downloading from hulu

[deadrats]

i've googled and googled but i can't seem to find a good, free app that will let me save videos from hulu, anyone have any suggestions?

[Soixante]

streamtransport

[deadrats]

thanks, that did the trick.

[Mike99]

StreamTransport does not work anymore with Hulu. I tried it with 2 computers & all I can get is the commercials. It used to work a couple months ago. I went to their forum & it appears Hulu has made some changes to prevent downloading & StreamTransport seems to be at a stand still as far as being further developed.

I searched this forum for recommendations on a replacement that works with Hulu. There were some suggestions for screen capture software but these were over a year old. What is the latest recommendation for freeware or shareware?

[redwudz]

I use FRAPS and it seems to be able to record anything you can see on the screen. Not as convenient as StreamTransport, though.

[Mike99]

I looked at the FRAPS website & it appears it can record sound without a microphone, is that correct? Do you have any idea what limitations are on the free trial version? I did not find that on the website.

[jman98]

I think we've had recent posts that both Hulu and YouTube have made changes to prevent programs like StreamTransport from working. We'll see if the StreamTransport author can come up with a new version that can handle it or not. Streaming media recorders should always work though, but using them requires a commercial solution.

If you're willing to pay a subscription fee and you constantly need copies of TV shows for whatever reason, buying a Usenet subscription with one of the big Usenet providers could be a much simpler way to go. You could just download what you need at your convenience rather than worrying about recording it.

[redwudz]

FRAPS trial version can only record 30 seconds of video and leaves a watermark on the video. It does record the audio also. It can only snapshot the screen in .bmp format.

The pay version is fairly unlimited, but uses a proprietary video format for capture. It creates large files that are split into 4GB pieces and you have to join them and usually convert them to a different format. But VirtualDub can do this.

I mention it here as it does work with about any video source. It's not for everyone. If something similar to StreamTransport works, it would be more convenient.

[k.]

Shareware GetFLV seems to work with the new youtube and hulu protocols

[yoda313]

Shareware GetFLV seems to work with the new youtube and hulu protocols

Is there anything cheaper that works with the newer youtube hulu protection? 60.00 usd is a bit steep imo. I was able to get the 10mb trial limit and it actually say the link for the video whereas streamtransport only showed the commercial video but not the actual video itself.

[classfour]

Streamtransport hasn't worked for a little while already.

[Mike99]

I sometimes use Hulu in case I miss a TV program. Previously I just used the HDTV as a monitor & connected it to the PC when watching Hulu. But StreamTransport saved the programs without the commercials. I then converted & burned to a DVD-RW. Playing a DVD was more user friendly than watching steaming Hulu. It was easier to pause, FF, etc, and it was more convenient for my wife to play a DVD. Obviously it took time to convert & burn, but I let the PC do that when I was having lunch or doing something else. IOW it did not really take up a lot of my time to make the DVD-RW. Then I reused the disc.

I searched for some info on Fraps & also saw that 4GB file size limit. It seems Fraps is geared toward gamers using very high resolutions. But is there a way to select DVD quality resolution of 720x480? Or would the PC actually need its monitor resolution changed to 720x480? For a 1 hour program at DVD resolution the 4GB limit should not be an issue.

[redwudz]

With my system, using a DVD file to test, about one minute at half size settings with FRAPS gives me a 800MB file. If I drop that into VirtualDub, I can re-encode it to Xvid (Target quantizer=2) and 192Kbs MP3 audio, then the size of that one minute is about 30MB. A 4370MB DVD would hold about 2.4 hours at those settings. You could also convert it to DVD MPEG-2 format with maybe AVIDemux or other programs. Not the most convenient, but works with whatever you can see on your screen. You do need a lot of hard drive space for the FRAPS video files.

EDIT: You don't need to change your screen resolution. If I cap 4:3 aspect ratio video, I just bring the sides of the player in so it frames the aspect ratio of the video. Otherwise with a wide screen monitor and a full size player window, it would cap at 16:9. Not really complicated. It will cap at whatever resolution the video is at. You may have to resize later for DVD playback sizes. But my conversion software does that.

[Mike99]

If a 1 minute video is 800MB then a 60 minute video would be 48,000MB. That is huge. What is the resolution setting of your monitor?

Are you saying that you can adjust the sides, and hopefully the top & bottom, of the frame in order to just capture part of what is displayed on the monitor?

Right now I’m using 1440x900. I can go higher but the text gets too small for me to easily read. If viewing Hulu at full screen & captured at half resolution, that would be a 720x450 image, just about right for DVD.

Or capture part of the screen, the active image, with Hulu at the default non-full screen size which measures almost exactly half my monitor’s width. And capture at full resolution, which again should provide about the right size for DVD.

Am I understanding things correctly & does that make sense?

I’ll try the trial version, but right now I’m in the process of getting all my old stuff onto a new PC.

[joe_kargan]

StreamTransport no longer works for HULU. I looked for a long time for a free substitute and finally popped for GetFLV. Their price is outrageous: 1 year use is $56. Lifetime use w/updates is $156. However, it is the only thing that works. They have the market cornered and can charge what the traffic will bear. If you find a freebie and share the info, you'll be a hero with the thousands of others who are in your situation.

