[hyc]

Originally Posted by placebo

hyc, you are one of the folks behind rtmpdump or know rtmpdump extremely well?

I have written all of the rtmpdump releases from 1.8 to 2.3.

[...] You are mentioning "paying" (money), "time" and "work" in your posting (and dont give any practical help/info other than "write me an email if you want to buy"). Interesting that you're mentioning these aspects (of life). Maybe that's exactly what the original coder (author/creator) of the rtmpdump-package was thinking, too (who, too, doesnt want to address or deal with Windows users).

So well, okay then. And here is my response (representing some larger part of the Windows users, namely the "99%" ):

From what is written on SRF (this website!) we can conclude that rtmpsuck could be used on Windows machines but, in practice, no single Windows user actually ever uses rtmpsuck. In fact, on SRF, i havent come across any boardie who uses rtmpsuck on a Windows system.

i (a forum moderator on SRF. and a hardcore Windows user. only willing to read the chapter headlines of manuals/documentation.) dont even use rtmpdump nor rtmpsrv other than for testing it for the sake of testing. in RL-practice, when i need to download a stream (audio/video), many Ch*nese software tools (freeware or shareware e.g. the ones designed by Terry Backer) for Windows are available which, by their GUI, do the download more comfortably and even though they lack noteworthy documentation too. so why would i want to waste my time with rtmpdump (or rtmpsrv or rtmpsuck or the documentation of rtmpdump or the documentation of rtmpsrv or the documentation of rtmpsuck)?? so there are three tools (rtmpdump+rtmpsrv+rtmpsuck) with their respective documentation and my sole aim is to download a single video? oh please. no thanks.

if i want to download a (protected) streaming video, i do this instead, which is the opposite of wasting time:
i launch GetFLV, surf to the video webpage, download the video with getflv's GUI, and done! No need to read any documentation!!

Let's summarize (and correct me if i am wrong):

• rtmpdump.exe is for Windows. and it works.
• rtmpsrv.exe is for Windows and works too. it facilitates the secure use of rtmpdump.exe.
• rtmpsuck could be used on Windows but no Windows user uses it (because they dont need it or because they dont want to buy your software. like me. i am not going to buy your software, no thanks.). it primarily aims at Linux users.
• the documentation of the rtmpdump-package s*cks (otherwise there wouldnt be any need to dedicate a whole forum section to the use of rtmpdump!). it is not a manual per se and does not compare at all to commercially written documentation (or manuals!) of successful commercial software. but this is quite natural or common: documentation of freeware usually lacks or s*cks. and it is even truer for freeware/documentation produced by non-English native speakers.

I am willing to pay for (little) software tools which come along with outstanding(!) practical manuals which make the usage of the tool a clear, secure, easy, concise, reproducible thing (experience, successful), including comprehensive FAQ's and helpful trouble shooting tips and tricks.

again. *imo*

the rtmpdump documentation really sucks.
(dont take this statement personally. unless you want to. in any case hopefully you enjoyed reading my response)

I adopted rtmpdump after it was abandoned by its original author so that *I* could use it for the things I needed. Since you are a Windows user, you are NOT the target audience for this package. I already know there are umpteen-zillion downloaders available for Windows and I heartily encourage all Windows users to go and use their favorite.

The only reason we provide builds of rtmpdump for Windows is because some people whined loudly enough that they wanted to use it but it was too hard for them to compile it on their own. I don't have any more Windows boxes in my place but I can still fire up a VM when I need to compile and test this code.

I provide builds of rtmpdump for Android because I use it on my Android phone. I don't provide builds of rtmpdump for MacOS because I don't use MacOS and don't have a VM that I can install it in and build under, and I have no interest in getting one set up.

So anyway - no, not taking this personally. But the simple fact is, if you read the provided documentation and it didn't make sense to you, then NO, this package isn't for you. You have tons of other options available, please go use one of them instead.

RTMPdump is important to me because there are NO other options on Linux. It is open source, to make it possible for other Linux programmers to extend it and enhance it with pretty push-button GUIs if they feel so inclined. It has only ever been intended as a vehicle for other programmers to build their own projects around. (In fact its functionality has now been integrated into what I see as the important projects on Linux - VLC, XBMC, mplayer, and ffmpeg - so its reason for existence as a standalone command line tool is greatly diminished.)

If you as a user are unhappy with what you got for free, that's not my problem. i gave this code to the world, what have you given?