capturing BBC Olympic catch-up videos?

[blackhawk01]

Can someone explain this to me in the most basic way? I am a noob here, and I don't care if your reply will be long, I'm willing to learn this. I appreciate any help I can get.

Me too, I am completely lost. A step by step guide for complete idiots would be most appreciated. Please, please help!! (

Which bits in particular do you not understand? The post I put up tried to be step by step but assumed you know about tools like Wireshark, rtmpdump, ffmpeg, etc.

Exactly, i have no idea how to use wireshark. i have it installed, but have no idea what I'm supposed to do. could you please give a step by step of what needs to be done in wireshark please?

thanks

[mikethetv]

Can someone explain this to me in the most basic way? I am a noob here, and I don't care if your reply will be long, I'm willing to learn this. I appreciate any help I can get.

Me too, I am completely lost. A step by step guide for complete idiots would be most appreciated. Please, please help!! (

Which bits in particular do you not understand? The post I put up tried to be step by step but assumed you know about tools like Wireshark, rtmpdump, ffmpeg, etc.

Exactly, i have no idea how to use wireshark. i have it installed, but have no idea what I'm supposed to do. could you please give a step by step of what needs to be done in wireshark please?

thanks

It transpired that wireshark and packet sniffing was not necessary in the end and it could be done with get_iplayer. See post below from a few days ago. Just get and install get_iplayer from here and do as the quote says.

This works fine for me on OS X:

get_iplayer --raw "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w332j"

Excellent flimbar, this does indeed work and is simpler that the previous method. As with the previous method, 4Gb file limit may cause problems, in which case the --start and --stop options can also be used with get_iplayer.

Also you may want to pick a different stream resolution, in which case the --modes option is needed. For example:

get_iplayer <url> --raw --modes <mode> --start <start> --stop <stop>

where <url> is the video page URL, i.e. the one you get to after selecting the sport and contains the video player with the London skyline, <mode> can be flashhd (1280x720), flashvhigh (832x468), flashhigh (640x360) or flashlow (512x288), <start> is the start offset in seconds and <stop> is the end offset in seconds.

Some streams don't have all video modes, for example the closing ceremony is not available in HD. To get the highest for a given stream you can provide a comma separated list to the --modes option, for example flashhd,flashvhigh which would first try the HD resolution, then very high if that fails.

You may still want to change the container to mp4 with ffmpeg after doing this, the --raw above downloads as plain flash. I have found this helpful for Windows Media Player as it does not like flv files. It also fixes the video files if you do need to split them. I believe FLVFixer also works for this.

[blackhawk01]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

[JustPassing]

Ok, finally got the videos to start playing. Problem, there is audio commentary!! Do you know if the videos have no commentary audio tracks and how to access, select, and download them using the iplayer method that was re-given two or three posts back? I don't want commentary!!

Thanks!

[Bahman]

No Commentary of which video? Opening or Closing Ceremony?

[JustPassing]

On the diving finals (men's 3M Springboard http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w323p and 10m platform http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w337l ). And for other videos too (gymnastics finals, etc.) There does not seem to be any option to change the audio track like on NBC Olympics website.

[Bahman]

Oh, yes! there is not this option for BBC videos!

[JustPassing]

Ugh.. that really sucks! NBCOlympics allows you to change from commentary audio tracks to "natural sound" (no commentary), but even when I change the audio track, I can only ever get a link for the video with english commentary (or get a link just for the no commentary audio, as in just audio, no video). So that's part of the reason I started wanting to check out the BBC Videos.

Does anybody know of any other (good) streaming sites besides NBCOlympics, CTVOlympics (Canada), BBC, and Eurovisionsports.tv (which covers most of the main countries of Europe like France, Germany, etc.) that offers 1080p no commentary no commercials full event replays? I know the list of broadcasters is listed on the official olympics website but I don't know how difficult it'll be for me to capture those videos on those sites.

Even with my VPN, the official Olympics Youtube page seems to recognize where I'm from and does not give me access to their videos. I've read that Google bases your location on your MAC address. So, I guess I'm off to try to figure out how to change my MAC address so that once I change my IP address, Youtube will give me access to the official Olympics page.

