Can anyone show me how to download this TV episode from Hulu?

[R&MFan]

Hi guys, I have another request. Anyone up for a challenge? This one may be a little tricky, if it's even possible. Can anyone show me how to download this TV episode from Hulu?

But here's the catch: the episode was taken down from the site and can no longer be viewed. Is there any possible way of finding a copy of it and downloading it? Maybe the file still exists somewhere on Hulu's server. Here's the link to the expired video:

http://www.hulu.com/site-player/html5/embed.html?eid=aU8-DV1bHJHHO8Fvn0dDfg&st=&et=&it=

I will be extremely grateful for any help. Thanks so much!

[jman98]

We get this kind of request from time to time.

1) The only way that works to copy episodes from Hulu is to use a commercial streaming media encoder that copies the videos in real time. Replay Video Capture or something similar is what you need, but "commercial" means "not free". You have to buy such programs. And you CANNOT "download" Hulu videos. You can only record them as play in real time.
2) Once Hulu removes the video, it's gone. The link you provided is useless. You would have to search and see if some other website has a copy of the video so you can get it from them, but this almost never happens.

[R&MFan]

Thanks for your response.

I have something that may be a bit easier than my first request. The episode I need is also on a website called Vudu. The thing is, it costs money to have access to the whole episode.

But on the Wal-Mart website, you can preview the episode and watch the first two minutes of it. Is there any way of using the preview video to try and figure out how to access the full video?

It would be fantastic if you could also find a way for me to download it, but it would be just fine if I could just stream it. Here's the link to the preview video:

http://www.walmart.com/vudu/watch2min.do?vid=380697&itemId=21812063

[olyteddy]

If you want 30 minutes of that show copy the preview 15 times. If you want an hour copy it 30 times. Better still, buy the damned thing and stop asking the good folks around here to help you find a way to steal it.

[johns0]

R&MFan-in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time.

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for your response.

I have something that may be a bit easier than my first request. The episode I need is also on a website called Vudu. The thing is, it costs money to have access to the whole episode.

But on the Wal-Mart website, you can preview the episode and watch the first two minutes of it. Is there any way of using the preview video to try and figure out how to access the full video?

It would be fantastic if you could also find a way for me to download it, but it would be just fine if I could just stream it. Here's the link to the preview video:

http://www.walmart.com/vudu/watch2min.do?vid=380697&itemId=21812063

If the video is not available to download for free from a legitimate source, this forum can't help you. Baldrick recently made a change to the forum rules. Discussions about downloading/copying video from paid sources like Vudu are not permitted anymore. From https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/72386-Forum-rules-Acceptable-Use-Policy-(AUP)

Do NOT talk about copying rented material
You are not allowed to rip/copy/record rented video. It includes streaming rented video like netflix, itunes, hulu plus, etc.

[jagabo]

I have something that may be a bit easier than my first request. The episode I need is also on a website called Vudu. The thing is, it costs money to have access to the whole episode.

But on the Wal-Mart website, you can preview the episode and watch the first two minutes of it. Is there any way of using the preview video to try and figure out how to access the full video?

So you're asking for help shoplifting from Walmart/Vudu?

[R&MFan]

@olyteddy I like your use of logic, but I kind of wanted to get the whole entire episode, not just the same two minutes in the preview. And I'm not asking anyone to help me steal anything, I should have been more clear in my post and said that I'm looking for a LEGAL way to do this. Granted, I know there probably aren't any, but I'm asking just to be sure.

@johns0 Okay, I will do that. Thanks for letting me know.

@usually_quiet I didn't see that, thank you for letting me know. For future reference, I'm not allowed to talk about copying rented material, but can I talk about videos that I bought and I own? Like, if I buy an episode or movie off of iTunes and I own it, can I talk about something like that?

@jagabo No, I'm not asking for anything like that. Like I said earlier, I really should have been more clear and specified that anyone should let me know if they've found any LEGAL way to get a copy of the video. Yes, I know there probably aren't any legal ways of doing this, and I definitely don't want to do anything illegal or steal/shoplift anything. But it doesn't hurt anyone to ask and see if anyone has any ideas, right?

[jman98]

@olyteddy I like your use of logic, but I kind of wanted to get the whole entire episode, not just the same two minutes in the preview. And I'm not asking anyone to help me steal anything, I should have been more clear in my post and said that I'm looking for a LEGAL way to do this. Granted, I know there probably aren't any, but I'm asking just to be sure.

I doubt very much what you claim.

I told EXACTLY how to do this but it costs money. You ignored my post. Fine. Don't get your video. I don't care. But I did tell you how to do it.

You want to do it for free. Tough. Can't be done for free.

The "legal" part of it is nonsense because Hulu, Vudu, etc. will argue that using any media capture software is "illegal". It would take a court case to settle the issue and nobody is going to go after individual users who use the recordings for their own use because doing so and losing would set a precedent that no media company wants done.

[usually_quiet]

@usually_quiet I didn't see that, thank you for letting me know. For future reference, I'm not allowed to talk about copying rented material, but can I talk about videos that I bought and I own? Like, if I buy an episode or movie off of iTunes and I own it, can I talk about something like that?

Discussions about copying material that you own are allowed. However, Vudu only rents, so if the material you want is not available for sale somewhere else, you are out of luck.

[R&MFan]

@jman98 I didn't ignore your post. I think it's a great idea, only I don't want to spend money on commercial video capturing software in addition to the video. And when I said I didn't want to do something illegal, what I meant was that I don't want to hack into the Wal-Mart or Vudu to get the full video, but I'm open to the idea of using a video capturing software if it wasn't so expensive. I'm sorry I wasn't more clear in my posts. Thanks for your replies, though.

