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Meeting Recorder Plus User Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Meeting Recorder Plus is screen capture software designed to record Zoom, Skype, Google Meet or any other video conferencing software you use on your Windows computer.

When recording video calls, Meeting Recorder Plus tracks the position and size of Zoom, Skype or Google Meet windows on the screen.

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Meeting Recorder Plus is compatible with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and Vista. Windows XP is not supported.

Meeting recorder Plus includes a unique feature that makes top-quality audio recordings possible even if the call or webinar has lots of participants, and has problems with echo and feedback.

What Is Smart Microphone?

Smart Microphone is an advanced feature introduced in Meetings Recorder Plus. It improves the quality of audio recording when the computer microphone and speakers are recorded together.

Smart Microphone can be used to turn the microphone ON or OFF with just one mouse click. You can record remote or computer sound with zero microphone feedback or noise by quickly switching between local and remote audio.

Use this setting to lower or mute speaker volume when the microphone is used. The speaker sound will not interfere with your voice anymore. The smart microphone setting is adjustable, which means you can lower the volume of recorded speakers to make sure speaker volume is always lower than the microphone sound.

Features

Meeting Recorder Plus comes with a full set of features and options to make top-quality video and audio recordings of your conference calls on Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, and any other video conferencing software. Here's a list of the key features:

Installing and running Meeting Recorder Plus for the first time

Meeting Recorder Plus should be installed by the administrator of the computer. All other user accounts will automatically get shortcuts if the option 'Make shortcuts available to all users' is checked during the installation. Every user will have has his own recording folder and settings. The administrator installation does not need to run in order for other users to run their versions. Only the administrator can uninstall the program.

To install Meeting Recorder Plus, download the .exe file and double-click on it to run the installer and follow the steps.

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Once Meeting Recorder Plus is installed, you'll be able to launch it straight away by clicking on 'Launch Now'.

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When running the program for the first time, you need to specify the following:

Video format used for recording: you can choose between WMV (Windows Media) and MPEG-2. MPEG-2 is the preferred format because of its high quality video recording and low CPU load. Meeting Recorder Plus includes all the necessary codecs.

The WMV format generates smaller recorded files with moderate video quality. All the necessary codecs are supplied by Windows and they may not be available in all Windows versions.

Video/audio player used for playback: you can choose between your default player and VLC Media Player. VLC is preferred if installed. The default player for Windows 10 (usually Movies & TV) may not support MPEG-2 format out of the box but it will guide you to install a free codec.

Once these settings are configured, you're ready to start recording. Your audio system settings including playback and recording devices (microphones), sample rates, and the number of channels are detected and displayed in the TEST window that opens.

The TEST Window

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The TEST window displays all the necessary information for recording the speakers and the microphone. The default microphone is always shown on top the list and is pre-selected. If the speakers or microphone are not Windows default devices and audio resampling is necessary, it will be indicated by "Resample Audio: Yes".

The recording video/audio formats are also displayed.

Different recording modes can be selected using the checkboxes or the Format index.

Test the speakers by clicking the "TEST speakers" button.

Test the microphone by clicking the "TEST microphone" button, then saying something and listening to what was recorded. Speak for at least 5 to 6 seconds. Some Bluetooth or USB microphones may repeat the recording.

System button opens the Windows Sound dialog, which should be used to make audio changes. We recommend closing the program if any changes are made and then opening it again.

You can always adjust the settings by going to Settings from the main program window.

Once the playback and the microphone are set up, you can begin recording video and audio calls.

Recording with Meeting Recorder Plus

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  1. Open Meetings Recorder Plus
    1. If either a Skype, Zoom or Google Meet window is open, Meeting Recorder Plus will automatically start tracking the position and size of the window on your screen. You can start recording right away.
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    2. If none of the above programs are open, you can use Meeting Recorder Plus as a general, high quality screen capture tool.
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    3. Click the MARK button to mark the area of the screen to record. A semi-transparent window is used for marking (see "Note" below to learn more about the marking window).
    4. When using Meeting Recorder Plus as a screen capture program, the message 'Screen capture mode' is shown. If you open a recognYou can also use hotkeys to start/stop, pause the recording or control the Smart Microphone recording settings.ized video conferencing program and you need to track its window, open MARK, then click Track windows.
    During recording, the selected window position and size cannot be tracked.
  2. Click RECORD to start recording. The RECORD button turns to STOP and the PLAY button turns to PAUSE, which makes it easy for you to pause or stop the recording.
    1. You can also use hotkeys to start/stop, pause the recording or control the Smart Microphone recording settings.
    2. During recording, the selected window position and size cannot be tracked.
  3. To play the latest available recording, click PLAY.

