I purchased
TubeDigger today and am now a registered user!
Please see my review below.
Review:
Overall: Tube Digger is a slick, elegant solution to recording HTTP and RTMP(E) streams that works with many popular sites. It also offers intelligent, guided conversion to many popular containers and codecs.
Interface: Minimalist, well-organized and efficient. With the URL entry at the top you can either go to a page or drag a shortcut directly into the bar. The site is presented in the center. At the bottom, the now familiar list of detected streams with protocol, URL and mouseover tips. Below that, buttons for Convert, Settings, Video Folder and About. There are no menus! I actually quite like this. Clean interface design and does what I need it to. Themes through msstyles.
Downloading: Tested at several video sites, all listed on TubeDigger's homepage. Has worked flawlessly. It gives me the information I need quickly to determine the quality of the stream I want to record.
VideoCap: Works well although I have only used this once as a test. Turn "Rec On" and record live streams.
License: $24.95 for the current version and lifetime updates. Of note, there is some strange thing listed in the FAQ about being able to verify the key 5 times on the same computer or 5 different computers every 12 months. This is a strange restriction with no indication in the app what my status is (i.e. how many verifications have I already done?). Why not tie the key to an email address or user name and if both pieces of info match when verifying out to the web then OK? This is a difficult and burdensome requirement for someone who is frequently upgrading or changing their OS.
Comparison:
GetFLV is
TubeDigger's main competitor right now. I do not consider
RTMPdump a competitor because it is open source, free and command line--an amazing program, too! I tried both TubeDigger and GetFLV before purchasing TubeDigger. I found GetFLV's interface to be cluttered and confusing. I didn't like that I had to click around the different sections on the left to view my downloads, convert, fix, etc. Everything should be visible in the main screen or pop-up as it is in TubeDigger. Also, I found that GetFLV suffered from more frequent stops requiring a restart while downloading than TubeDigger. TubeDigger has better and more lean conversion options than GetFLV that output playable video. GetFLV is very reliant on the version of Flash that you have installed. Apparently, according to the developer, TubeDigger is not. Finally, GetFLV is more expensive at $59.95 for the current version and one year of updates or $159.95 (!!!) for lifetime. Really GetFLV?
Wishlist: As TubeDigger continues to improve with frequent updates, there are several features which would make it better.
1) A built-in way to join video segments together to make an episode for download sites like Via*** that present video in segments and acts.
2) A button in the line-by-line stream window at the bottom that quickly lets me Clear All Inactive. I have auto-start downloading OFF until I determine the right stream quality to download so a Clear All Inactive would be great after I initiate my listed downloads. I could move more quickly to the next recording.
3) Support for downloading from sites that have pop-up players like Nap**** and Rhap****
Summary: A competent program that does what it is supposed to do at a great price! Well worth it.
Cheers,
heyadam