@usually_quiet Well, iTunes offers the video I want for paid download so I would own it if I got it from there. The only problem is, iTunes videos are DRM protected so unless I could figure out a way of removing the protection the video would be useless to me. Thanks for your response, though.

[Brad]

However, Vudu only rents, so if the material you want is not available for sale somewhere else, you are out of luck.

Vudu has rental-only options for some movies.

They sell other movies and TV shows.

[usually_quiet]

@jman98 I didn't ignore your post. I think it's a great idea, only I don't want to spend money on commercial video capturing software in addition to the video. And when I said I didn't want to do something illegal, what I meant was that I don't want to hack into the Wal-Mart or Vudu to get the full video, but I'm open to the idea of using a video capturing software if it wasn't so expensive. I'm sorry I wasn't more clear in my posts. Thanks for your replies, though.

@usually_quiet Well, iTunes offers the video I want for paid download so I would own it if I got it from there. The only problem is, iTunes videos are DRM protected so unless I could figure out a way of removing the protection the video would be useless to me. Thanks for your response, though.

Yes, you have to buy the video to have discussions here about copying it, and you have to pay money for software that is able to do a decent job capturing it to have an unencumbered copy of what you paid for. Poor you, having to face the hard truth that not everything in the world that you want is free or very low cost.

[R&MFan]

@usually_quiet Okay, thank you for clearing that up. And I have no problem facing this "hard truth", I understand that I have to pay for things. I just like to look for the cheapest possible way to do something and research all my options. So thank you again for helping me do that.

[spiritgumm]

I have related questions, and any replies about them might be helpful to the OP (I'm not trying to commandeer their thread) for his purchased video.

There are two recording methods I'm curious about, mentioned in this now-closed thread:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/334538-capture-streaming-movies-from-netflix/page3

The VLC screen capture method, and the VGA-RCA-dvd recorder method. I've often wanted to buy some Amazon Unbox movies which are not available on home video, but want to back them up as dvd video. I dont watch streaming video or on my PC.

Given the different limitations of each method, would the quality be comparable between VLC and dvd recorder?

Would the silverlight or Amazon "player"(software apparently required to play the downloads) interfere with the dvd recorder, or would the VGA-RCA converter omit it? If an analog copyright/guard signal would be transmitted, would the old black box "stabilizer" work? The kind that worked between VCRS, but not dvd?
And what's a good VGA-RCA converter to use for video? The one linked in the thread seems to be for power points, not movie video.
Looks like audio needs to be connected separately.

Are there updated instructions for VLC? I saw this old thread:
http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=58200

I only have DSL which isnt very fast, but these will be downloaded movies, so hopefully there would be no buffering problems from simply playing the files on a PC. I usually have my old PC hooked up to the internet (although I could swap over to my newer 2012 PC), so I'm not sure how well VLC would do. Probably would do better on the new PC.

[jagabo]

Screen capture with VLC can be far better than a VGA->composite converter followed by a DVD recorder. See the last two images in this post:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/283861-VGA-to-S-video?p=1756748&viewfull=1#post1756748

Screen capture by VLC could approach the DVD rip's clarity (though SD steams from Netflix won't be that sharp). The VGA->composite converter is badly degraded.

[spiritgumm]

Thanks for the info. On page 1 bottom, I see the VGA converter image (from dvd), but the next image says ripped directly. Was the first image made with a dvd recorder?
The second is a direct rip (meaning a media player), so not actually VLC screen capture, right? But you're saying they'd be close, qualitywise?

[jagabo]

Thanks for the info. On page 1 bottom, I see the VGA converter image (from dvd), but the next image says ripped directly. Was the first image made with a dvd recorder?

The first image was made from a ATI-650 USB2 capture with lossless compression -- better image quality than any any DVD recorder can deliver.

The second is a direct rip (meaning a media player), so not actually VLC screen capture, right?

Yes. I probably made the image with VirtualDub.

But you're saying they'd be close, qualitywise?

If the streaming video delivered that quality then you could capture it with that quality. Though more likely you will encode to DVD or h.264 MKV which would degrade the quality a bit.

The biggest problem with screen capture is getting the frame rate right.

[spiritgumm]

The biggest problem with screen capture is getting the frame rate right.

and you might recall from my previous thread how I dont like the wrong frame rate captures.

As it looks like you've done some screen capturing, are Amazon video downloads typically 24 fps? Should I test VLC first to see if it captures on my PC by playing an AVI with whatever typical framerate?

[jagabo]

I've never streamed from Amazon. My guess is the frame rate varies from video to video. And what shows up on your screen will be the refresh rate of your monitor, most likely 60 fps. So even if you get the right frame rate for the source you'll probably sometimes get missing or duplicate frames.

And I've never used VLC to screen capture.

[spiritgumm]

for the record, I would be playing a download, not streaming, but I suppose the framerate would be the same for a given video? The thing is, I've seen some great rips so I was hoping to get consistently good results (not hit or miss) if I ever do this.

Guess I mistook your screen grab for a streaming rip in this other thread. Plus you seem so knowledgeable about the subject that I figured you do some screen capturing (with some ware, even if it's not VLC):
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/334538-capture-streaming-movies-from-netflix?p=2108...=1#post2108801

[jagabo]

Guess I mistook your screen grab for a streaming rip in this other thread.

I was playing the DVD VOB on a laptop out the VGA port, with a VGA to composite adapter, to a composite capture card on another computer. Roughly equivalent to what you would be doing using a DVD recorder except the capture card is better than a DVD recorder because it wasn't using lossy MPEG 2 encoding.

Plus you seem so knowledgeable about the subject that I figured you do some screen capturing (with some ware, even if it's not VLC):

Yes, I have used other screen capture programs in the past, mostly VirtualDub. But I'm not an expert on the matter.