Main functions

SETTINGS - opens the Settings dialog window.

RECORD - click the RECORD button to start recording. When recording begins, the RECORD button turns to STOP and PLAY turns to PAUSE. Click STOP to stop recording. Click PAUSE to pause recording. You can also use hotkeys to control recording, playback and Smart Microphone.

PLAY - click this button to play the last recorded video, open the storage folder or set up the storage folder.

MARK - use this function to manually mark the area of the screen to be recorded. A transparent window rectangle is displayed. You can resize and move the window (grab the top of the transparent window) to match the desired screen area.

When recording the Skype, Zoom or Google Meet windows, manual marking is not necessary as Meetings & Chats automatically tracks these windows on the screen.

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Note: When using the MARK button, the selected screen area (screen region or full screen) is not memorized. If you need this option, open Settings - Capture and check the Marked Region or Full screen option. In this case, the tracking of Zoom and Google Meeting will be disabled. Click Tracking to enable it again.

Video capture modes

To access video capture modes settings, go to Settings - Capture.

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The following recording modes are available:

Marked region - when this mode is selected, only the marked portion of the screen is recorded and Google Meeting windows are not tracked. To mark a screen region, click on the MARK button.

Full screen - the entire screen is recorded.

Enable tracking - use this option to re-enable tracking Zoom and Google Meet windows when "Marked region" or "Full screen" settings are selected.

Video settings

To access video settings, go to Settings and click on the Video Settings button.

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Video bitrate: the higher this number (kbps), the better video quality but larger recorded files

Frame rate: in order to lower CPU load and file size use smaller numbers (15 or 10 fps)

Use Windows basic: this mode lowers the CPU load on older computers (Windows 7 only).

MPEG/WMV: the default recording format is MPEG-2. WMV (Windows Media) format produces smaller files but it can only be used for smaller windows (640x480). The MPEG-2 recorded files are still usable even if there is a crash or connection interruption.

Microphone setup

Open Settings - Audio Setup, then click Windows Sound. This opens the Windows Sound Control settings window and shows detailed instructions about configuring your microphone.

Alternately, click the button on the main screen to open Audio Settings, then click Setup.

Set up your default microphone and microphone enhancements

  1. In the Windows Sound 'Recording' window, click on your microphone and click on 'Set Default'.
  2. Click 'Properties' - 'Levels', then adjust the microphone level as needed.
  3. Click 'Enhancements', check 'Noise suppression', 'Microphone Focus', 'Echo cancelation' to improve the quality of the recording.

Audio setup

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To configure audio settings, open Settings - Audio Setup. The following options are available:

Record remote audio (speakers) - enable/disable recording of the speaker sound i.e. the incoming audio from the remote source.

Record local audio (microphone) - enable/disable recording of the microphone i.e. the outgoing audio from the local microphone.

Audio recording sources - these are other recording audio sources available on your system (computer). To open Windows Sound/Recording, click Windows Sound in the Audio Setup top menu.

If you want to configure these settings via Windows setting, right-click on the speaker icon in the taskbar, click 'Open sound settings', find and click 'Sound Control' panel, then click 'Recordings'. Follow the steps above to adjust the configuration.

Note: If some of the audio sources are disabled or disconnected, they will not appear on the above list. You can enable them in the 'Sound/Recording' dialog by right-clicking respective items and clicking 'Enable'.

Smart Microphone

Smart Microphone is an advanced feature of Meeting Recorder Plus, which improves the quality of audio recording when the computer microphone and speakers are used together. You can enable Smart Microphone in the Audio Setup settings.

