Problem recording .FLV videos from AtomFilms with Replay Media Catcher

[Atomic Ant]

Hi.

Replay Media Catcher is the only software I know able to capture Atomfilms clips. The rest seem not to get the media's url. But the capture stops at about 13 megs, no matter the length, no matter the quality. I checked other sites, like youtube to see if my problem was with my computer/NIC card/RMC version/windows version/my whatever. I managed to capture up to 100 meg without a problem from any site BUT Atomfilms.

If the clip is shorter that 13 megs, I manage to capture it completely (for instance, "Pitching Lucas" at standard 300k rate (or higher, if you are registered in AtomFilms) stops at 13 megs, but at 100k rate I get it fully with a size of about 6 megs) but as soon as you reach the 13 meg limit (it can be 13001 but I managed to "reach" up to 13700, and never 14000), RMC stops capturing.

Before someone asks, yes, I have tried more than one clip, actually about six and all of them stopped at around 13 megs.

Does anyone else have encountered this problem? Any hints about how to solve it?

I am using Replay Media Catcher version 1.0.0.5, dated 2007-02-19.

Thank you.

Do you stop playing flash stream at AtomFilms after Replay Media Catcher starts recording?

I haven't checked with AtomFilms, but some other streaming services use multiple .FLV files so they have several URLs that Replay Media Catcher should find first to record the full set of videos. Sometimes you don't have to watch the whole set of videos, but can just skip to the next episode and play it for a while, then to the next episode,...

Some useless stuff

Actually Flash video .FLV RTMP streams can be recorded with Replay Media Catcher and FLV Recorder. I prefer to use the former.

And you may also use URL Snooper to find RTMP URLs. Just add "flv;rtmp" to the "Also search for" textbox. Of course it is much easier to find flash URLs with Replay Media Catcher or FLV Recorder.

[Atomic Ant]

Do you stop playing flash stream at AtomFilms after Replay Media Catcher starts recording?

I tried both ways. AtomFilms doesn't have a "Stop" button, but just "Play/pause". Also, from its behaviour, it doesn't cache the clip: if you press "pause", the stream stops and when you hit "play", the stream resumes. So I tried with the stream running and with the steam paused. 13 megs both ways.

some other streaming services use multiple .FLV files so they have several URLs that Replay Media Catcher should find first to record the full set of videos

Nice try. But if any new stream would be invoked, I think Replay Media Catcher would catch the new url and download it, I would just have ended with a multi part clip, which I don't. Also, the capture ends with error, not with an "OK" icon, so RMC is aware that the stream download is incomplete. Forgot to comment that, sorry.

I haven't tried FLV Recorder, but I am going to give it a try and tell if it works.

And I'll also try the URL snooper with the parameter you suggested.

Thank you.

Great news!

Replay Media Catcher 2.01 fixes the 13 Mb cutoff problem. It's a free update
from version 1.

[Atomic Ant]

Replay Media Catcher 2.01 fixes the 13 Mb cutoff problem.

Yes, it does. I managed to capture a 40 megs flv from AtomFilms without a hitch.

I also tested FLV Recorder (FLV-R). The way it captures the clips is different from Replay Media Catcher (RMC) and I think is good to let you know. RMC opens a second, browser independent, stream to capture the data while FLV-R seems to use the same stream you use to watch the clip.

What does that mean? Well, in the case of AtomFilms, as the embedded web player doesn't cache the data, FLV-R is subject to problems with bandwidth fluctuation. If you pause the movie or your bandwidth usage blocks the stream, it keeps recording the paused frame until you resume viewing or the traffic conditions get better. At the end of the capture it does some post-processing and removes unwanted pauses and synchronizes the audio, so you get a faithful copy, while RMC gets an exact copy or aborts, in which case you have to restart until you get your exact copy.

In most cases, and if bandwidth is not an issue, both programs will capture the same. If you connect to Internet with a "traditional" 56K modem however, I suggest you favour RMC over FLV-R. In my case, I use a wifi connection, but my AP is so far away from my computer that my signal is weak and conditions are somewhat similar to a modem, so I found out this difference in behaviour.

Both programs capture the stream url without problems, contrary to URL Snooper, that I couldn't manage it to parse correctly the url. With the added keywords, URL-S detects the url, but cuts it wrongly and gets strange characters in it. Once more, this may be due to my connection circumstances and you might find out URL-S is working for you. Also, future versions may address this problem and solve it.