How can I re-record streaming videos?

[Lomax_UK]

I have tried using ACA Capture and also Hypercam, both not working, or if they do record it comes out very jerky since the frame rate has to be turned down to record.  I have also tried right clicking and downloading them but this also does not work.  What can I do?  The files are news reports and are .asx and .asf and I want them into .avi or .mpg.

[stevie21]

Do you have a site or a link in particular? Different software seems to work better for different types of streaming protocols for me. If I know what you're trying to download & I manage it successfully, I'll tell you how I managed it.

[Lomax_UK]

They are from Skynews and BBC news.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/news_web/video/40510000/bb/40510439_bb_16x9.asx

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/news_web/video/40539000/bb/40539161_bb_16x9.asx

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/580713.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/574368.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/542104.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/539932.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/576726.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/581250.asf

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/592131.asf

Thanks for helping me in this.

[Lomax_UK]

Sorry, forgot the last one.

http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/581539.asf

[stevie21]

The BBC ones are easy. Download "SDP" from here:
http://sdp.ppona.com/

and then just paste the bbc url (above) into the program and it'll download the file for you.

The sky ones are a bit trickier - if you use a standard download manager (DAP) then you can download the file but it might be one that you require a licence to view.
http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/539932.asf
requires a licence but one other that I tried from their site http://clips.videoloungetv.com/public/video/592131.asf
didn't. Most of the sky clips that I got *in this way* needed this license.

[stevie21]

The plan B however is that if you go to sky's site:
http://licence.videoloungetv.com/do/home?clubSiteCode=MSITE05&dt=1108588961648

and click on "play" next to any news story then a wee Media Player window starts showing the video (as you've described).
In here, right click on the surrounding webpage and "view source" and then press Control and F to search for:

MediaPlayer1.URL=

which will give you:
MediaPlayer1.URL="http://licence.videoloungetv.com/playlist.asx?r=H&c=MSITE05&p=237326"
Paste THIS url (everything inside the quotes) into DAP and you might just get lucky.  2 out of 2 files that I've tried in that way play normally once downloaded.

Does that make sense?

[Lomax_UK]

OK, I managed to download them, however, I still cannot turn them into mpg or avi files.  I think it's because they are saved as asx files.  When I change the file extension, despte still working, they come up with an error in the conversion programs I have found.  Is there a sure fire way to convert them such as a program that you reccomend?

[stevie21]

If you've downloaded the BBC files and they still show as .asx files then you don't have an audio or video file. What you have is something which would normally redirect you to the actual stream of video. The files you have are likely to be tiny (1KB).
"Open With" Notepad and you should see a line that begins
mms://__actual.streaming.address

SDP reads this and gets the file and saves it as avi or wmv.
Just paste the bbc addresses above into SDP (have you got this program?) and it'll find the address to be redirected to and then download the file. It does all the work for you.

With any of the Sky clips, the only way I could get those to download was to use a download manager after viewing the source of the page with the video itself on it.

So far I don't see an issue in converting the files. The Sky ones which I got directly from your links here were protected so I dunno if it's even possible to convert those. The ones I got working from Sky were saved as asf files, not asx.
If you manage to get those downloaded and WMP can play them and you still want to convert them to mpeg/avi then search on google (or videohelp.com) for those keywords.

I don't even know if you've got this far yet as I'm not sure of the file types and sizes that you have.

[Lomax_UK]

Thanks very much, found the files were wmv's

http://mms://wm.bbc.net.uk/news/media/news_web/video/40539000/bb/40539161_bb_16x9.wmv

and

http://mms://wm.bbc.net.uk/news/media/news_web/video/40510000/bb/40510439_bb_16x9.wmv

[Lomax_UK]

Ok, new problem, SDP Doesn't install on my computer.  I managed to get the otehr clips by simply right clicking the links above.  is there another program that works as well as SDP?

[stevie21]

"Streambox VCR" is another one I use. I'm not sure if it's still available as a download but if not then I'll get back to you with another way of downloading it.

Also, searching google or download.com for "stream download" will list other programs.