*sigh* Why is it so hard?

[mikethetv]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

OK need specifics. What version of Windows, I am assuming this is Windows? You saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to your hard drive and then ran it? Did you get any indication of progress before the error? Are you a local administrator on the machine and able to install programs?

[alin2ionescu]

Oh, yes! there is not this option for BBC videos!

Hello,

For Europe, most of the events (>90% I’d say) arerecorded (comments free) and can be accessed without login at http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html.

But....
I tried for several days now to record athletic events, but itwas impossible, although I used ffmpeg , rtmpdump and Adobe HDS downloader -- theyworked for video links presented in different forums but not for this website.

The apparent problem seems to be the lack of specified fileformat or a different form of segmentation.

For the closing ceremony (http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html?video_id=7824) the video link is http://culture-f.akamaihd.net/d19m01_1_700@s73516?primaryToken=1344992511_9a4b8b 6e95ab9407516281f058449ed3&v=1.1.12&fp=WIN%2011,3, 300,270&r=GHYKV&g=PKEFXIGFHSRU&primaryToken=?event =d19m01&seek=47543

Do you have any idea for this problem? This blog seems mylast hope J .

[Bahman]

Hello,

For Europe, most of the events (>90% I’d say) arerecorded (comments free) and can be accessed without login at http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html.

But....
I tried for several days now to record athletic events, but itwas impossible, although I used ffmpeg , rtmpdump and Adobe HDS downloader -- theyworked for video links presented in different forums but not for this website.

The apparent problem seems to be the lack of specified fileformat or a different form of segmentation.

For the closing ceremony (http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html?video_id=7824) the video link is http://culture-f.akamaihd.net/d19m01_1_700@s73516?primaryToken=1344992511_9a4b8b 6e95ab9407516281f058449ed3&v=1.1.12&fp=WIN%2011,3, 300,270&r=GHYKV&g=PKEFXIGFHSRU&primaryToken=?event =d19m01&seek=47543

Do you have any idea for this problem? This blog seems mylast hope J .

Those you mentioned are for recording specific type of streaming!
But this site is using simple Akamai HD HTTP Stream! You can use cache of Opera web browser! It works indeed!
But do you prefer 480p of this site or 720p of BBC or 1080p of NBC?

[DB83]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

OK need specifics. What version of Windows, I am assuming this is Windows? You saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to your hard drive and then ran it? Did you get any indication of progress before the error? Are you a local administrator on the machine and able to install programs?

The mods will probably not interfere but the request/reply really should be handled by a separate topic in the appropiate section of the forum.

Technically, this is topic hijacking even tho the request is related to the main topic.

[quackeroats]

Those you mentioned are for recording specific type of streaming!
But this site is using simple Akamai HD HTTP Stream! You can use cache of Opera web browser! It works indeed!
But do you prefer 480p of this site or 720p of BBC or 1080p of NBC?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS
finally, someone asked the technical question i have not been able to conjure up . LOL

opera:cache does not give 480p, the ones i have gotten are 640x360p, have no time seek,
i had to use ffmpeg to convert 'em or use RMC to "Fix FLV"
also it comes in 2GB regardless of duration ?

other then that,
knowing that some youtube Oylmpics videos are in mp2t, i managed to get a m3u8 link early in the video, before it disappeared,
hence i always get , even if the YouTube site is still playing

HTTP error 403 Forbidden
[crypto @ 021cb600] Unable to open input

any ideas?, the link probably timed out soon after the video started playing.

EDIT:

