Cybercorder 2000

Cybercorder 2000 can record in the MPEG Layer 3 (i.e., MP3) format if it is present on your system. You can determine if the format is present as follows:

1. When selecting a recording format in Cybercorder, click on the "Select from all recording formats" button. You can select a recording format in the View/Options menu: click on the "Record" tab and press the "Modify" button. You can also select the recording format when scheduling a recording or when starting a manual recording.
   
   
2. Select the "MPEG Layer-3" format as shown below:
   
   
3. If you you do not see the "MPEG Layer 3" format in the list, click here for the most recent information on obtaining this codec.

Cybercorder 2000 can record MP3 files with either the WAV or MP3 file extension. The WAV files can be played only with Windows players, while files with the MP3 extension are more universal and can be downloaded to portable players or played on other systems. The file extension can be selected when selecting the "MPEG Layer 3" format for recording. Additionally, there is the option to record directly (i.e., real-time) or to convert. The difference is described below.

Real-time MP3 Recording - This is the process of creating an MP3 recording on the fly without any conversion. This option can be specified when selecting the "MPEG Layer 3" format for recording, and not selecting the "Convert to the selected MP3 format ..." checkbox. This method is recommended for Windows NT, 2000, and XP. Unfortunately it may cause Windows 95, 98, or ME to crash if recording directly with this format, thus converting is recommended for these systems. On slower systems, small portions of the recording may drop since the system can not keep up with the MP3 encoding. You may want to use the convert option if this is the case.

Converting - This is the process where a temporary PCM file is first recorded and then automatically converted to MP3 by Cybercorder 2000. This option can be selected when selecting the "MPEG Layer 3" format for recording. The conversion requires plenty of time to perform. It also requires plenty of disk space for the temporary PCM file, so allow at least about 10 times the size of the MP3 file. When several recordings are performed consecutively, the conversions may be queued up, requiring disk space for the PCM files which have not completed the conversion yet. This becomes much more apparent if recording with a higher bit rate on a slower system where the converting is slower than the recording, causing the used disk space to build up. When converting, try to have as much available disk space as possible. If disk space is an issue, it is better to split a long recording into several segments so that disk space frees up when a segment completes converting.

NOTE: When recording in the MPEG Layer 3 format either directly or by converting, it is recommended not to use the 18 and 20 kBit/s bit rates. Because in many cases these are actually recorded as 24kBits/s, errors may result when the disk space or recording length is calculated.

You may also record WAV files in the PCM format and use third party software to convert to MP3. This may be necessary if you require bit rates higher than the 56 kBit/s, 24 Khz offered by the commonly available version of the Fraunhofer MPEG Layer 3 format. You can have Cybercorder 2000 automatically launch a command line application to do the conversion using the Launch External Program feature on the Program Form.