Recording (saving onto hard drive) live tv internet stream?

[manuel2]

I wish to record from this stream:
http://www.antena3.com/antena3internacional_directo.html

which is a Spanish tv channel, so that i can later play on my portable MP4 Archos Av500 so that i can listen to and improve my spanish.

I have tried to record the stream onto my hard drive on my PC using Super http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

I have pasted the stream address into Super and then pressed "encode / save active stream.
I have tried every available output container format, output video codec and output audio codec, sometimes selecting : use direct show

But no matter what i do or what format i select, it records for several seconds but then stops displaying an error message?

Can anybody help please.

PS i do have a winfast DTV 2000H to record digital tv via the aerial, but this is the first time i have tried to record a live stream.

[Baldrick]

Try record/save with VLC Media Player or WM Recorder or SDP MultiMedia. Then convert the wmv/asf to mp4.

[manuel2]

Thanks for the reply Baldrik. After searching for one of your previous threads on step by step instructions on how to record via VLC, i have finally managed to record the live stream. It did take few goes to sus it all out though.

Once succesfully recorded, I have then encoded the recorded video stream with PocketDivxEncoder to an AVI format and it does play on my Archos Av500 Mp4.

But unfortunatley it converts the video to a very poor quality (even inferior to the live stream) making it very unpleasureable to watch. i.e. most times the audio/video only plays through one speaker and the audio intermitantely cuts out every couple of seconds making the audio very jerky to listen to.

Has anybody got any ideas on how to rectify / improve this?

[AlecWest]

Manuel,

With broadband, capturing the live stream is a piece of cake. The problem (for me) is converting to MP4. I have a utility that does it - but the audio is out of sync with the video.

Basically, you're dealing with a WMV file streaming from an MMS server. Here's an 8-minute sample of a capture I just made ... still in its original WMV format:

http://alecwest.com/reflector.wmv

If you can convert WMV to MP4 on your end and if the quality is good enough for your Archos Av500, let me know ... and I'll give you a step-by-step on how I captured the file (so you can do it on your own).

P.S. One note on "quality." The size of the display given on the streaming site is "stretched" from the original size. The original video size is only 320x240. So, if you wanted something bigger than that, quality will suffer.

[manuel2]

Manuel,

With broadband, capturing the live stream is a piece of cake. The problem (for me) is converting to MP4. I have a utility that does it - but the audio is out of sync with the video.

Basically, you're dealing with a WMV file streaming from an MMS server. Here's an 8-minute sample of a capture I just made ... still in its original WMV format:

http://alecwest.com/reflector.wmv

If you can convert WMV to MP4 on your end and if the quality is good enough for your Archos Av500, let me know ... and I'll give you a step-by-step on how I captured the file (so you can do it on your own).

P.S. One note on "quality." The size of the display given on the streaming site is "stretched" from the original size. The original video size is only 320x240. So, if you wanted something bigger than that, quality will suffer.

Every time i click on the link you have provided, i just get lots of numbers/letters and the page seems to crash?

The original video size of 320 x 240 is OK as my MP4 player only has a 4" screen

[AlecWest]

Manuel,

With your right-side mouse button, click on the link:

http://alecwest.com/reflector.wmv

Choose "Save Target" from the dropdown menu. And, when it downloads to your computer, open the file with Windows Media Player. If you can convert that WMV file to MP4 ... and if the resulting quality is good ... let me know. Then, I'll tell you how I captured it.

P.S. BTW, I captured a longer segment just recently. If the file above works for you, I'll put the 2nd file online, too. It might be more fun because it constitutes Spain's version of the popular game show, "Wheel of Fortune." It'll not only help you improve on your Spanish, but it will help challenge your knowledge of Spanish to guess the phrase before the contestants do.

[manuel2]

Manuel,

With your right-side mouse button, click on the link:

http://alecwest.com/reflector.wmv

Choose "Save Target" from the dropdown menu. And, when it downloads to your computer, open the file with Windows Media Player. If you can convert that WMV file to MP4 ... and if the resulting quality is good ... let me know. Then, I'll tell you how I captured it.

P.S. BTW, I captured a longer segment just recently. If the file above works for you, I'll put the 2nd file online, too. It might be more fun because it constitutes Spain's version of the popular game show, "Wheel of Fortune." It'll not only help you improve on your Spanish, but it will help challenge your knowledge of Spanish to guess the phrase before the contestants do.

Thanks Alecwest.
I have managed to download and play your file. I will encode it and get back to you.

[AlecWest]

Wish you luck. BTW, there are a number of TV stations in Spain that stream their broadcasts. Here's one in Barcelona:

mms://213.27.152.61/btv

In Spain, links to 64 streaming TV stations are on this page:

http://wwitv.com/television/191.htm

Also, the segment including the Spanish "Wheel of Fortune" is uploaded, too:

http://alecwest.com/reflector2.wmv

Just for the heck of it, I burned it to a video CD and it didn't look all that bad.

[manuel2]

Alecwest,

I have encoded your WMV video clip with PockDivxEncoder. At one point i was getting very excited as it encoded the 8 minute clip within seconds.

My live stream capture via VLC (which records and saves as a file not WMV format?) seems to take as long in time to encode as the actual video clip?

Unfortunately playing the encoded AVI video appears to have the same result- video quality deteriorated further, audio comes through one speaker only, having an audio blip every 3 seconds.

I did transfer your original (unencoded) WMV file to my Archos Av500 MP4 player thinking there was a possibility that it may play. It does play perfectly for the first few seconds but the audio completely distorts followed by the video.
The Archos then displays a message : only "WMV 9" simple profile is supported.

According to the instructions on the Archos the following formats are supported:
MPEG-46 SP with B-Frames with stereo sound. Near DVD quality up to 720x480 @ 30 f/s (NTSC), 720x576 @ 25 f/s (PAL), AVI file format. WMV9 (including protected files) up to 352x288 @ 30 f/s, and 800 KBit/s4.

Never mind, the world of video encoding is very frustrating at times.

PS Thanks for the spanish tv links.