Converting from Internet Real Video Feed to Mpeg

[suprax]

I have something I would like to do. I paid around 20 dollars to view about 30 minutes of real video clips from a website weekly. (from CBS). I am not sure how long after the weekly updates stop that I will be able to view the clips, so I am trying to figure out a way to capture and convert the clips (which are usually 2-4 minutes in length each) to mpeg files.

As it is now, I click on the first clip listed on the website for the week and it opens up Real Player, connects, buffers and then plays. The quality is really good and I can make the window double size and it's still great quality so I'm not worried there.

Is there anyway to take the feeds and save them? Is there some tool to paste the clip locations into and output to files? If I was guarenteed that I would be able to view the clips I paid for forever I would not do this but since I did pay money I want to be able to own them.

If anyone has any help at all or a point in the right direction that would be great! Either post back to here or email me (preferred). Thanks!

Scott

[Videopimp]

you can either use a Screen Capture tool like TINRA which will give you an AVI that you can encode but is usually horrible quality and may lock up your system

or if you want more frames per second you can send the signal in a loop out of your computer playing in Full screen mode and back into your Capture card and capture it like you would any other video
to do this you will either require two video cards or two PCs or simply send it into a VCR, record it and send it back in.

although if you are doing a direct loop and not using an intermediary like a VCR the sound does get tricky since when you are sending the sound in you will not be able to hear it unless you mess with your audio card config

but as always, sound can be edited in later

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http://www.videopimp.com

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Videopimp on 2001-11-17 02:48:48 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Videopimp on 2001-11-17 02:54:18 ]</font>

[jeffyboy]

I agree with videopimp, these are my 2 cents.

If you paid $$ then there should be some kind of contract agreement mentioning the length of time the streaming is available. You CAN save the Realmedia files ONLY IF that option was made available by the encoder (CBS) which they probably didn't, or they may allow for additional charge. But barring all the "Legitmate" methods, not to mention having to totally rely on their server being up and running at a particular time to view that particular clip.

I have experienced this myself with a CBS Program that had a great video clip from that I wanted to save. And I'm lucky I did, cause it was only there for 2 weeks.

There was a program at one time that could do it (streambox), however, after some expensive legal battles, the company is no longer, nor do I expect there to be any followers. SO this means, doing it the manual method.

Necessary Equiptment: Some type of TV OUT Graphics Card like ATI All in Wonder 128Pro or Radeon, RealPlayerPlus, and either a VCR or second computer with capture card. and it should go without saying, I hope you have at least high speed internet Connection.

Use Realplayer Plus 8.5, do updates, and set ClipCache to at least 100mb and choose a REALISTIC Connection speed, I used T1/LAN. I had problems when I choose 10mbs LAN.
Then, Play the clip FULLSCREEN a few times, to make sure you are getting a smooth picture. (ie. no network congestion). I then then used the ATI TV Out Function to "Capture" the stream. This can be done with a VCR or, in my case, I used another computer with a capture card. The result was quite impressive.

Note: I don't think that you can stream and capture compressed video efficiently on the same computer.

There may be a way to do it by capturing the ".rm" file, and converting it, blaw blaw blaw, but consider what you are up against: a staff of programers and lawyers at REAL doing everything in their power to keep you from doing it.

Good Luck.