[gxdata]

General observation - NOT a criticism of M3M1E:

I guess I shouldn't complain, but there is an inherent problem in iViewRipper not using rtmpdump (and SBSRipper not using RTFLV = the python parallel downloader's method, with a modified URL) in that resume isn't possible.

This is a real problem for those unfortunates with a flaky internet connection.

Though my connection is not great, just OK - at best 6Mbps (download speed 750 KB/s) - I have had a couple of weeks of problems due to one or all of: faulty modem, faulty filter/splitter, faults on the copper line, or my ISP.

If there is no connection, the 'Rippers don't work (no warning messages); if connection is lost, the spawned download processes just stall, and when the internet connection is resumed (with/without modem restart), seldom do the download(s) succeed.

Cancelling the individual processes (or the entire 'Ripper parent process) will delete the downloaded MP4 fragment (or a successful download - I have checked, by making a copy of MP4 and playing*).

* otherwise it's hard to know if a 'saved' file is complete or not

Under perfect internet connection situation, it is fatal to download a show again: the existing MP4 file with identical name (successfully DL previously) will be deleted, and a new DL begun. With rtmpdump (iView or SBS), or RTFLV (SBS) the 'resume' parameter ensured this wasted time/effort/quota didn't happen. I thought that this was so with curl.exe as well (? continue at offset).

There are a few other unresolved problems. It's not a good idea to be greedy, selecting several shows to download at once or more than one very large show (on iView, because of the very modest bitrate of all shows, that means something over an hour or two of air play time).

On SBS, where the SBSRipper uses a high bitrate by default (and no other option), this is a big problem - everything one chooses to download is large. I sometimes like to check SBS News, which I could tolerate at a 512K bitrate (and get 1500K later, if it was really desirable to get a good view).

As I stated at the top, this is not a criticism of M3M1E, who has generously devoted a lot of time to the only tools we have.

But I would like to see some improvements, because many of the problems outlined above affect exactly those who find that they can't use the iView player or SBS On Demand - those with bloody awful internet connections.