If so, how?
I know it’s a stretch, but any way to set it up to record something while I’m gone? (In my case a radio show that’s broadcast locally and also streamed over the internet. I want to catch the stream while I’m out and play it back later).
For the purpose of this question, I’m dealing with Windows XP Pro, plenty of hard drive space, and assume recording a show for later personal use is legal (I can’t find anything that says it isn’t, and is a reason not to record streaming media).
if you want to try recording it as a giant wave file (haven’t tried it out myself so don’t know if it works) -
accessories>entertainment>sound recorder
otherwise there are some third party recording/mp3 compression software packages for free out there… just search download.com.
One way you could do it, is to route the output from your sound card to your VCR, with your VCR set to record at the time the broadcast will occur. It won’t be on your PC, of course, but it should work.
I’ve been looking at some of these. Most seem to convert streaming to mp3 or whatever. Are there some which convert a downloaded file from one file format directly to another, without having to wait for, say, an hour long file to stream?
If it’s real audio or real media, there’s a sneaky way to do it.
Right click on the link, and save the target to your desktop.
You’ll save a 50 byte file or so. Fine.
That’s the pointer to the REAL file.
Look at the file in NOTEPAD and you’ll be able to decode it.
then, I email myself the link, right click and save the REAL file.
Now. If you want to convert the file from REAL to, say, MP3 without using an external VCR/tapedeck, you need a defunct program called STREAMBOX RIPPER.
Good luck.
When i tried this, it just opened the streaming in Mozilla, or said the download failed in IE.
Not that I’ve been able to find. I have two programs, one that will record Windows Media and another that records Real Audio. They work, but you still have to sit and let it play for how ever long it takes for the program you’re recording to end.
I’m not following that. Huh?
And what program are you using for Windows Media? I think that’s what I use, since I won’t touch RealPlayer with a ten foot pole.
Total Recorder can capture audio streams from almost any program and save them. You have to pay for the full version, but upgrades after that are free.
I’ve used TotalRecorder and it works as advertised. It even has an “accelerated” mode where it installs its own audio driver which tricks the application playing sound into playing it faster than realtime, so recording 60 seconds of audio doesn’t necessarily take the 60 seconds it would take to play that audio.
I only have experience with Real Audio, but in theory it should work in a very similar way for other streamed protocols. Anyway, this is how it works for Real:
Using the latest versions of mplayer it’s (fairly) easy - at least under linux, but it should also work under Windows.
First you need to find the full URL of the media file. You will have to download the (50-byte or so) .ram file, and have a look at it. it should contain something like
for the latest edition of ‘The Material World’ by BBC.
The protocol identifier lies a little bit. RTSP is in theory a free protocol for streaming media, but Real have twisted it slightly, so you cannot use the normal software to download it. However, mplayer now supports this natively.
In order to download this file and save it as a .wav, just call mplayer like this:
That will create a .wav file that can later be converted to ogg or mp3.
It might seem a bit awkward, but you can easily write a script that does this once a week.
Just go with Total Recorder as suggested by the others.
This will record EVERYTHING that comes out of your speakers so you don’t care if it’s real media/ windows media/ etc…
Wow. That Total Recorder looks fantastic.
I downloaded it and tried it out and… works as advertised.
The coolest part is it’s ability to record Real Player audio without having the player. I’ve missed alot because I won’t install RP’s horseshit software. But this… too cool.
Oh, and it seems like I can set things to record for later.
Again, too cool.
Thanks guys/gals. You just made my day.
By the way, I realized after the fact what you meant about the sitting around and waiting thing.
In my case, what I want to record is live so it really isn’t an issue. Looks like that player can speed that part of it too, if and when it ever becomes an issue.
Cool!
Spoke too soon. Apparently you can’t record Real Media unless you already have their software.
No worries though. It does everything else I need.
Danka
Some good options. I’d like to try them myself. In the mean time I submit: Net Transport.
I don’t know about the others, but Net Transport can download with multiple threads, which results in a faster download.