Downloading and saving video clips from the web (Hulu, NBC) - What to use?

Sossity · #1 12-16-2010, 10:00 PM

My dad has a brother who likes funny stuff, & he usually likes to send him a compilation of funny videos from various websites on a DVD to mail to his family.

So far I am only able to get video from youtube using Zamzar online conversion.

Other websites are not supported, & I end up having to film the video from the computer screen with my digicam.

I tried sites like hulu & NBC but Zamzar cannot convert those videos.

are there any free or not too expensive programs that can download the videos, & then I need them in mpg format to burn to DVD to play on a DVD player.

admin · #2 12-21-2010, 10:05 AM

There's not a quick/easy answer to this one, which is why it's going to take a bit longer to craft an answer. I know what works on Hulu, but need to test NBC and Zamzar before giving advice.

For Hulu, use Streamtransport to download.

But Hulu videos are a pain to convert, as it's non-standard FLV wrapped H.264 + AAC. You have to demux then re-mux, and then you can open it in one of several editors or encoders. For best results, it may take a few more steps, involving VirtualDub (which works on Mac via Wine) and then a good encoder to process that AVI file.

The others may require the payware Replay Media Catcher (40). Give me a link to a specific video you want me to download, and I can see how RMC reacts to it -- pass or fail. Of course, not a Mac program. Streaming media management is one area where a Mac is absolutely pathetic and the wrong tool for the job. Do you have Windows machines available? Do do you run a VM or Bootcamp?

Again ... easy question, complex answer.

Sossity · #3 12-22-2010, 02:00 AM

Here is a link http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li...horror/274194/

I have a macbook pro laptop 2010 i7 with 4gb of ram. It has windows 7 64 bit installed via paralells 5.

I also have an older pc dell with 1 gb of ram, running windows xp home edition, with a Pentium processor.

admin · #4 12-22-2010, 01:06 PM

That was easy to do, actually.

This first post is the attached samples. The next post will go over how it was done.
The $40 Replay Media Catcher was required to download the video. Get it from this link to Applian.
Conversion was done completely with freeware, and it was fast.
Authoring can be done in the $11 Ulead DVD Workshop, with the bonus of nice menus! (Guide for using DVDWS.)

More soon...

spenser · #5 12-22-2010, 11:46 PM

Hey, guy! I would like to recommend you a kind of download program — Video Downloader Converter I have been using. This program supports url download and recording videos, besides, it has a searching function, which may help you more or less. You can be ease that it can translate videos into various media files as you want. I learn about it from a bookmark (Free to rip videos from VEVO) which is submitted on google reader.

http://www.apowersoft.com/video-download-suite.html
http://www.downloadallvideo.com/rip-...from-vevo.html

Sossity · #6 12-23-2010, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

That was easy to do, actually.
This first post is the attached samples. The next post will go over how it was done.
The $40 Replay Media Catcher was required to download the video. Get it from this link to Applian.
Conversion was done completely with freeware, and it was fast.
Authoring can be done in the $11 Ulead DVD Workshop, with the bonus of nice menus! (Guide for using DVDWS.)
More soon...

Thanks for the links, but when I downloaded the .mpg file & opened it to watch it was just a 30 second all state insurance ad. It was not of the original video file I linked to. I think NBC has put some kind of copyright on their movie files/videos so they cannot be downloaded, Saturday Night live is sold on commercial DVD's.

admin · #7 12-23-2010, 03:42 AM

I was able to download all of the NBC videos, as well as the ads that played between them. I left Replay Media Catcher open, and it would download one video after another. The ad was small and easy to work with, which is why I used it. And I also did not want to upload NBC's content to the site -- it wasn't necessary to demonstrate the technique.

There are legitimate reasons to want to download a clip, from any site, and put it to DVD for your personal use. If you want all of them, then it's suggested you buy the DVDs (or rent them just to watch), for best quality AND to support NBC for taking the time to make the shows available.

Sossity · #8 12-23-2010, 05:03 AM

What exactly is the technique with catch replay? & how do I start & stop it?

what freewares did you use for conversion?

I understand the concern for legal issues I am not trying to get every video off NBC, but there are specific ones that my family wants me to get, & these methods would save me having to set up my digicam on a tripod in front of the PC screen to film.

I suggested that to them, to just buy the DVD's but they were running out of time, they would not have been able to buy & wait for amazon to ship the DVD to us & then for us to send the DVD to family overseas by Christmas.