Saving Streaming Video to your Hard Drive

From: "Wintips&Tricks" <wintips@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Wintips&Tricks" <wintips@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 13:39:13 -0500

Wintips&Tricks
March 29, 2004 - Issue 3

Question:
Is there any way to save streaming videos on the internet to my hard drive so
that I can view them more conveniently, instead of having
to go to site each time I want to play the video? I do not have a video capure
device.

Answer: Yes, you can save any streaming media on the internet to your hard
drive but the way you do it depends on the streaming type.
In this regard, we can break down streaming to two types: the type that caches
the media file to your hard drive - ie - places a copy of it in
your TIF (Temporary Internet Files) folder and the type that doesn't(the media
file remains on the server and nothing gets placed on your hard drive)

So, obviously it is easy to save the first type. Just go to your TIF folder and
look for it. To make it easier, empty your TIF folder first, play the video,
and then check your TIF folder again. You should then see it there and be able
to copy it to wherever you find more convenient.
Of course, if the playing video doesn't have "Save" or "Save As" greyed out in
the menu, you can save to your hard drive directly.

Or you can view the source and look for the url pointing to the video file.
Then copy that url to some document that supports hyperlinks,right click the
pasted url and choose "Save Target As" Outlook Express makes this way
easy(with Source Edit enabled, paste the url and then use Preview where
you can right click the url to choose Save Target As)

However it is the second type of streaming that is a problem to save for many
and that is becoming more and more common.
With nothing saved to your hard drive, you have two options. One is a
workaround trick and the other is a direct download.

Let's use a real example from someone who, coincidentally, asked about this in
the Wintips&Tricks group.
On this TechTv page:
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/shownotes/story/0,24330,3639560,00.html
there are two videos listed under Video Highlights. The "Online data storage"
video will be used for this example.

If you try to save this video, you will find that there is no way to do so and
that the video is not saved to your hard drive.

If you view the source, you will find, after some investigating and testing,
that the url of the video is this:

mms://stream.techtv.com/windows/callforhelp/2004/ch040319onlinestorage_165_0.asf

Note that it begins with mms://
Note that it is an asf (Advanced Streaming Format) file. The file name is
"ch040319onlinestorage_165_0.asf"
Both asf and mms are Microsoft proprietary formats. MMS stands for "Microsoft
Media Server" and is a secure streaming protocol Microsoft uses
to carry media over the internet for your viewing, but not saving. Any media
url beginning with mms means it is not savable by typical means.

Note that this is not the main type of streaming protocol used. The most widely
used one for secure streaming is the open source RTSP
(Real Time Streaming Protocol) used mainly by RealNetworks and Apple, though
Microsoft is now using it too. RealNetworks, legacy Proprietary
PNM (Progressive Networks Media) protocol is another one you may came accross.

Newbie tip: Urls begin with the protocol - the one's you are most familiar
with are probably http:// and ftp://
mms://, rtsp:// and pnm:// are just different types of protocols that are used
for carrying media streams.

You might think you can save the file by using the url copy-paste method
mentioned earlier (where you right click the url and choose Save Target As)
but no, it won't work.. First of all, pasting such a url will not make it
active - you need to make it a hyperlink, but even then, if you right click it
and
choose Save Target As, you will get an error.

So what to do:

1. Workaround trick - this is so easy, but like many tips and tricks, it's not
that they are difficult, but that they are not realized or known.
Simply create a shortcut with the url of the video!
Right click your desktop, choose New>Shortcut and, for this example, enter:
mms://stream.techtv.com/windows/callforhelp/2004/ch040319onlinestorage_165_0.asf
Name the shortcut whatever, place it wherever, and just double click it to
start the video directly from the server.

Alternately, you can copy and paste the html code for the video and save it as
an html document on your hard drive, but a shortcut is much simpler.

With some secure media streams, you may be given the option to do this
automatically. There could be, for example, a Save As in the menu that
saves the file as an ASX file to your hard drive. The asx file is just like a
shortcut - it points to the actual asf video file on the server. If you open
the asx file with notepad, you will see the actual url to the file (which you
can use in method 2 below to save the actual file to your hard drive)

Example: at http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/
you can find a lot of full videos for viewing all of which can be saved as asx
files if you use Windows Media Player to them.Just right click the playing
video to choose Save As to save them to your hard drive (the asx is also saved
to your TIF folder as it is playing)

This is an example of the main code you would see if you opened the asx with
notepad or any text editor:

However the part you would copy to use in method 2 for saving the actual file
to your hard drive would be this:

mms://65.200.216.85/media.rollingstone.com/1/resources/129/453/files/12945379.asf?mob=AQEAQxARAACFD0U.0tQ_g4hBgBGEUEQ.0tQ_xoGBM086CWp5SUzwfLbuHg--

Note that the quotations aren't included - you copy only what is in between
the quotation marks.

2. To save the video directly to your hard drive you need software.
The most highly regarded free one (most you need to pay for) is Net Transport
and the one I will use in this example.
For more info and to download it, go here:
http://www.xi-soft.com/default.htm

All I will show you here is one simple way to use it to save an "unsaveable"
file to your hard drive. This assumes you are allowed to save the file.
Most are ok to save for personal use but some are copyright protected. If that
worries you, ask for permission first.

After installing Net Transport, you will notice an icon on your desktop and one
in the taskbar systray.
Click the taskbar icon once to bring up the Net Transport interface
Click Job>New Download
Copy the video's url and voila, you will notice after copying, that it gets
automatically inserted into the URL box. (if not, just paste the url into it,
directly)
Note the path in the Directory field. This is where your file will be stored.
Change it if you prefer . You can leave everything else
at default. Then simply click OK and you are done

The video file will now begin downloading to your hard drive to the location
specified in the Directory field.

Alternately, you can right click the systray icon and choose New Download.

You can also save Real media files (*.rm) with this program.
Example - on this page there is a link to play some previously unreleased
Johnny Cash Real media videos.
http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=2824
You might find they play choppy if you have a slow computer so in that case it
would be better to save the file to your hard drive.
Examing the html source code, you would search for .rm to find the obvious url
which is this and as you can see it uses the rtsp protocol

rtsp://media.real.com/realguide/music/labels/columbia/0403/johnnycash_sanquentin_columbia_rv10hi.rm

If you paste that in your browers address bar or in a shortcut, it should play
the videos from the server.
If you copy it and then open Net Transport, it will be automatically pasted in
the url box and clicking Ok
will begin downloading it to your hard drive.
It shoud go without saying that if you don't have Real Player installed, you
won't be able to see the video.

vic
If you have feedback, or a question or tip you would like to have considered
for submission, send it to::
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If you're interested in digital video, you can get a free issue of VideoMaker
magazine and a CD..
See the link on the groups support home page.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks/

I also write for ABC
//www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list?list_id=abcomputers
and TechTrax
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=InfoDetail&ID=12
where you may occassionly some of these tips expanded with screenshots.

If you are a Windows newbie, here are the best ebooks to learn Windows in plain
english with no experience needed.
http://newbieclub.com/?vic

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Saving Streaming Video to your Hard Drive

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