Joe Kargan

[joe_kargan]

StreamTransport no longer works for HULU. I looked for a long time for a free substitute and finally popped for GetFLV. Their price is outrageous: 1 year use is $56. Lifetime use w/updates is $156. However, it is the only thing that works. They have the market cornered and can charge what the traffic will bear. If you find a freebie and share the info, you'll be a hero with the thousands of others who are in your situation.

Joe Kargan

Whoops!

There is a $39 program which wil do it after a fashion. It's a screen capture program. The drawback is that you must minimize everything else, cursors, program notices, etc., from the screen while running it, or they will show in the finished product. Also, since it is screen capture, you *must* keep your monitor tuned to it for the entire running time of the movie. That means you cannot do anything else with you comp during that time. The program is called Replay Video Capture. A large drawback is the fairly poor picture quality of the saved movie. It is rather pixilated.

[jman98]

This is somewhat relevant to this thread I think. I don't mess with Hulu as I have no interest or need to download anything they have. However, on Saturday I downloaded a 56 minute or so video that was just posted to YouTube on Friday night. The video is NOT from a movie or TV show and the people who uploaded it own the rights to it. They simply wanted as wide a distribution as they can get for their work and they do not charge for it. I downloaded it with StreamTransport with zero problems and I successfully re-encoded the download to MPEG-2 format. So with regards to YouTube it just depends on what you are trying to get as to whether or not there are extra protections on the video.

[joe_kargan]

This is somewhat relevant to this thread I think. I don't mess with Hulu as I have no interest or need to download anything they have. However, on Saturday I downloaded a 56 minute or so video that was just posted to YouTube on Friday night. The video is NOT from a movie or TV show and the people who uploaded it own the rights to it. They simply wanted as wide a distribution as they can get for their work and they do not charge for it. I downloaded it with StreamTransport with zero problems and I successfully re-encoded the download to MPEG-2 format. So with regards to YouTube it just depends on what you are trying to get as to whether or not there are extra protections on the video.

That could be. But StreamTransport will not download the regular movies or documentaries from Hulu, so it is quite useless.

I don't understand why the author gave up on the program. He could have, with an updated version, undercut GetFLV's price easily and made out like a bandit.

[k.]

Foxreal (which seems to be a shareware version of StreamTransport) and Net Transport haven't been updated either since hulu and similar sites started using the new handshake. It's possible that most rtmpe downloaders depend on rtmpedump.

[joe_kargan]

StreamTransport is a pain to use. If you want to get it to copy Hulu, you have to maximize the movie screen on your monitor and minimize everything else on the screen. Then you have to sit there for the entire length of the video without using your comp for anything else. If you leave the movie screen, StreamTransport will not continue with the movie but will capture whatever you have changed over to.

I don't have the patience to sit for more than an hour in an effort to catch a movie with StreamTransport. To top it off, after you put the movie on a DVD and play it through your wide screen TV, the film is pixilated to an annoying degree.

StreamTransport is *not* the answer for a decent viewing of a Hulu video.

[Mike99]

StreamTransport is a pain to use. If you want to get it to copy Hulu, you have to maximize the movie screen on your monitor and minimize everything else on the screen. Then you have to sit there for the entire length of the video without using your comp for anything else. If you leave the movie screen, StreamTransport will not continue with the movie but will capture whatever you have changed over to.

I don't have the patience to sit for more than an hour in an effort to catch a movie with StreamTransport. To top it off, after you put the movie on a DVD and play it through your wide screen TV, the film is pixilated to an annoying degree.

StreamTransport is *not* the answer for a decent viewing of a Hulu video.

I just let StreamTransport run all by itself. I do something else instead of sitting there & watching the download. Have dinner, watch TV, whatever.

I have converted several widescreen programs to DVD using AVStoDVD and thought they looked pretty good on my 42" HDTV. Of course the DVD is not HD quality, but I never noticed any pixelation. My friends even thought the picture looked pretty good.

[joe_kargan]

You're right about Stream Transport. I was momentarily confusing Replay Video Capture with ST. I had previous conversation about RVC downloding Hulu and it stuck in my mind. (Actually, RVC does not *download* Hulu, but only does a screen capture.

My only point about ST is that it no longer works on Hulu.

Sorry 'bout the dumb error.

[Iambob]

My Stream Transport quite capturing from Hulu too. This is what I received from Hulu support.


Brad, May-05 15:03 (PDT): Hi ,

Thanks for writing back. I apologize, but I must have misunderstood you earlier. Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, Hulu currently does not buffer more than a small portion of the videos you find on Hulu.com. We do not support downloads for the same reason, though we are always looking to expand in more avenues of distribution to service our users in the best way.
As a service to our users, we offer purchasing information for many of the videos available on Hulu, most often from Amazon.com or iTunes. When you reach the end of a video, you should find info on how to purchase it (either DVD or electronic download) in the player. If no information is displayed, it's possible that the video you're watching isn't currently available for purchase.
Long story short, we do not support downloading movies or shows off our site. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Happy viewing!

Thanks,
Brad
Hulu Support

[johns0]

Iambob,please stop spamming your hulu support message,once was enough.