Capture Video Streaming (before Your Favorite Show Disappears!)

In our first instructables, we were talking about how to capture all kind of audio streaming. With the rise of Youtube & Co video streaming is another important issue for users.

Especially the 'Netflix kind of' streaming service, where you are paying per month and afterwards get access to all the catalogue, is getting very popular. Unfortunately there is one disadvantage to these services: Content gets deleted!

There are websites that deal especially with this problem. For example you can check this web page in order to know the expiration date of Netflix movies and series. If you check what is expiring in June or July you will have about 100 titles!

So even if you browse especially for content that you would like to see the most, it will be hard to watch all interesting videos. Also take into consideration, that there are full seasons of series that can easily have more than 10 hours of playtime.

So the desire to capture streaming and save it on hard disc is present for users.

This instructable is structured like the following: first a short introduction into the technique of streaming shall be given and after we will distinguish between protected and unprotected streams to discuss solutions for our task.

Step 1: Introduction Into Video Streaming

As said before there are two possibilities of streams that we want to distinguish:

1. Unprotected streams (picture 1): Video streams coming from the Internet are either coming through the network layer or through the Windows graphic system and are being played on your display. Data coming over this channel can be captured in its 'as is' compressed format. That means you do not necessarily have to watch all the video because a software can capture the data stream as the stream is being buffered on your system.
2. Protected streams (picture 2): Most of the (payed) streaming services are protecting their streams in order to make it harder to capture the stream. The companies use plugins for browsers like silverlight to protect their streams. This mechanism restricts the possibilities to capture the stream going through the windows graphics system. This makes it more difficult to record the video. So the only possibily to eventually capture the stream is to actually play the video on your system. That means your computer has to stay on and you will have to be careful while recording because everything on your screen is being recorded.

Maybe you are asking yourself how to identify a protected stream? Well basically you can assume that in almost all the cases where you want to watch licensed material there will be some kind of protection. Especially if you have to pay for the stream, this is a clear indicator for a protected stream.

So much to the (basic) theoretical background. In the next two sections we want to discuss how to actually capture the video stream.

Step 2: Unprotected Broadcasting

If your source for capturing videos is unprotected the process of capturing a video will be much easier for you.

You can use plugins for your browser like Download Helper (For Firefox and Chrome) in order to download a stream. Just google 'Download Helper' and add it to your browser. The plugin will detect videos in your browser and by one click you start to record/download it.

But as the solution is a free one, the service is not really reliable. Actually there are a lot of complaints in the internet but remember: this addin is only able to capture streams that are broadcasted unprotected. The plugins cannot (and are legally not allowed to!) pass any protection of the broadcaster.

Audials Moviebox supports the downloading of unprotected streaming services too and will be working more reliable. But you will only appreciate the true value of Audials if you want to capture streams that are broadcasted in a protected way.

Step 3: Protected Broadcasting

Now we are heading towards the supreme discipline of video streaming recording. Record protected streams!

It is getting more complicated, to make it easier to understand see the attached video that explains the process using Audials Moviebox 12. You have to imagine that Audials is going to capture everything that is played on your screen. Although the process is optimised for the different services and the recording window will directly adjust to the player, you should not pause the video or move your mouse towards the screen!

Every movement will be captured so your computer should suffice at least minimum technical standards to avoid any difficulties.

On the other hand I have to add that the services are regularly changing their protection service. So it is possible that Audials will stop to work. BUT! This inconvenience will be removed as soon as any possible (actually this service is what you pay for).

If you have any doubts on how to capture a specific streaming service please visit our website and read our howtos. Thanks a lot for reading!