ffmpeg.exe -i out.flv -c:a copy -c:v copy -y out.mp4
ffmpeg version N-43206-gf857465 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Aug  4 2012 16:10:39 with gcc 4.7.1 (GCC)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-ru
ntime-cpudetect --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-frei0r --enable-libass
 --enable-libcelt --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable
-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libnut --enable-libope
njpeg --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libth
eora --enable-libutvideo --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-
libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --e
nable-zlib
  libavutil      51. 66.100 / 51. 66.100
  libavcodec     54. 49.100 / 54. 49.100
  libavformat    54. 22.100 / 54. 22.100
  libavdevice    54.  2.100 / 54.  2.100
  libavfilter     3.  5.102 /  3.  5.102
  libswscale      2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100
  libswresample   0. 15.100 /  0. 15.100
  libpostproc    52.  0.100 / 52.  0.100
Input #0, flv, from 'out.flv':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf54.22.100
  Duration: 03:30:00.07, start: 0.018000, bitrate: 771 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 716 kb
/s, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16, 65 kb/s
Output #0, mp4, to 'out.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf54.22.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1
 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 716 kb/s, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 48000 Hz, stereo, 65 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=17159 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 size=   63876kB time=00:11:26.30 bitrate= 762.5kbits/
frame=24579 fps=24579 q=-1.0 size=   91469kB time=00:16:23.10 bitrate= 762.2kbit
frame=35253 fps=23502 q=-1.0 size=  131144kB time=00:23:30.06 bitrate= 761.9kbit
frame=52323 fps=26161 q=-1.0 size=  194591kB time=00:34:52.86 bitrate= 761.7kbit
frame=68788 fps=27515 q=-1.0 size=  255796kB time=00:45:51.46 bitrate= 761.6kbit
frame=74449 fps=24754 q=-1.0 size=  276860kB time=00:49:37.90 bitrate= 761.6kbit
frame=75399 fps=21450 q=-1.0 size=  280377kB time=00:50:15.90 bitrate= 761.6kbit
Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in strea
m 0: 3045768 >= 3045768
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument

flv -> mp4 encoding issues

[Bahman]

other then that,
knowing that some youtube Oylmpics videos are in mp2t, i managed to get a m3u8 link early in the video, before it disappeared,
hence i always get , even if the YouTube site is still playing

HTTP error 403 Forbidden
[crypto @ 021cb600] Unable to open input

any ideas?, the link probably timed out soon after the video started playing.

Your input is wrong or when you are connecting, your VPN is not working!

flv -> mp4 encoding issues

That's a bug, use an old version!

[patronanejo]

Glad you fixed it. Which version are you using now?

Up till this morning I was using a very old 0.8 version of ffmpeg, pulled the latest 9th August build this morning so hopefully the bugs been fixed in that version.

Thank you!
It's for December of 2011:

ffmpeg version N-35709-g7d531e8, Copyright (c) 2000-2011 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Dec 12 2011 13:50:00 with gcc 4.6.2

I also used 9 Aug version, It also failed like 4 Aug! Dunno whats happening with new versions!

IF YOU USE static builds, you can just unzip the newest version of FFmpeg into your PATH along with previous versions. I've named them ffmpeg, ffmpeg2, ffmpeg3, ffmpeg4... etc, so I can just change a number on my batch file until I find a version that works.

ALSO, I HAVE found that since LibAV and FFmpeg forked, new versions of LibAV work with fewer problems than the new versions of FFmpeg. The LibAV executable is called AVConv, but I rename it ffmpeg(x) when I unzip it into PATH in order to use it with existing batch files. Lately, I have been giving new FFmpeg executables odd numbers [ffmpeg5, ffmpeg7, ffmpeg9...] and LibAV executables even numbers [ffmpeg4, ffmpeg6, ffmpeg8...]. Geeky, I know...

HAS ANYONE ELSE noticed that BBC's CDNs are no longer performing region checks? A couple of days ago, I realised I'd fired up get_iplayer before starting my VPN...but before I could start over, it became clear that my download was proceeding apace! I have always had Windows' date and time set to UTC (and manually changed the clock back to New York time). I have checked to make sure that my VPN is not running without notification...any ideas?

[quackeroats]

Your input is wrong or when you are connecting, your VPN is not working!

firewall again ERGH !!!!

flv -> mp4 encoding issues

That's a bug, use an old version![/QUOTE]

Hmmm.

frame=339092 fps=20175 q=-1.0 size= 1260506kB time=03:46:03.63 bitrate= 761.3kbi
frame=340517 fps=19674 q=-1.0 size= 1265809kB time=03:47:00.63 bitrate= 761.3kbi
Application provided invalid, non monotonically increasing dts to muxer in strea
m 0: 13711009 >= 13711009
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument

it seems that if i -ss (t < 03:47:00.63), the encoding will be a success, any time after that mark, the encoding will fail at that frame.

