Capture Streaming Video

[cottage]

My question might sound a little suspect. Therefore, I'll describe exactly what I'm trying to do.

There is a great program on HGTV Canada called Holmes and Holmes. We found the program but missed the first 4 episodes. We'd like to download those episodes to watch on our TV. They are available for free streaming on the HGTV site but we hate watching something that long on the computer. I'd like to play them on the computer and capture the video, transfer it to my WDTV Media server, watch them on the TV then delete them. In this way, I don't believe that I'm really violating the copyright.

I have done the following:
- Streamed the video and captured it using Debut Video Capture Software
- I can play the video on my computer but the WDTV tells me that it is an unsupported format and won't play it.
- The saved video is an AVI file. The video stream is AVC(High@L5)(CABAC/3 RefFRames). The audio stream is MP3 2 channel.
- I have converted the download to various video containers (MKV, MP4) and formats (eg. MPEG-4Visual) and various codecs (Lavf57.25.100, Lavf55.12.0


The end result is always the same - it won't play on the WDTV.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of copy protection in the stream or maybe I just haven't found the right output format/codec to convert the video.

Can anyone offer a suggestion?

[poisondeathray]

WDTV only supports High@L4.1 . See if you can set the settings in your software

Better yet, you might be able to download the original stream as-is in original quality

[cottage]

WDTV only supports High@L4.1 . See if you can set the settings in your software

Better yet, you might be able to download the original stream as-is in original quality

I don't see an option in Debut to record in different formats. However, I used Handbrake to convert the Debut output to AVC (High@4.1) and it still will not play on the WDTV.

I also don't see any option to download the original stream. I've tried 4K Video Downloader and a couple of on line sites and I either get the error message, "Site unsupported" or "no video found".

[poisondeathray]

1) did the recording play normally in a media player e.g. mpchc, vlc, potplayer, etc... ? ie. did you actually record it properly ?

2) did the handbrake output play normally in a media player?

3) You can download with the Adobe HDS method (there are various guides in this forum and other forums) . I tried season 4 episode 1 and it worked ok . It's Main @ L4.1 , and should be no problem for WDTV . The benefit is you get the original quality, not a re-encoded screen recording

Format                                   : Flash Video
File size                                : 257 MiB
Duration                                 : 43 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 831 kb/s

Video
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : 7
Duration                                 : 43 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 775 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 840 kb/s
Width                                    : 960 pixels
Height                                   : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.050
Stream size                              : 240 MiB (93%)
Color range                              : Limited

Audio
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 10
Duration                                 : 43 min
Bit rate                                 : 45.6 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 14.1 MiB (5%)

[cottage]

1) did the recording play normally in a media player e.g. mpchc, vlc, potplayer, etc... ? ie. did you actually record it properly ?

2) did the handbrake output play normally in a media player?

3) You can download with the Adobe HDS method (there are various guides in this forum and other forums) . I tried season 4 episode 1 and it worked ok . It's Main @ L4.1 , and should be no problem for WDTV . The benefit is you get the original quality, not a re-encoded screen recording

Format                                   : Flash Video
File size                                : 257 MiB
Duration                                 : 43 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 831 kb/s

Video
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : 7
Duration                                 : 43 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 775 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 840 kb/s
Width                                    : 960 pixels
Height                                   : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.050
Stream size                              : 240 MiB (93%)
Color range                              : Limited

Audio
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : LC
Codec ID                                 : 10
Duration                                 : 43 min
Bit rate                                 : 45.6 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 14.1 MiB (5%)

I'm confused.

I searched and found the following tutorial:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/369287-Capture-AdobeHDS-Video

I followed it until to point where it says:
"_ At the beginning for the video , a small dialog box , will appear (on the right) over the task-bar . Click on it !!!"

I don't get a small dialogue box either while the video is playing or when I stop it.

What am I doing wrong?

Edit....
Sorry I missed your first two questions. The Debut captured video as well as the Handbrake converted video both play on the computer (VLC & Win 10 Video app).

[poisondeathray]

Did you have HDS link detector installed for firefox ? (or chrome has it ported too now)

Also, it might be easier to use a GUI, see this thread. There are step by step instructions in the zip file

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/380985-AdobeHDS-GUI-%28new-improved%29


And it downloads and reassembles the segments as "FLV" , a container that I think WDTV doesn't support IIRC, but it's trivial to re-wrap into MP4 or MKV . Eg. flv extract, ffmpeg, avidemux etc...

[jimdagys]

I went to the HGTV Canada website and found a show called "Fixer Upper" Season3 Episode 14.
http://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper/episodes/a-home-away-from-home-for-the-holidays
I played the show for a minute or so with URL Snooper. (see first screenshot)
I typed in
akamaihd
in the Must Contain box.
You can see in the screenshot you want the entry that does NOT contain the word
Frag (red circle) which is:

http://sni-vh.akamaihd.net/z/0246/0246155_,1,6,5,4,3,2,.mp4.csmil/manifest.f4m?g=PGKUCBIISFGJ&hdcore=3.5.0&plugin=aasp-3.5.0.151.81

Right click the http and save to Notepad file and put url in the following template:
php AdobeHDS.php --quality low --manifest "put url from url snooper here" --delete
So that becomes:

php AdobeHDS.php --quality low --manifest "http://sni-vh.akamaihd.net/z/0246/0246155_,1,6,5,4,3,2,.mp4.csmil/manifest.f4m?g=PGKUCBIISFGJ&hdcore=3.5.0&plugin=aasp-3.5.0.151.81" --delete

Put this into command line. See second screenshot white circle.
Video (447MB, 854x480) will be in php (AdobeHDS) folder. See screenshot 3.
I am using this Php Adobe HDS software:
http://files.videohelp.com/u/61125/php.zip
This video (or any video that I got from the internet) plays perfectly on any TV using the $30 Ematic
(Walmart) video player/on-air recorder. Just put the video on a memory stick and plug into the Ematic machine.
Note: If I use the Adobe HDS link detector, I get this:

php AdobeHDS.php --manifest "http://sni-vh.akamaihd.net/z/0246/0246155_,1,6,5,4,3,2,.mp4.csmil/manifest.f4m?g=KGTHGZVQXWTR&hdcore=3.5.0&plugin=aasp-3.5.0.151.81" --delete --auth "als=0,3,NaN,0,0,NaN,0,0,0,38,f,0,2584.62,f,u,KGTHGZVQXWTR,3.5.0,38&hdcore=3.5.0&plugin=aasp-3.5.0.151.81" --useragent "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:25.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/25.0"

which also seems to work. Question: I don't understand why the part
g=KGT...
from the link detector and the
g=PGK...
from url snooper
are different.
Also, the link detector has
--auth...
and
--useragent...
Question: I don't why that is necessary because the Url Snooper doesn't have these extra parts (and still downloads the video).

[cottage]

Did you have HDS link detector installed for firefox ? (or chrome has it ported too now)

Also, it might be easier to use a GUI, see this thread. There are step by step instructions in the zip file

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/380985-AdobeHDS-GUI-%28new-improved%29


And it downloads and reassembles the segments as "FLV" , a container that I think WDTV doesn't support IIRC, but it's trivial to re-wrap into MP4 or MKV . Eg. flv extract, ffmpeg, avidemux etc...

poisondeathray,

Thank-you. The GUI worked like a charm. In addition, the downloaded FLV file played on the WDTV and as you suggested the quality was MUCH better that the Debut stream capture.

You previously helped me on a different issue and you are still a STAR!

Thank-you again,
cottage

[poisondeathray]

Cheers.

Thank Tombs for making it much easier with the GUI, and the original KSV author - they are the real stars