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Here are the main features and uses of the Smart Microphone function when recording:

  1. The button on the main screen can be used to turn the microphone ON or OFF. Use this when your connection is noisy, with a lot of echo when Windows Echo suppression does not work. A Beep (click) acknowledges other participants when the microphone is ON or OFF.
  2. This setting may also help when you want to record the remote or computer sound only with zero feedback or noise.
  3. You can lower or mute the speaker volume when the Smart Microphone is ON, basically when you speak. This prevents the remote audio to cover your voice.
  4. You can lower the recorded speaker volume when the Smart Microphone is ON.

Meeting Recorder Plus settings

To access the settings, click on the Settings button on the main screen.

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Video – open the video format selection and settings.

Audio – open the audio driver selection.

Smart Microphone - open Smart Microphone settings.

Select hotkey for start/stop, pause, mute: MEETING RECORDER PLUS main screen is designed to clone the main video and show what is being recorded. In most cases it should be left visible on the screen. However you can use a hotkey to stop/start recording if the program user interface overlaps the recording area.

Recording duration – use standard clock format hh:mm:ss.

Main screen scaling: use this to make the MEETING RECORDER PLUS main screen larger or smaller.

Options

To open the Options menu, click SETTINGS on the main screen and then click Options in the Settings window.

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Enable tracking – use this option to enable tracking of Zoom, Skype and Google Meet windows when "Marked region" or "Full screen" are selected.

Show cloned video - show the cloned area of the screen that you want to record.

Reset markers - reset the marking window to the default position on the main display. This may be necessary when a second monitor is turned off but still connected.

Restore defaults - restore setting to their original values.

Video capture modes

To access video capture modes settings, go to Settings - Capture. The capture settings are also available under the MARK menu on the main screen.

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The following recording modes are available:

Marked region - when this mode is selected, only the marked portion of the screen is recorded and the player windows are not tracked. To mark a screen region, click MARK - Mark a screen region.

Full screen - the entire screen is recorded.

Capture cursor – capture the cursor.

Track windows – use this option to enable tracking of Zoom, Skype and Google Meeting windows.

Video format settings

To access video settings, go to Settings and click on the Video Settings button.

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Video bitrate - the higher this number (kbps), the better video quality but larger recorded files.

Frame rate - in order to lower CPU loading and file size use smaller numbers (15 or 10 fps). Leave blank for unlimited recording time.

Use Windows basic - this mode considerably lowers the CPU load (Windows 7 only).

MPEG-2/WMV - select the desired recording format. The recommended recording mode is MPEG-2 (see above).

Audio driver selection

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Select between Virtual Audio and Sound Capture driver. Virtual Audio must always be used. Sound Capture is still available for backward compatibility. It can only be used with Windows default audio devices and settings.

The Smart Microphone

Smart Microphone is an advanced feature of Meeting Recorder Plus. It improves the quality of audio recording when the computer microphone and speakers are used together. Here are the main features and uses of the Smart Microphone when recording:

Select Monitor

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When using two monitors, you need to specify the monitor where the Zoom or Google Meet window is used. This is necessary if you are using the ‘Marked region’ or ‘Full screen’ modes.

Monitor 1, Monitor 2: Select the monitor where the video to be recorded resides. Monitor 1 is always the main display regardless the monitor numbers shown by Windows.

When one of the auto tracking modes is used, it is not necessary to select monitors. Meeting Recorder Plus will track the Zoom or ‘Main’ or ‘Small’ Google Meet window on either one of the two monitors. You only need to select a monitor when the ‘Marked region’ or ‘Full screen’ modes are used.

Troubleshooting

  1. Always watch the Meeting Recorder Plus status bar (above) after starting recording. You can see the recorded file size after the video format. If this number is zero or does not change for a few seconds, then there's a recording error.
  2. If a recording error occurs, first check your microphone selection. Click TEST to open the Test window, click the selected microphone, and make sure it's the default one. If not, click System and set the default microphone.
  3. The same applies to speaker selection.
  4. If speakers and microphone are OK, try to record again. If the recording fails, change the video format and make sure the audio driver is Virtual-Audio.
  5. Try to record video and remote audio only (Format index 2) to identify the source of the problem.
  6. Use Windows default microphone and speaker.
  7. For any speaker + microphone combination different than the Windows default, the Resample Audio setting in the TEST window must show YES. If it doesn't, you can contact our customer support for help.