EDIT: i just "rubbish in rubbish out" all the flv files into the FAVE pineapple cocktail "Handbrake" and mkv-ed everything. no problemo in cutting mkvs with ffmpeg.

[alin2ionescu]

Those you mentioned are for recording specific type of streaming!
But this site is using simple Akamai HD HTTP Stream! You can use cache of Opera web browser! It works indeed!
But do you prefer 480p of this site or 720p of BBC or 1080p of NBC?

Indeed in Opera works (Iregularly use Chrome or IE).

Still there are drawbacks:
- I have to leave open thewebpage and the download speed in cache is about 2x normal speed
- after 2 hours the streamresets due to inactivity
- when a stream finishes itis immediately erased from the cache although the player is still working.
In what it concerns thequality - this is my choice (copyrights and stuff)

[Force-Infinity]

Hey guys great work but I am having trouble with videos which exceed the 4GB limit.

First I use get_iplayer to split the video into two parts. Whilst the first part will always complete with no problems, the second part will always fail at around 95%. Does this happen to anyone else? The particular video I'm trying now is the Diving http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w32w1

Anyway, in order to resume the second part, as suggested by Bahman I tried to use flvfixer but it seems to have problems reading the file because the processing finishes immediately and the output file is just 1kb.

Please help.

[Bahman]

the second part will always fail at around 95%. Does this happen to anyone else?

It didn't happen for me!

Anyway, in order to resume the second part, as suggested by Bahman I tried to use flvfixer but it seems to have problems reading the file because the processing finishes immediately and the output file is just 1kb.

before using FLVFixer, let rtmpdump to resume it by adding -e option! if it fails you have to dl again! because flv fixer will make a file with a new duration which is not comfortable for rtmpdump! because its duration has changed, rtmpdump won't be able to resume!

FLVFixer only works perfect for first part, in this case!

[blackhawk01]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

OK need specifics. What version of Windows, I am assuming this is Windows? You saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to your hard drive and then ran it? Did you get any indication of progress before the error? Are you a local administrator on the machine and able to install programs?

I am using windows xp and yes i saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to my hard drive and then ran it. there was no showing the progress, just immediately got that error. with regards to admin, it's my computer, so I assume i am by default running in admin mode. How can i check to confirm this?

cheers

[richieboy]

This works fine for me on OS X:

get_iplayer --raw "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w332j"

Excellent flimbar, this does indeed work and is simpler that the previous method. As with the previous method, 4Gb file limit may cause problems, in which case the --start and --stop options can also be used with get_iplayer.

Also you may want to pick a different stream resolution, in which case the --modes option is needed. For example:

get_iplayer <url> --raw --modes <mode> --start <start> --stop <stop>

where <url> is the video page URL, i.e. the one you get to after selecting the sport and contains the video player with the London skyline, <mode> can be flashhd (1280x720), flashvhigh (832x468), flashhigh (640x360) or flashlow (512x288), <start> is the start offset in seconds and <stop> is the end offset in seconds.

Some streams don't have all video modes, for example the closing ceremony is not available in HD. To get the highest for a given stream you can provide a comma separated list to the --modes option, for example flashhd,flashvhigh which would first try the HD resolution, then very high if that fails.

You may still want to change the container to mp4 with ffmpeg after doing this, the --raw above downloads as plain flash. I have found this helpful for Windows Media Player as it does not like flv files. It also fixes the video files if you do need to split them. I believe FLVFixer also works for this.

I am using get_iplayer on XP and getting good results with some oddities.

For example I extracted Jade Jones first round Taekwondo fight with this command

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w32g9" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 5864 --stop 6600

the following error was returned over and over during the download -



...despite the errors the resulting file was perfectly fine!

the only oddity is that VLC thought the video was 4:10:45 long (the length of the complete video) and did not recognise the cut down length of 12 mins.

Thanks to everyone for the tips, I will be having hours of endless fun with this

[mikethetv]

I am using get_iplayer on XP and getting good results with some oddities.

