Help

General

I don't have a microphone or a web camera. What can I do?

We will detect whether or not you have a microphone or camera. This is done in "Flash". If you have a camera you will have the option to record a video clip. If you only have a microphone, you will only have the option to record audio clips. If you have both, you will have the option to record either an audio clip, or a video clip. If you don't have either, then unfortunately you will not be able to record clips, but you will still be able to listen to or view clips recorded by others.

Can I embed Recordle clips on another web site?

Yes. To embed Recordle audio and video clips in your web page using the Custom Player Widget. Please visit the widgets section.

You can also embed the Custom Recorder Widget to allow your victors to record clips too.

What is this Flash Player and what version do I need?

The Flash Player is a product by Adobe. Here is what they say about it:

Adobe Flash Player is the high-performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices.

Installed on over 750 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash® Player enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users.

Basically all you need to know is that it is a bit of software that your browser uses to play stuff that is "embedded" in some web sites. 99.1% of all people have it, even if you don't know about it ... so it is pretty much as good as everyone!

Recordle uses the Flash 8 Player (or better), which over 98% of all people have. You can get the latest Flash Player here.

Microphone/Audio Related

I have microphone on my computer but I cannot record audio. What's up with that?

There are a bunch of things that could be going on here. Please try the following:

Close all other programs that might be using your microphone (e.g. iChat, Skype, other video IM software).
Restart the browser and, if that does not help, maybe even your computer.
Make sure your microphone drivers are correctly installed. On a Windows system you can test this in your control panel. On a Mac you can test this with other software that uses your microphone.

Recordle uses the Flash Player to detect whether or not you have a microphone attached and available. If you just plugged it in, you may have to refresh the page before it will work. You might want to check the settings (click on the "settings" link in the Recordle window) in the microphone tab. Here it will list the settings of your microphone. If you continue to have problems, please contact us.

Why am I hearing an echo echo echo echo?

This is probably caused by the microphone picking up sound from your speakers. If you plugin some earphones it'll probably go away. If you're using a headset, try turning the volume on the speakers down a bit. If those things don't help, click on the settings link in the top right corner (or right click on the Recordle panel in the web page and select "Settings...") click on the microphone tab and make sure the "Reduce Echo" opting is checked.

When I play back my audio clip, why is the sound quality poor?

Let's assume it isn't your microphone playing up!

The most likely cause is something else is using up a lot of your bandwidth (Internet connection speed). Make sure that you are not downloading anything ... or have a file sharing program running. If that does not help, keep reading.

When you record a clip, your computer is connecting to one of our servers. The audio is "streamed" to one of our servers and we record it. If the connection between your computer and one of our servers is slow, it means we can't fit as much data down the "pipe". We, therefore, reduce the quality of the audio (which reduces the amount of data we need to transfer) so we can still record the clip. So the problem is that the connection between your computer and one of our servers is slow. It could be the connection is slow at your end or ours. If it's at our end, we're sorry but there is not much we can do about it immediately. Please try again a little later. If it's at your end then there is not much we can do. Sorry.

Camera/Video Related

I have web camera on my computer but I cannot record video. Grrrr?

There are a bunch of things that could be going on here. Please try the following:

Close all other programs that might be using your camera (e.g. iChat, Skype, other video IM software).
Restart the browser and, if that does not help, maybe even your computer.
Make sure your camera drivers are correctly installed. On a Windows system you can test this in your control panel. On a Mac you can test this with other camera software (e.g. Photo Booth).

Recordle uses the Flash Player to detect whether or not you have a web camera attached and available. If you just plugged it in, you may have to refresh the page before it will work. You might want to check the settings (click on the "settings" link in the Recordle window) in the camera tab. Here it will list the settings of your camera. If you continue to have problems, please contact us.

What is this Flash Player and what version do I need?

The Flash Player is a product by Adobe. Here is what they say about it:

Adobe Flash Player is the high-performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices.

Installed on over 750 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash® Player enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users.

Recordle uses the Flash 8 Player (or better), which over 98% of all people have. You can get the latest Flash Player here.

What is going on with the video quality? It isn't too good.

If the quality is only poor when you are replaying a previously recorded clip then please check the next question. If is is poor all the time keep reading!

So if you are still reading, there are lots of things it could be. Please try the following:

Use a good quality camera. That one probably goes without saying!
Make sure that you camera is in focus. Many web cams have a lens that can be focused. Try playing around with that.
Reduce camera movement. If your camera is not steady, most of the image moves, causing a high percentage of pixels in the video to change from frame to frame. A steady camera reduces the number of pixels that change from frame to frame, giving you better quality video.
Use good lighting techniques. Don't use light filters and make sure that you have good lighting. Low light conditions and the use of light gain filters end up producing video noise on each video frame. This, in turn, makes good quality video compression difficult.
Minimize the amount of movement. The greater the motion within your video clip, means the greater the percentage of the pixels that change from one frame to another, which means the quality has to drop because there is more information the deal with.

Why is it that when I play back my video clip, it is pretty average looking? It is blocky/blurry/stilted.

The most likely cause is something else is using up a lot of your bandwidth (Internet connection speed). Make sure that you are not downloading anything ... or have a file sharing program running. If that does not help, keep reading.

At this point you might want to make yourself a cup of coffee ... and make it strong. This could be a long explanation! Let's start with explaining a bit about how it is we can record video on a web site without any software. If you don't want to know the gory technical details, maybe skip the next paragraph.

The Internet is like a series of tubes ... well sort of!!! When you record a clip, your computer is connecting to one of our servers. The video and audio is "streamed" to one of our servers and we record it. If the connection between your computer and one of our servers is slow, it means we can't fit as much data down the "pipe". The Flash Player, therefore, automatically reduces the quality of the audio and video (which reduces the amount of data we need to transfer). To reduce the quality of the video the Flash Player either ...

Reduces the colors recorded. This makes the video blocky; or
Drops some frames. This, in turn, means that either ...
- The video can become a little stilted.
- There is longer between "keyframes" so the video sort of guesses what is missing. This leads to the video become a bit blurry and distorted for periods.

So it all comes down to a slow connection between your computer and our server. The slow connection could be at your end, or it could be at our end, or it could be in the middle! Who woulda thunk? Unfortunately there is no way for you to really know for sure.

If it's at our end, it is because there are a lot of people recording clips at the moment. Sorry! We can actually tell when that happens and we automatically increase our capacity. If you try agian in 5 minutes and the problem still persists, then it is probably not at our end. Of course if you try again and it is working well ... good ... and ... sorry about that earlier!
It could be in the middle. At present all our servers are based in the Australia. If you are not terribly close to one of our servers then the data has to travel a long way, and those tubes can get pretty congested! We're looking to add servers around the world but for now, sorry. There is not much we can do about it.
If you are not downloading or uploading anything and your Internet connection is quick for everything else, then it is probably not at your end.