Capture streaming video for free using Videolan

May 3, 2006

PCMag recently had an article suggesting using Replay A/V (a shareware tool for $50) for capturing streaming audio / video streams. I was left scratching my head why they didn't suggest a wonderful free tool like Videolan. Here's the lowdown on using Videolan to capture video streams:

Download and install Videolan for PC/Mac/Linux.
Click on File > Open Network Stream.
In the dialog box click on "HTTP/HTTPS/FTP/MMS" and type in the URL of the network stream you want to record.
Select the "Stream output" checkbox and click the Settings button.
In the dialog box select the File option and browse to create a file for the stream to be written to. Leave all the settings as they are.
That's it! Click on OK twice and the stream will be written to the file. You can stop anytime you want. For best results use Videolan when playing the file.

Tomorrow: recording MP3's from online radio stations for free!

Entry Filed under: Internet, TV. .

7 Comments Add your own

1. james | June 2, 2006 at 9:52 pm

http://broadband.bluehyppo.com/servlet-bb/Video?opt=real&id=9099&format=full&popup=no&type=WINDOWS+MEDIA&serv_id=197

can u tell how to capture the link above using vlan ?
2. metamind | June 7, 2006 at 6:35 am

Hi,

I have a device (AverMedia DVB-T USB2.0) that can save digital broadcasts to my hard disk. I want to read that output file as a stream so I can forward it on to a machine in another room (lots of people coming round this weekend to watch the football).

Any ideas?
3. metamind | June 7, 2006 at 6:36 am

p.s. I want to stream it in as close to real time as possible.
4. exertia | June 8, 2006 at 11:29 pm

James, I tried accessing your link - it gives an error in VideoLan and it starts in Windows Media Player but does not give any visual output. I am not sure what might be going wrong here. Try posting a query at the VideoLan Support forums at http://forum.videolan.org/ to see if you can get some help there.
5. exertia | June 8, 2006 at 11:35 pm

Metamind,

What you want to achieve will need to be done in 2 steps:

1. Stream the video from the file on machine A:
Check step 4 from my post at http://exertia.wordpress.com/2006/04/23/7/ to achieve this.

2. Grab the output and display it on machine B:
Use steps 1-3 from my post at http://exertia.wordpress.com/2006/05/03/capture-streaming-video-for-free-using-videolan/ to achieve this.

3. Enjoy the football game

Exertia
6. Burak | March 1, 2007 at 4:22 pm

This is exactly what I had been looking for! This is the “pro”s tool who knows exactly what s/he wants but is looking for the correct tool.

Thi plug-in doesn’t just give you the videos for a couple of supported web sites, it actually gives you the possibility to use the underlying techniqeus to get them.

When you don’t get it another way, you still may get it with this tool.
7. phil | December 4, 2007 at 2:58 pm

This didn’t work for me. I followed the steps and a file was produced but it didn’t have any file association and it wouldn’t play using any of the various players I have.

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