Posted by Frank on 10/03/05 13:09

On 2 Oct 2005 23:02:02 -0700, in 'rec.video.desktop',
in article <Re: how to download audio/video clips to my local
machine?>,
apngss@yahoo.com wrote:

>
>Big D wrote:
>
>> Check your cache for .flv files. Got any? Those are the files you are
>> looking for. Download the freeware "FLV player" (you can find it on Google
>> without any problems) and you can watch those clips offline. Hope this
>> helps!
>>
>
>I couldn't see .flv files in C:\Documents and
>Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files. I don't
>know why, so there is no way to download the complete streaming
>video/audio?


I no longer have your original post available to me, but I seem to
recall that you had mentioned that the link on the Web page which you
wanted to download was to a .ram (originally stood for RealAudio
Metafile) file. If that's the case, then what you want to do is to
look in your browser's cache for that .ram file and when you locate it
you want to open it in a text editor such as Notepad.

What you're looking for within the .ram file is a URL pointing to a
..ra (RealAudio), .rv (RealVideo), or .rm (RealMedia) file, as that's
the actual media file that you're trying to download. If you should
find such a URL, and especially if it uses the HTTP protocol (that is,
the URL begins with "http://"), then you might try using that in your
browser to see if you can play the media directly. If you can, then
you should let the content play to its completion and then search your
browser's cache for that .ra, .rv, or .rm file. If you find it, well,
then you can copy it out of your browser's cache to some other
location on your system and then you've successfully gotten yourself a
copy of the original media file.

Also, do you know HTML? If you do, then make up a simple .html file
containing a link to the .ra, .rv, or .rm file which you see
referenced within the .ram file. Open that .html file within a browser
and right-click on the link and choose "Save As" and see if you can't
directly download the media file to your system.

Note that the above procedures may or may not work, depending upon
just how the original media file is being served (from a streaming
server via RTSP over UDP, or from a Web server via HTTP over TCP), and
just how much the operator of the Web site wants to prevent people
from keeping copies of their media files, as there are a number of
tricks that can be played server-side to prevent direct media
downloads by users.

BTW, a .ram file functions just like a Windows Media Redirector file,
which would be a .wax file for .wma (Windows Media Audio) files or a
..wvx file for .wmv (Windows Media Video) files (or a .asx file for
old-style .asf files), so the same techniques apply to capturing
Windows Media content.

If the above techniques both fail to work, and you happen to have a
sound card (or external sound interface such as a USB- or
FireWire-attached audio interface on your system) which has both
digital audio outputs and digital audio inputs (coaxial or optical
S/PDIF or AES/EBU), then you can try playing the media from the Web
site in the normal manner, but loop the digital output of your sound
card to the digital input of your sound card, and while the media is
playing, and using any old audio editor program (Audacity is free, if
you don't already have something like Sony Sound Forge, Adobe
Audition, or Steinberg WaveLab), record from the digital input. This
method never fails and although you'll not get an exact copy of the
original media file, it comes fairly close.

Additionally, depending upon the type of media file that you're trying
to save to your local system, there are various programs out there on
the Net which, with varying degrees of success, can capture streaming
and pseudo-streaming media from servers. ASFRecorder, used primarily
to capture Windows Media content, is an example of such a program but
there are many others as well. Google is your friend in this regard.

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/

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