recording video streams

[nero279]

anyone got any tips on (free) software i can use to download & save video streams to my hard drive, so i can watch them without the inevitable skipping and waiting for the download to catch up and all that jazz, just want to set it to download overnight or something, then watch it without any interruptions or pauses whilst it downloads the next few seconds the next day, i get crap download speeds here, even the smallest of videos the playback catches up with the buffer within about 30 seconds.

If it makes any odds its 'send in the dogs' from www.itv.com/catchup that i wanna watch (well record so me mam can watch actually but).

[MattF]

Have a peek here:

http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=video...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Just did a generic search. You may need to be more implicit with the terms. Sourceforge is worth checking too.

[nero279]

doh! why did i not even think of looking on either of those, i've had loads of odd bits and pieces off both of them in the past.

[Slugsie]

Plenty of sites for downloading from the likes of YouTube and Google Video.:

http://www.downloadyoutubevideos.com/
http://keepvid.com/

You don't even need to install any software for some of them, you just need the URL of the video.

[BushBuster]

anyone got any tips on (free) software i can use to download & save video streams to my hard drive, so i can watch them without the inevitable skipping and waiting for the download to catch up and all that jazz, just want to set it to download overnight or something, then watch it without any interruptions or pauses whilst it downloads the next few seconds the next day, i get crap download speeds here, even the smallest of videos the playback catches up with the buffer within about 30 seconds.

If it makes any odds its 'send in the dogs' from www.itv.com/catchup that i wanna watch (well record so me mam can watch actually but).

You don't say what method of connection you have. I'd rather try and cure that problem first. If you can, try using this

http://portal.onspeed.com/?rf=http%3...om%2Findex.php

I've heard it's very good, but at a cost. There are free ones out there, but they may introduce 'spyware' or worse still 'virus'.

[Slugsie]

You don't say what method of connection you have. I'd rather try and cure that problem first. If you can, try using this

http://portal.onspeed.com/?rf=http%3...om%2Findex.php

I've heard it's very good, but at a cost. There are free ones out there, but they may introduce 'spyware' or worse still 'virus'.

Services like OnSpeed are a total waste of money. They work by attempting to compress the data before it is transmitted to you, and then decompressing it once it's arrived. That's fine for stuff that is largely text (e.g. web pages), but no use at all for multimedia stuff like music and video.

http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/Onspeed.html
http://www.download.com/3642-20_4-0....54681880054894

I have a 24mb line, that I can get a reliable 15mb download on. By most standards that's a very fast line. However even I sometimes get poor performance when watching streamed video from YouTube etc. It's usually caused by the serving website being a bit overloaded, or other problems between them and your ISP. My usual solution when it happens is to start the video, then immediately pause it, and let it buffer a significant proportion before I start to watch it. Whilst it's buffering I just open another browser tab and visit some other webpages.

[BushBuster]

Services like OnSpeed are a total waste of money. They work by attempting to compress the data before it is transmitted to you, and then decompressing it once it's arrived. That's fine for stuff that is largely text (e.g. web pages), but no use at all for multimedia stuff like music and video.

http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/Onspeed.html
http://www.download.com/3642-20_4-0....54681880054894

I have a 24mb line, that I can get a reliable 15mb download on. By most standards that's a very fast line. However even I sometimes get poor performance when watching streamed video from YouTube etc. It's usually caused by the serving website being a bit overloaded, or other problems between them and your ISP. My usual solution when it happens is to start the video, then immediately pause it, and let it buffer a significant proportion before I start to watch it. Whilst it's buffering I just open another browser tab and visit some other webpages.

Fair points. Can you suggest how he improves his connection/download speed rather than use some other method. The problem is, if I read right his "crap download speeds". What are the best options that aren't gonna cost a bucket?

[Slugsie]

Well, that will depend on several things. Firstly, what is the actual speed of the internet connection, which ISP, and is there any line noise?

[nero279]

we're on a known weak line to the exchange, tesco 1mb broadband, lucky to get 30KB/sec download rate, streaming media of any kind of watchable quality stutters and struggles and catches up with the buffer every 10/15seconds.

I found a couple of programs to do what i want. RipTiger seems good, but the trial is seriously restricted. The trial i got to work and do the whole thing was Sytexis Web Stream Recorder Pro, very basic but did the job.

Cheers chaps.

[MattF]

Can you suggest how he improves his connection/download speed rather than use some other method. The problem is, if I read right his "crap download speeds". What are the best options that aren't gonna cost a bucket?

Smooth streaming video is a marketing departments pipe dream. There are far too many unknowns for it to ever work without cartloads of buffering.


Ian, it might also be worthwhile having a look on the Firefox site. Just remembered that there are several plugins for Firefox which find available video files on sites and allow you to download them. Might be worth a try.

[nero279]

Ian, it might also be worthwhile having a look on the Firefox site. Just remembered that there are several plugins for Firefox which find available video files on sites and allow you to download them. Might be worth a try.

Yeah i dunno why firefox hasn't been installed on this machine yet, i use it on my laptop, my dad uses it on his laptop and his work machines, my sister uses it on her laptop, and yet, our shared desktop we still use IE, go figure. I think i've actually even got one installed on the laptop that would've done what i wanted, but can't ever be bothered to get it out, i don't like laptop keyboards or sitting with the laptop on my lap, so tend to use the desktop all the time.