# streaming videos **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612 "2001-03-19T19:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/1 "2001-03-19T19:03:22Z")
How can I save streaming videos to my hard drive? How big would they be if I did save a 5 minute video? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2001, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/2 "2001-03-19T22:33:46Z")
Depends on the type of stream - Real(crappy)Media, ASF, etc. Usually, you’ll be able to look at the source code for the page, keep an eye out for a file with an ASF, ASX, MOV extension (I dunno about RM files - I hate them), usually as part of an \ tag. Take the URL and toss it into a filesaving program such as GetRight, NetVampire, or something similar. It should download just fine. Of course some pages/files are trickier than others. If you’re having trouble w/ a particular site, post the URL up here and someone will be with you shortly. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2001, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/3 "2001-03-19T22:41:34Z")
Oh, and the file sizes will naturally differ depending on the quality of the video, even among the same file type. Generally speaking, I’d say RM -\> ASF -\> MOV in ascending order of file sizes. ---
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2001, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/4 "2001-03-19T23:44:36Z")
I’ve seen quite a few different streaming formats including those mentioned above as well as viv, mpg and avi. What I’ve tended to do is look in my temporary internet files folder, fins the really big-ass file that has a movie-type extension and then save it to a different directory with an appropriate name. This may not work for everyone though. Since I have a cable modem, I don’t have to wait while the file preloads and then halts part way through to load some more. As far as sizes go, viv files seem to be rather small. When it comes to mpg, mpeg and avi, the files sizes for the SAME clip can be HUGELY different. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/5 "2001-03-20T00:09:09Z")
Right click on them often opens a save window. Shucks, right click on anything on the net opens options. ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/6 "2001-03-20T19:14:58Z")
Xploder, are you saying that the files go to my internet temp folder. I never understood how this streaming video stuff works. I will try one. I am trying to get the one off of [NEILYOUNG.COM](http://NEILYOUNG.COM) tranmission at the big island. I will get the URL later if this doesnt work. I’m off. ---
**Author:** ![justinh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@justinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justinh)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/7 "2001-03-20T19:27:54Z")
KKB… whats a filesaving program? ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/8 "2001-03-20T20:11:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by KKBattousai \* > **(I dunno about RM files - I hate them** Damn, I’ve been trying an RM file. Does anybody have any insight on these in particular? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/9 "2001-03-20T22:17:11Z")
Moe: I was being a tad facetious about RealMedia files. The steps I’ve outlined do generally work for the RM files I’ve come across - just saved one the other day, actually. I _think_ they all have an RM file extension, though I believe that their sound files have RA extensions, which leads me to believe that there may be other extensions that I’m not aware of. handy: Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t save many streaming media files, do you? justinh: A file saving program saves files off the Internet. It’s used mainly for largish files (MP3s, movie files, etc.) that, if the transfer were interrupted whilst being saved, would otherwise require the downloader to re-download the whole file - file savers will resume these files from the point of interruption. They also work fine for multimedia streams if you know the URL that they are _really_ coming from (often off of an [akamai.com](http://akamai.com) server regardless of the web site you’re looking at). Anyway, I took a look at the site you’re looking at and in addition to the information in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=60106) to find the true URL for the stream. In addition, you’ll have to get a nifty program called ASF recorder (a google search should turn it up w/ no problem) and feed the resulting URL into it, substituting http:// for the mms:// prefix. Sure it’s not simple, but then it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/10 "2001-03-20T22:47:00Z")
Thanks **KK**. I’m becoming more and more internet savvy, but I’ve got a long way to go. 🙂 I’m right now downloading getright. If I understand you correctly, there will be a place I can just enter the URL of streaming video in question and it will download on my hard drive, and thus no longer require me to be connected to the internet to view it. Is this correct? ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/streaming-videos/58612/11 "2001-03-20T23:23:10Z")
**KK** , I tried it and it didn’t work. I opened up _getright_ then to _file - enter new url_ but all it did was save the url, not the video. So now if I open it, it simply searches the internet and opens the video from its usual location. Is there any way for me to save the video itself to my hard drive?