For example I extracted Jade Jones first round Taekwondo fight with this command

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w32g9" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 5864 --stop 6600

the following error was returned over and over during the download -


[Attachment 13508 - Click to enlarge]

...despite the errors the resulting file was perfectly fine!

If you were to scroll back you will most likely have seen that the timestamp that rtmpdump stopped at, "<xx> kB / <yy> sec (zz%)", reported the stop time you requested, i.e. 6600 seconds. If thats the case then it worked fine and you can ignore the error.
I suspect the error is from the get_iplayer wrapper around rtmpdump not seeing the download complete to the full stream duration and so retrying. This is just a guess however

the only oddity is that VLC thought the video was 4:10:45 long (the length of the complete video) and did not recognise the cut down length of 12 mins.

Thanks to everyone for the tips, I will be having hours of endless fun with this

The time information is wrong in the file as its just a small section and I think the file gets written with the full duration in the header. This can be fixed I believe with FLVFixer or ffmpeg (or avconv from Libav), see previous posts on doing this.

[mikethetv]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

OK need specifics. What version of Windows, I am assuming this is Windows? You saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to your hard drive and then ran it? Did you get any indication of progress before the error? Are you a local administrator on the machine and able to install programs?

I am using windows xp and yes i saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to my hard drive and then ran it. there was no showing the progress, just immediately got that error. with regards to admin, it's my computer, so I assume i am by default running in admin mode. How can i check to confirm this?

cheers

blackhawk01 see this page for a way to determine if you have admin rights.

If you do then I don't know why it does not work for you. Must just be good old Windows for you (wha wha whaaaaaaaaa)

[blackhawk01]

I'm unable to install the windows version of get_iplayer getting the following error message "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. you may not have appropriate permissions to access the item."

OK need specifics. What version of Windows, I am assuming this is Windows? You saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to your hard drive and then ran it? Did you get any indication of progress before the error? Are you a local administrator on the machine and able to install programs?

I am using windows xp and yes i saved the file get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe to my hard drive and then ran it. there was no showing the progress, just immediately got that error. with regards to admin, it's my computer, so I assume i am by default running in admin mode. How can i check to confirm this?

cheers

blackhawk01 see this page for a way to determine if you have admin rights.

If you do then I don't know why it does not work for you. Must just be good old Windows for you (wha wha whaaaaaaaaa)

Ok I finally managed to get Get_iplayer installed on another machine. Now the next step, When I run Get_Iplayer, It loads up and ends with C:\program files (x86)\get_iplayer> so this is where I get stuck, and as i have no idea about DOS commands, I need a little help. based on the post you suggested for me to follow do I type in the following like so,

Code:
get_iplayer <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx> --raw --modes <flashhd> --start <00:00:00> --stop <02:47:21>
Could you please give me an example as to how I should type? Because I don't fully understand the example given.

Cheers

[Bahman]

Glad to hear that blackhawk01!
The command is as simple as this:

get_iplayer --raw "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --modes=best

[blackhawk01]

Glad to hear that blackhawk01!
The command is as simple as this:

get_iplayer --raw "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --modes=best

Yay, that is now working!!!!!! Thanks to everyone that has helped me!!! Only one problem now, the limit is 4gb. would be cool to know how to go beyond that. What is the DOS command for going one quality notch down, for example, Flashhigh?

Thanks!!

[mikethetv]

Glad to hear that blackhawk01!
The command is as simple as this:

get_iplayer --raw "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --modes=best

Yay, that is now working!!!!!! Thanks to everyone that has helped me!!! Only one problem now, the limit is 4gb. would be cool to know how to go beyond that. What is the DOS command for going one quality notch down, for example, Flashhigh?

Thanks!!

All explained in my original post

Excellent flimbar, this does indeed work and is simpler that the previous method. As with the previous method, 4Gb file limit may cause problems, in which case the --start and --stop options can also be used with get_iplayer.

Also you may want to pick a different stream resolution, in which case the --modes option is needed. For example:

get_iplayer <url> --raw --modes <mode> --start <start> --stop <stop>

where <url> is the video page URL, i.e. the one you get to after selecting the sport and contains the video player with the London skyline, <mode> can be flashhd (1280x720), flashvhigh (832x468), flashhigh (640x360) or flashlow (512x288), <start> is the start offset in seconds and <stop> is the end offset in seconds.

