/16/2009 - 11:27 — VOIP

Hello. Thanks for your message.
Am I right that the program on your system stops working when you logout in Skype and login to it under another name?
I cann't recreate the problem on my system and it works correctly after changing Skype user. Could you tell me your Skype version and Skype Call Recorder version please.
 
Does anybody else have the same problem?

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 13:08 — Skype user

I can't seem to find an explanation of the difference between 'stereo' and 'joint stereo'... I'd second the request for the local and remote streams to be recorded in separate tracks...

Thu, 02/12/2009 - 15:07 — VOIP

In Stereo mode the codec puts incoming sound in one channel, and outcoming (from mic) to the other. If you need sound only from one side you can open stereo recording in any audio editor, and delete one channel are copy channel to other file.
 
Joint stereo mode uses M/S stereo coding and transforms the left and right channels into a mid channel and a side channel, hence the name. The mid channel is the sum of the left and right channels, or L + R. The side channel is the difference of the left and right channels, i.e., L − R. This mode usually gives more quality on the same bitrate, but you can't split channels.
 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_stereo
 
I'll put this to manual soon
 

Tue, 02/10/2009 - 16:11 — Skype user

 Just a quick message to say this application and the sound quality is amazing. So clear and crip and very easy to install and set up on skype. The only thing that annoy me a little is the application still appears on the screen at start up.
 
Other than that. Perfect

Mon, 02/09/2009 - 18:48 — Skype user

Thanks Alexander for this very useful freeware! I have conference every week with relatives in differents countries
and it's just amazing to record the conversations and to listen to them again later. The bug with the windows start
is corrected in the last version - a great job. Your programm is just perfect now... thanks so much for your work! Yves

Mon, 02/09/2009 - 15:35 — Graystar

I don't know how useful this would be to others...
When in a call with an IVR system and you're pressing numbers in response to prompts, the tones that you're generating don't get recorded.
So if I'm creating an IVR script (thank you for calling, press 1 for...press 2 for...etc.) and I want to create a recording of the running script for review and approval, SCR records all the prompts but none of the key presses.  The recording is usable...it just sounds funny when played back :)
Even tying this function to the Skype keypad would be better than nothing (if that's easy to do.)
Thanks!

Sun, 02/08/2009 - 03:27 — Skype user

 i don't understand why everytime i uncheck the option to run when windows starts and when i run the program manualy it reinstalls again. then the checkbox is tickled again. how can i prevent this program from starting up when windows starts without install again. it seems that when you uncheck the autorun box it uninstalls in the background and when you reboot and run the program manualy it ask for the .msi so that it will reinstall again. im using skype 4.0.0.206.

Mon, 02/09/2009 - 01:31 — VOIP

Thanks for your message
I fixed this in new version 0.6.2.1 released today
Please update

Wed, 02/04/2009 - 14:53 — Skype user

Just gave you a 5 star on CNET. Awesome Program!
Tell CNET to change your link...what they have http://www.download.com/windows/voip%20call%20recording/3260-2025_4-6313419.html doesnt work any more.

Fri, 02/06/2009 - 01:09 — VOIP

Thanks
I found another link on CNET http://www.download.com/Skype-Call-Recorder/3000-2170_4-10907182.html it seems to be working fine.

Fri, 01/23/2009 - 18:30 — Skype user

 Please add stereo mode. One channel for outgoing and another for incoming audio stream. Very usefull in podcasting.

Tue, 01/27/2009 - 21:19 — VOIP

Thanks for your comment.
Will do my best  to include this feature into the future version.

Tue, 01/20/2009 - 03:13 — Skype user

further to the suggestion re: mono vs. joint stereo, an improvement would be to allow changes to the mp3 settings, though 128k is a pretty good general purpose setting.
Otherwise, good program.