Replay Radio Review

There are thousands of internet radio stations out there, probably even more. Just like with TiVo, once I tried Applain’s Replay Radio, I started to wonder who I could ever live without it. Seemed utterly incomprehensible. I’ve tried a number of audio stream capturing programs (what Replay Radio essentially is) and all of them were fine, in a sense that they all did what they were supposed to. But ReplayRadio is the one I bought. Here is why.

First, there are over a thousand internet radio shows already built-in. This option gave me a chance to listen to radio shows that I’d probably never hear. It definitely broadened my horizon. Second, there is an option to schedule a recording of any internet show – just like with TiVo.

Currently, you can schedule only one show for the same time slot. I don’t know why that is, but it’s obvious to me that there is a need to be able to schedule a recording of more that one show that airs at the same time.

Another omission is the absence of the peak level meter. Some other apps in this category have it, which makes it easy to see the volume level of recording, without having to listen to the show.
Because sometimes the volume is too low, and I have to use Sound Forge to bring the audio level back up. These are the only two negatives that affected me.

Ok, not to the “what’s good” part. You can skip ads, you can split tracks, you can burn CDs, you can select output format (mp3 or wav) and you can optimize file size by setting a desired audio quality level. These are all very important.

Most of shows I record are talk-shows, so things like mp3 tags and FreeDB support aren’t something I use or can comment on. The shows can be replayed on PC, PocketPC, Palm, iPod or any MP3 player. I hear that the new version (ReplayRadio 6.0) has a free podcasting client, but that’s not something I’ve investigated yet. Nor have I been able to check out some Replay Radio add-ins.