How to capture netflix

[robrpb]

How do I capture netflix movies streamed from the internet?

[Baldrick]

You can't. Just buy the movie.

[Moontrash]

that streaming stuff from netflix is pretty piss poor quality...thats why its 8 bux a month or whatever it is...i'm sure its possible to capture it somehow but i'm guessin that its an encrypted signal, so it wouldn't be easy

[Noahtuck]

Sure you can

[robrpb]

Thanks. I'll pass it on to my cousin.

[sum_guy]

You def can capture it, not legally, but you can, sorry, can't help you anymore than that, Hint Hint screen <ahem cough cough> capture.

[Baldrick]

Nope. It's impossible.

[jagabo]

I've noticed PlayOn caches netflix MPG files locally but they are encrypted. It looks like very weak encryption though.

<edit>
I was right, decryption was trivial! LOL I'm pretty sure these are transcoded from what was really transmitted by NetFlix -- most likely WMV+WMA.
</edit>

[sum_guy]

Your right it's impossible, I didn't just <cough> try it, and <cough> it can't be done. The quality is not well <cough> very good, but you're right <cough> it cannot, I repeat, it CANNOT be done. Don't try it, don't do it, don't waste time, go buy the movie. More importantly, don't ask me how to do it, it can't <cough> be done.

I forgot to mention, in my world, nothing is impossible, usually just extremely difficult, or well, not worth the effort unless you have a lot of free time.

[jagabo]

Any video that appears on the screen can be captured by programs that grab that video and save it to a file. Of course, that means the capture happens in real time (a 90 minute movie will take 90 minutes to capture), any streaming problems or popup message will be captured, and the video will be recompressed (unless you want a a really big uncompressed file).

[sum_guy]

And if your incredibly lazy, have a good display, point a camera at it. I would never stoop to that, period, and that is NOT what I tried. The equivelent statement would be, encryption can never be broken. Akin to the Germans in WWII saying "they will never break enigma"...etc etc.

I keep forgetting the interweb thing is multinational and no Germans were harmed in the writing of this post as far as I know.

[Noahtuck]

Just out of curiosity, does netflix have any operations outside of the U.S. ?

Because i know i can

[jagabo]

Just out of curiosity, does netflix have any operations outside of the U.S. ?

Only Canada right now.

[Mike99]

I'm guessing you cannot use a Blu-ray player's <cough> composite output either.

[budwzr]

Hey, shut up or he might find out about the Hauppage HD-PVR.

[jagabo]

Blu-ray players sold after 2013 won't have any analog outputs. It's part of the AACS agreement.

[intracube]

Out of curiosity, what software does netflix use to stream the video? Adobe Flash?

[redwudz]

They use MS SilverLight for streaming.

[TBoneit]

that streaming stuff from netflix is pretty piss poor quality...thats why its 8 bux a month or whatever it is...i'm sure its possible to capture it somehow but i'm guessin that its an encrypted signal, so it wouldn't be easy

I just watched part of a movie last night on my WD Live Hub from netflix. It was in OAR with black bars top and bottom on my HDTV. It was a beautiful picture.

I also watched Red Dwarf: Back to Earth it appeared to be OAR with small black bars one both sides. Th picture wasn't as good as the movie but was easily watchable. I blame the source, British TV.

I also watched a small 14 Minute documentary about the Japanese attack on Midway. Original source was 16mm film. That quality was not as good as a anything else I have watched and the audio was not great. I blame the source there as you could see the flaws in the source.

Overall Most things I watch on netflix look good, excluding Stars, and it looks even better now that I've upped my internet speed.

[intracube]

I also watched Red Dwarf: Back to Earth it appeared to be OAR with small black bars one both sides. Th picture wasn't as good as the movie but was easily watchable. I blame the source, British TV.

Hey, what's wrong with British TV?

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth was filmed in HD (4k) with the RED camera.

[TBoneit]

Nothing wrong with British TV content. However they seem to do something funny with the aspect ratios. For example the Red Dwarf had about 1" of black bar on each side of the picture. Either something funny happened to the processing where it did not come out as 16:9 or it wasn't shot that way. Some of the Rosemary & Thyme seem to be neither 4:3 or 16:9 unless that is just the way the PBS station handles them.

Was it shown as 16:9 in England? Did the distributor or Netflix butcher it? You could sure see the passage of time in Lister & Rimmer.

[intracube]

Nothing wrong with British TV content. However they seem to do something funny with the aspect ratios. For example the Red Dwarf had about 1" of black bar on each side of the picture. Either something funny happened to the processing where it did not come out as 16:9 or it wasn't shot that way.

Some of the Rosemary & Thyme seem to be neither 4:3 or 16:9 unless that is just the way the PBS station handles them.

I think Rosemary & Thyme was shot 16:9 SD. Most 16:9 programmes in the UK are converted to 14:9 within a 4:3 frame for analogue broadcast, and only shown in 16:9 on digital systems - satellite, cable etc.
If PBS isn't widescreen capable, they might have requested a 4:3 version - and been given a 14:9 formatted version. Example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14:9

Was it shown as 16:9 in England? Did the distributor or Netflix butcher it? You could sure see the passage of time in Lister & Rimmer.

It was shown on the 'Dave' TV channel in 16:9, and I'm fairly sure it was shot 16:9.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xbhwXoVPo

Not sure who messed up the formatting on netflix. Did you watch it in HD?