Are SOme Flash Movies Protected From Capturing?

[thedrumdoctor]

I've been using DownloadHelper quite happily on YouTube and capturing the odd FLV file. However, I recently tried to capture a Flash movie on the Police Tour fanclub website and although DownloadHelper identified there was a file to capture, the downloaded file only turned out to be 1Kb. I tried doing the same using Moyea FLV downloader but the same thing happened again, only 1Kb downloaded. I'm guessing that there must be a way for some sites to protect their Flash movies from being captured. I tried looking at the movie in IE as well to see if there was anything in the temp internet files, but there was nothing that I could obviously identify in the folder from the URL of the website that was streaming the movie

Any ideas anyone.....?

[dnix71]

If you are using Firefox, get the flashblock plugin. Bookmark the link to the page with the video. Clear your personal history, cookies, cache, etc. Go to the page and play the video.

In the address bar type about:cache and hit enter. In the hd cache listing the path to the hd cache should be listed. Open cache_001 with notepad or wordpad and near the bottom of the listing embedded in a url will be the actual url of the Flash file.

Copy/paste that url to your browser window and right-click 'save as' to get the file.

If you post the url to the page you went to (put h--p instead of http so it's not clickable) someone else here can try for you if you still can't get it.

[thedrumdoctor]

Unfortunately, that didn't work



The largest file in the cache (obviously the movie) shows as:

Key: http://www.thepolice.com/flashApps/ultraVideo/UltraVideo.swf
Data size: 9460 bytes
Fetch count: 5
Last modified: 2007-10-22 16:08:08
Expires: 2007-10-26 13:31:56

I believe that the UltraVideo.swf is a server side app that streams all the movies on the site 'virtually' into browser caches - so it isn't really there, but shows up as a Kb count. This stops people from doing exactly what I want to do and save a movie!

Unfortunately, posting the URL where the movie exists is useless seeing as anyone who wanted to view it would need to be a member of the Police Tour club. It looks like somebody has actually found a way to protect streamed content - for now......

[lordsmurf]

It's not protected, it's just obfuscated.

[thedrumdoctor]

So the original streamed file has been scrambled within some other code that a browser cache can't interpret?

[lordsmurf]

No, it's location is just hidden. Not protected, just hidden.

[thedrumdoctor]

Do these hidden files actually make it into a browser cache though, even in the form of a file with no recognisable file extension? I can't see anything in there which is why I assumed the streaming was being done somehow 'virtually'.

[dnix71]

You are not looking for the largest cache entry. There will be a cookie or handshake between your browser and the server and the url of the file is embedded in a string of text.

Quicktime, Real, VLC, SWF & FLV Player and Firefox can't open the file you list.

[Squash]

drumdoctor,

It's an RTMP stream. Orbit Downloader works pretty good for getting those, using its Grab++ function. I downloaded the "Opening Night in Vancouver" video from the police.com site. The file plays from (don't bother clicking this):

rtmp://cp37423.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand|ondemand|flash/68/01/6801da92361ef15f263991d88a37f97d-468d7efa|http://www.thepolice.com/flashApps/ultraVideo/UltraVideo.swf|http://www.thepolice.com/mediaPlayer/flashPlayer.php?id=146&format=FLV&speed=F&type=v&...d-468d7efa.flv

The part from the last "http" until the end is what you need to download the file with your favorite RTMP downloader, or you could just tell Orbit to get it. If you want to try Orbit (it's free), you can turn off its P2P crap by unselecting "Enable Orbitnet" in the "Preferences...P2P Network section". It's not necessary and I don't trust it. Reviews of Orbit and a download link:

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Orbit_downloader/1163729355/1

You'll need to set it to monitor Firefox (or IE) if it's not already set by default (I don't remember).

Since it's streaming, you may have problems if your connection's not good. The first time I downloaded it, it was missing about 10 seconds of video at the beginning, although the audio was there. I tried it again and only a couple of seconds were missing (file sizes were 11.9MB vs. 12.7).

The video is VP62. I had trouble playing it with a Directshow player but it played fine in VLC and Mplayer. There's something you can do with the splitter to make it work in MPC, etc. I had it set up on my old computer but I don't remember offhand what I did and I'm about to crash for the evening.

Edit: I remembered something that might help: Once Orbit has the address, shut down the page that's playing the file before you download it. That way, you're not downloading the stream simultaneously with the browser and with Orbit. The first couple of times I downloaded it I didn't stop the browser until after I'd started the Orbit download. I went back and did it right the 3rd time and this time got all of the file with no glitches. I'm tired, what can I say. Good luck.

[thedrumdoctor]

Thanks Squash, I'm going to give it a go and see what I can pull down

[thedrumdoctor]

AWESOME!

Orbit grabbed it first time, no hassle!