rtmpdump and BBC iPlayer for Radio - Live Stream

[Ed999]

Although I've been able to use RTMPSRV.EXE and the BBC's own Media Selector page (supplied on their website for every iPlayer radio or tv show) to successfully identify the command strings needed to download 'Listen Again' files (i.e. on-demand streams), I've had less success with their Listen Live links.

For example, their old time radio station (which broadcasts their Archive radio shows from the 1930s to the 1990s) is BBC Radio 7. It has a Media Selector page here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/bbc_7

Despite a great deal of trying, I've been unable to persuade RTMPSRV.EXE to capture any information about this live stream (it uses ordinary RTMP, not tunnelled nor encrypted). RTMPSRV does very well on the BBC's Limelight servers (for on-demand streams), but it can't cope with their Akamai servers (for live streams).

This may be a drawback of using RTMPSRV v2.1d on Windows 98; but I've had excellent results with this version of RTMPDUMP, and this version of RTMPSRV works fine on the Limelight streams. So go figure!

This is by way of being a plea for help. :)

I'd be very grateful if someone would take a quick look at the BBC Radio 7 live stream link at -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_7

and see if they can possibly persuade some other version of RTMPSRV (or get_iplayer, or orbit downloader, etc) to capture the necessary Command string to download it, and post their results here.

I'm pretty sure that all the details needed to do the download will be found also in the Media Selector page. Once I know the format being used by the server, from a single example, I should be able to construct a Command string by hand from the Media Selector page thereafter (to cope with the elements that change with each session).

Many thanks.

I've tried to use rtmpsuck and got:

app: live?_fcs_vhost=cp60705.live.edgefcs.net&auth=daEcrcEbya7b0cpbOaza.avbMdZd4b7ddaa-bmLi6I-bWG-IplEEnFoHDsFnwH&aifp=v001&slist=Radio_7_Int@6463
flashVer: LNX 10,1,82,76
swfUrl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/10player.swf?revision=18269_21576
tcUrl: rtmp://217.212.252.198:1935/live?_fcs_vhost=cp60705.live.edgefcs.net&auth=daEcrcEbya7b0cpbOaza.avbMdZd4b7ddaa-bmLi6I-bWG-IplEEnFoHDsFnwH&aifp=v001&slist=Radio_7_Int@6463
pageUrl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_7
ERROR: RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet header
Closing connection... done!

Don't know how to make it work with rtmpdump

[Ed999]

Thank you very much indeed. Armed with this result, I will go away and try to work out how to save the live stream using RTMPDUMP.

There are a lot of xml files that are used as an integral part of BBC iPlayer, all of which give *some* extra information - all of which I can add to the data from rtmpsrv. Putting it all together might yield a solution.

Regarding the other thread, there I was only posting about on-demand streams, of course. You'll have guessed from this thread that I know next to nothing about live streams! Certainly, as you rightly pointed out, the live stream can only be recorded in real-time.

Not that I've ever managed to.

The other snag is that RTMPDUMP doesn't support resuming for live streams (of course). However, now that just about every bit of UK domestic radio and tv is turning up on the iPlayer, pretty much 100% of radio and 75% of tv (excluding movies) will turn up as a Listen Again stream anyway.

The big advantage of Listen Again is that you don't need a 20 MB broadband connection, which you'll need to watch live tv at 1500 kbps, as you can download a Listen Again stream on a very slow connection and play it from your hard disk when complete.

I find live tv too much of a strain for my connection, and I'm using 8MB broadband! Hence the fact that I'm only interested in live Radio.

[Ed999]

Thanks to your kind assistance, I have now solved the problem.

Running RTMPDUMP v2.1d on Windows 98, the following solution will record the Radio 7 live stream (provided you are in the UK).

You do NOT need to install the Macromedia Flash Player in order to use this solution. All you need is RTMPDUMP.exe (for the dumping of the stream to disk), and GOM Player (to play the file). I have, at present, no solution for playing the file whilst recording it: you must play it back from disk once you've finished making the recording.


First, open the Media Selector page for the BBC Radio 7 live stream -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/bbc_7


Secondly, create a plain text batch (.BAT) file, using Notepad if you are running Windows. Here is the contents of my successful batch file -

set server=cp60691.live.edgefcs.net
set auth=daEdrandIanbUbXbQbTbRcdbHcXcrdxbYcc-bmMSgl-bWG-InoGEnzoLCwFpxH
set slist=Radio_7_UK@s6464;Radio_7_UK_Low@s7081
set identifier=Radio_7_UK@s6464

rtmpdump --live --protocol 0 --host %server% -a live?auth=%auth%&aifp=v001&slist=%slist% --playpath %identifier%?auth=%auth%&aifp=v001&slist=%slist% -o BBC7_live_mp4.flv


Thirdly, replace the text highlighted in red in the lines set auth= and set slist= with the corresponding parts from the Media Selector page.


Fourthly, if you are outside the UK you will also need to replace the set identifier= string (the station address) with the INT (International) version, replacing the UK version. The International version is: Radio_7_Int@6463

For International listeners, the set slist= string will also be Radio_7_Int@6463 (because the International broadcast has no lower quality stream, being - sadly - already a low quality stream).


With slight adaptations, the above solution should work for all BBC radio stations. The Media Selector pages for Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5live, and 6music contain the equivalent technical information:

Radio 1 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4.../bbc_radio_one

Radio 2 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4.../bbc_radio_two

Radio 3 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4...bc_radio_three

Radio 4 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4...c_radio_fourfm

Radio 5live -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4...adio_five_live

Radio 6music -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4...eam/bbc_6music

Radio 7 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/bbc_7


Notes:

1. This is a live stream: there is no means of resuming a live stream!

2. Most BBC radio shows can be recorded from the Listen Again pages (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules) for 7 days following the broadcast. But the need to record the live stream can arise, in those cases (now, thankfully, fairly few) where the show is not likely to be allocated a Listen Again link.

Live broadcasts, mainly, are not given Listen Again status (e.g. music concerts on Radio 1 or on 6Music, or sports broadcasts on Radio 5).

[dlemgaokao]

Zero * COMPETITIVE Schemes
Any sort of Competing firms Policies with regard to Macedonia needs to, for my part, excplicitly encompass demanding prohibitions belonging to the sticking with measures (deeper aspects are found in Porter's publication * "Competitive Strategy").
These measures characterize these Macedonian economy. These folks effect these Macedonian overall economy merely by unsatisfactory overseas businesses, loyal gry ineptitude and also mismanagement, keeping unnaturally high costs, misallocating relatively scarce guides, growing unemployment,