Some streams don't have all video modes, for example the closing ceremony is not available in HD. To get the highest for a given stream you can provide a comma separated list to the --modes option, for example flashhd,flashvhigh which would first try the HD resolution, then very high if that fails.

You may still want to change the container to mp4 with ffmpeg after doing this, the --raw above downloads as plain flash. I have found this helpful for Windows Media Player as it does not like flv files. It also fixes the video files if you do need to split them. I believe FLVFixer also works for this.

NOTE: The <blah> are just place holders to be replaced with an appropriate value.

[blackhawk01]

All explained in my original post

Ok I am trying to download the whole video of the following and I am writing the command as follows,

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 000000 --stop 024721

But it won't work. what am I doing wrong? The video I am trying to download starts at 00:00:00 and finishes 02:47:21

[mikethetv]

All explained in my original post

Ok I am trying to download the whole video of the following and I am writing the command as follows,

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 000000 --stop 024721

But it won't work. what am I doing wrong? The video I am trying to download starts at 00:00:00 and finishes 02:47:21

From my post above:

<start> is the start offset in seconds and <stop> is the end offset in seconds

The --start and --stop offsets are in SECONDS. You only need to use --start and --stop if you want to extract part or a stream, whether that be because the rest is of no interest or because you are trying to split the stream up to avoid the 4Gb file limit (also highlighted in the original post).

That particular stream, the womens individual foil finals, is just 4Gb (2h 43m) in HD as I have also downloaded it. You can do this one in one part without loosing anything important at the end (a minute or two tops). Othewise use the --start and --stop to download in two parts, i.e. lets say we want to limit to 2hr in any one file (which is what I tend to do), you would specify the two downloads as:

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 0 --stop 7200 
get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 7200

The second part only specifies the --start not --stop option, rtmpdump assumes the end is the end of the stream if --stop is not specified, or the begining if --start is not specified.
You can if you want download this in HD quality now you are splitting the download, as I said this particular stream is just over 4Gb in HD.
One final point, get_iplayer names the output files for you so you need to either download the first part, when done (which will likely end in an error but see a previous post on this) rename the file to include say "part 1" in the filename, then start part 2, or use the --file-prefix=<file> option to rename the output files as you download them, where <file> is the name you want to call each part.

[blackhawk01]

All explained in my original post

Ok I am trying to download the whole video of the following and I am writing the command as follows,

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 000000 --stop 024721

But it won't work. what am I doing wrong? The video I am trying to download starts at 00:00:00 and finishes 02:47:21

From my post above:

<start> is the start offset in seconds and <stop> is the end offset in seconds

The --start and --stop offsets are in SECONDS. You only need to use --start and --stop if you want to extract part or a stream, whether that be because the rest is of no interest or because you are trying to split the stream up to avoid the 4Gb file limit (also highlighted in the original post).

That particular stream, the womens individual foil finals, is just 4Gb (2h 43m) in HD as I have also downloaded it. You can do this one in one part without loosing anything important at the end (a minute or two tops). Othewise use the --start and --stop to download in two parts, i.e. lets say we want to limit to 2hr in any one file (which is what I tend to do), you would specify the two downloads as:

get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 0 --stop 7200 
get_iplayer "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2syx" --raw --modes flashvhigh --start 7200

The second part only specifies the --start not --stop option, rtmpdump assumes the end is the end of the stream if --stop is not specified, or the begining if --start is not specified.
You can if you want download this in HD quality now you are splitting the download, as I said this particular stream is just over 4Gb in HD.
One final point, get_iplayer names the output files for you so you need to either download the first part, when done (which will likely end in an error but see a previous post on this) rename the file to include say "part 1" in the filename, then start part 2, or use the --file-prefix=<file> option to rename the output files as you download them, where <file> is the name you want to call each part.

I now totally understand everything. It is all working prefectly!!!! Thank you so much for your help and most of all thanks for being so so patient to someone as stupid as me!!