August 2008, about.com, quotes and reviews from the
article:
"RapidSolution Software AG, the makers of Tunebite and Audials
One, has improved on its Videoraptor and released MP3videoraptor 3. It's an
Internet media search program that records music and video from a number of
websites, including, Last.fm, YouTube, and SoundClick. It also has a ringtone
maker to generate ringtones for your cell phone, an ID3 tag editor, and a
built-in CD burner.
Pros:
* Excellent features for finding media on the
Internet
* Multi-stream recording
* Good file format support
...
Getting Started
System requirements:
* Operating system: Windows XP / Vista
* CPU: 1Ghz minimum
* Hard drive space: 100 MB+
* Memory: 512 MB RAM
* Internet connection type: Broadband
Interface:
Users of Tunebite,
Radiotracker, or one of RapidSolution's other products in the RS Audials range,
will immediately be familiar with the user interface (UI) of MP3videoraptor.
There are three main tabs at the top of the screen that make it easy to navigate
through the software's functions. A nice feature that helps you to quickly learn
MP3videoraptor's interface is the use of tooltips; hovering your mouse pointer
over each of the buttons gives you a quick description on its function. The
overall look and feel of the UI is one that is intuitive, well designed, and
efficient to use.
Configuration:
There are quite a few
settings in the options menu that you can tweak depending on your personal
preferences. On the general options screen you can change how many times
MP3videoraptor tries to connect with a particular media stream before it gives
up, and the number of simultaneous files that are encoded at any one time. For
files that are saved to your hard drive, a handy option lets you set where they
are stored; different types of media can be saved in separate folders which
helps in organizing your audio and video collection. Finally, there are options
to configure how the program connects to the Internet, a parental control
facility, and settings to synchronize your MP3 player or other mobile
device.
Music search:
The first tab on
MP3videoraptor's menu (and the most used) enables you to search for MP3 and
video files via a search box; you can also click on the Artists button which
brings up a list of genres and suggested artists. Once MP3videoraptor begins
searching, you will start to see results almost immediately and can click on
them to start downloading to your hard drive. If you get a lot of results, you
can further refine the list by typing in a term that masks out other results;
you can also filter the results by media type (videos and MP3s, videos only, or
MP3 only). Overall, the music search facility in MP3videoraptor works extremely
well by providing a large number of results, and provides a good filter system
that enables you to quickly source the media you want. The only downside is that
the genre and artists list isn't in alphabetical order and makes browsing the
list slow.
Autoload:
MP3videoraptor's new Autoload
feature makes downloading your favorite genre or artists a breeze. After making
your selections, clicking on the Start Autoload button launches MP3videoraptor
into a seek and download frenzy. The big advantage of this mode is that you can
use the full bandwidth of your Internet connection to quickly build up your
media library. If you're worried about downloading too much in one go, then
switching on the download limiter will stop MP3videoraptor after a certain
number of files (the default is 100). Just like the Music Search mode, the
downside is that the genre and artists list isn't in alphabetical order.
Surf & Catch:
The last tab across the
top of the screen is Surf & Catch. As the name suggests, this is a mode that
can record audio and video streams from websites such as Pandora, Last.fm,
MySpace, and YouTube as you surf. Unfortunately, the only browser that works
with it at the moment is Internet Explorer. That said, it is easy to use and
grabs streaming audio and video without a hiccup. One word of warning to parents
using this mode, there are a number of, ahem…porn site links - it is advisable
to use the parental lock feature to hide these.
* Output Audio Formats: M4A, MP3, Ogg, WAV, WMA, WMA
Pro
* Output Video Formats: 3GP, MPEG4, SonyPSP, WMV7, WMV9,
XVID
Built-in Player:
MP3videoraptor's built-in
player is quite basic, but has all the usual functions of an integrated player.
It also comes with a playlist shuffle option which is useful for listening to
music in the background while you work.
Edit ID3 Tags:
You can manually edit ID3
metadata if you need to which is a useful feature for organizing your music
library.
Recording Quality:
The quality of the
recorded audio and video using the different encoding settings in MP3videoraptor
yielded excellent results.
Additional Tools
CD Burner:
Integrated into MP3videoraptor
is a CD writing tool that can create data CDs (MP3 files etc.), or audio CDs
that you can play on most CD capable players. It is fully wizard-based and helps
you through the process of burning your collection for safe keeping.
Ringtone Maker:
One of MP3videoraptor's
great bonus features is the ringtone maker. If you've got a cell phone that
supports MP3, AMR, or MMF file formats then why not use your music to make a
ringtone? The ringtone maker is wizard-based which makes the whole process very
straight forward. You have the option to use music that you have already
recorded with MP3videoraptor; use one of your CDs to rip a section of music, or
even record from external sources such as microphone, line in etc. Once you have
generated your ringtone, you can transfer it to your cell phone via WAP or
download the file to your hard drive for cable transfer.
Conclusion
Is it worth buying?
If you use the Internet to frequently listen to music and watch
video clips, then MP3videoraptor is an invaluable tool that will enable you to
save this content to your hard drive. The new Autoload feature makes light work
of quickly downloading media from the Internet, and is a great way to build your
media library. The Surf & Catch option is also an excellent feature for
grabbing content while your surf... That said, MP3videoraptor excels at finding
and recording media on the Internet, and is a great alternative to risky
download methods such as P2P file sharing."
