How to download streaming Real Media Files

[nrkazmi]

Hi friends. I need your help once again. I need a downloader for downloading streaming real media files. Certain sites do not offer downloadable real media content. Insetad of, they are just for streaming so such files cannot be downloaded by ordinary download accelerators or grabbers.

Is there any software out there which can grab these real media streaming files along with their audio video, so that they can be downloaded and then viewed and listened later on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards

Raza

[fink]

There are quite a few programs that can capture streaming media.. some free, most not... have a look at this page for some ideas of what's available and more info...

http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-stream/

One thing to consider first though is that sometimes the reason videos are streamed rather than offered as a typical download is because of copyright issues so have a look at the website and see if this is the case with any of the videos you want to save. They will usually say pretty clearly if the content is copyrighted and not allowed to be saved as a file to your drive.

I've used WMrecorder and find it's pretty good and intuitively laid out but it isn't the cheapest at 49 dollars.

[nrkazmi]

Thanks for the info Fink. As suggested by you, I will also like to go by WM Recorder if it is good enough. I dont mind paying 49 Dollars provided it is good enough for capturing streaming media.
As far as the videos I am interested to download are lectures in public domains, so copyrights are not an issue in this case.
I will use WM Recorder and let you know about my experience soon.

Best regards

Raza

[nrkazmi]

I have got WM Recorder now but somehow its not working for me. Its help site says that I have to open WM Recorder and when I click a Real media file, the moment its starts playing it will automatically start recording. In the options, my auto recording mode is also checked. But I have tried to play this file, it streams well in My Media Player Classic but the WM Recorder is not recording. Even when I click on the Record, it gives me a message that "Invalid URL or URL is not provided. Enter the URL in the URL windows. When I give the url, even then its not recording.
I was using this file
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/live/future_health_care.ram

Any help Please

[nrkazmi]

I also tried a Screen Capture program named Capture Wiz Pro. Well, it captured audio well, but the video was black, although I could see the surrounding outline of real player. What could be the reason????

[fink]

I had the same experience trying to capture that file with WMrecorder as well. I don't have capture wiz though but try using it again but first right click the desktop, select properties, then settings, advanced and troubleshoot and temporarily turn off hardware acceleration and then see if that makes a difference with that program.

I don't know why WMrecorder doesn't work... it just sits there waiting for the file to load.

[nrkazmi]

Well Fink, What I did....I downloaded a software called HiDownload. When I tried to download the same file as mentioned above by HiDownload, it started downloading, but strangely the url as shown by HiDownload was something starting with rstp,... I noted down this url and when i entered it is WM Recorder, this time it started recording.
What I could guess from all this, is that perhaps the hidden urls for streaming media are different from what are shown in our web browsers and perhaps this is the reason that WM Recorder could do nothing.
What do you say?? Anyhow for the time being the problem is solved as anyway I can download them using HiDownload.
Millions of Thanks for the cooperation.

[fink]

rstp is a standard prefix for rm files. I should have thought of trying that as well but forgot about it because most of the streaming media I've d/l'd lately was windows type files like wmv etc which work with http.

Glad it's working.