Downloading video from the net?

[mikehende]

In the same way that you can capture audio from the net is there a way to capture video off the net?

[BJ_M]

right click and 'save as' ...

or do you mean streaming media ? if so - there is a big thread on this already

[dphirschler]

I just used CamStudio to capture a video off the web. I set it to 100fps and then ran a script to get it down to the real frame rate (which was a crap shoot). My final decision was that the video was 12 fps.


Darryl

[mikehende]

Yeah "streaming media" is probable what I am thinking of, I'll do a search here using those words [thanks], will also look into Camstudio [appreciate it], get back to you guys.

[mikehende]

Regarding Camstudio, upon reading the reviews, it mentions that the 2.0 version is better than the 2.1 version but the link to the 2.0 version does not work, can anyone give me a link to the 2.0 version or tell me if the 2.1 will work effectively? Thanks

[Bodyslide]

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/954-camstudio.html

[mikehende]

Appreciate it!

[mikehende]

Just tried out camstudio, even with the recording quality set to highest, it does not show good at all, any better software for this out there?

[Timmychuck]

Try using SnagIt 8. Best capture software I ever used.



http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.asp

[mikehende]

Thanks but isn't Snagit used only for still images and not streaming video? Right now I am looking at either WM Recorder or Net transport from the tools section. I have looked at many threads here using the search tool and could not come up with any freeware that does this effectively. Wish someone could tell me which of the 10 streaming tools works best so I won't have to go try out all ten softwares?

[DarrellS]

In the sticky, there are a few options for downloading streaming media but there are websites that make it impossible to do this or if they will let you download them, they make it impossible to view once you've downloaded them. In this instance, the best way to get the movie is with a capture program like Snagit8 and yes, it does capture video. You'll have to check the help files to figure out how to get your sound card to capture the audio.

It's not free but worth the few bucks that it cost.

[DarrellS]

Wish someone could tell me which of the 10 streaming tools works best so I won't have to go try out all ten softwares?

Some programs work for some sites and not for others. It's a hit and miss process.
SBVCR and SDP work for alot of sites but not all of them. Sometimes you can just view the source of the webpage and find where the file is stored, then copy the address into media player classic and save the file from there but most modern sites are pretty up to date with DRM and refuse to allow you save their content (even if it's content that they've stolen from somebody else) and force you to watch it on their webpage.

[dphirschler]

With CamStudio, did you capture only a selected window or did you attempt to capture the entire screen? Go for just the video window. I got perfect results when I captured a window 360x244 @ 100fps (and even 200 fps). My machine is nothing spectacular either, only a 2.6GHz. Somehwat slow by today's standards.


Darryl

[mikehende]

I captured only the window but I will need to show at full screen in any case.

[mikehende]

Just tried quite a few programs, those that you use to capture the video's window doesn't show good and the others in which you have to place a URL doesn't work. Really frustrating day and din't get anywhere.

[BJ_M]

you can try www.keepvid.com for a lot of sites also

[mikehende]

Actually, Keepvid was the very first thing that was referred to me but since I was told that you can't download in avi format or any format that Powerdvd would recognise, this won't work for me.

[BJ_M]

??

it will download in its native format .... play in media player classic ...


or if you need to -- flv viewer

[mikehende]

I only use Powerdvd for video playback so whatever I do, the captured files will have to be playable in Powerdvd.

[BJ_M]

time to switch to something better (and it is free) , powerdvd is not made for playing streamed video types for the most part

[mikehende]

Well, don't keep me in suspense, what's better than powerdvd and free?

[DarrellS]

He already told you.

Media Player Classic.

[mikehende]

MPC? I tried that software before and can see absolutely no reason why this would be considered to be any better than powerdvd? I will take a look at it again today.

Getting back to the original topic, so where am I at with this whole thing? Pasting a URL which links to a video like in Youtube didn't work for any of the softwares I tried, the only thing that worked was camstudio but there are big quality issues. Got to find something that works, well I am thinking a software that's better than camstudio but one which captures using the same method, I think RM and Snagit may be the 2 best options for this purpose even though I don't like any of those 2.

[dphirschler]

Don't worry about what its native format is. You can always convert it. First you download it (in what ever format it is in), then you convert it, then you play it. Even with CamStudio, it wasn't a one-step operation. I had to do siginificant work to get it to the format I wanted. But I really wanted it so I worked for it.


Darryl

[mikehende]

I don't mind at all working for it Daryll, just that everywhere I turn there seem to be stumbling blocks and that is not the problem, the problem is simply that I don't know what the next move is or that I don't have a plan to know what steps to take to get this done.

If you can give me an outline of what steps are needed and which softwares are involved then maybe I can attempt this?

[dphirschler]

OK, lets start with the basics. Are you able to get a URL for the video clip? If so, then try to download it in whatever format it comes to you. Use www.keepvid.com and paste the URL there. If that doesn't work, try looking in the tools here and see if there is a free tool to snipe streaming video off the web. If you are able to download it, then the next step is just a matter of conversion (rmv to mpeg2 or something).

For me, that wasn't an option because the video was embedded in a flash website. So I had to capture the video window using CamStudio. I found the quality to suck until I set the quality option to highest and set framerate to 100fps. Eventually, I was able to get an exact duplicate of what was being streamed over the web (except with WAY too many frames). Then I had to write a script to get it the way I wanted it (720x480, 23.976 fps film). Since I had 100 fps and I knew the original source (before being put on the web) was 23.976 fps, I had to decimate some frames. I eventually discovered that the video on the web was 12 fps. So I just doubled up each frame and adjusted to 23.976. I also had to adjust gama slightly because it was a little dark.


Darryl

[mikehende]

Appreciate you taking the time to outline this for me Daryll, I am simply trying to capture videos off of Youtube.com, my intention is to create dvd files from this and play back in Powerdvd at fullscreen. I guess I will have to try using camstudio again but I don't know about adjusting frames and all that. Anyway, I wish to capture the video with identical quality, should I capture it using the default smaller window it shows in on that site or capture it while showing it in fullscreen [it gives that option] keeping in mind that I wish to show the captured video at "fullscreen" in powerdvd?

[mattso]

Why doesn't Keepvid work for you? I have downloaded TONS of stuff off YouTube!

[mikehende]

Don't know, maybe I'm doing something wrong? Here are my exact steps, maybe you can tell me where I am going wrong?

On keepvid's page, from the drop-down menu on the right I choose "Youtube", then I go to Youtube.com and select a video, when the video loads I copy the url of the page and paste in Keepvid on the left then I click the "Download" button on the right then start the video on Youtube, after a few seconds, a "download link" appears on keepvid's page with the instructions for me to right-click on it and "save target as" which I save to my Desktop, now there is an flv file that is only 8mb so I know something is wrong.

Can you pinpoint where I am going wrong here please? Thanks.

[Ai Haibara]

What is the file size you're hoping for in the resulting saved FLV? 8MB sounds about right (I've saved a few FLVs from YouTube myself, though they were much smaller videos). Note that the FLV video format is meant for streaming, and many FLVs may sacrifice video quality for small file size/compressability.

To be sure, you should try to play the saved FLV, to make sure it contains the entire video. (I've never heard of incomplete videos being saved using KeepVid or any similar method, though.) You can play it using VLC, MPC (though you may need an FLV splitter) mplayer, or even Macromedia's stand-alone Flash player, I believe, if you happen to have it. At worst, you can try dropping the FLV onto your browser (IE, Firefox, etc.) and see if it plays.