How to (correctly!) use rtmpdump, rtmpsrv

[tom2005]

How to use rtmpsuck/rtmpsrv to find the parameters which used in rtmpdump? My OS is windows xp/vista, I read some threads, but can not get the clear way.

Please help, thank you!

[tom2005]

sorry, the title is "how to use rtmpsuck, rtmpsrv"

I do:
(1)Run "rtmpsrv", and it shown "streaming on rtmp://0.0.0.0:1935",
(2)then I play the video in IE,
(3)wait for the video playing, but I can not find any infomation from rtmpsrv

any suggestion?

[walterk01]

If you are on a windows based PC then you might prefer using StreamTransport.
Using rtmpdump in windows to download a stream is not hard however setting it up to monitor streams to get the syntax is a bit of a chore.

[tom2005]

Originally Posted by walterk01

If you are on a windows based PC then you might prefer using StreamTransport.
Using rtmpdump in windows to download a stream is not hard however setting it up to monitor streams to get the syntax is a bit of a chore.

I have tried the StreamTransport, but it is useless.
do anybody tell me how to use rtmpsrv.exe? thank you.

[walterk01]

What site are you trying to get streams from?
Getting rtmpdump to run on windows like i said is a Real chore.
And is only possible according to the rtmpdump README in windows XP

(We have a solution for Windows based on a TDI driver; this is known to
work on Win2K and WinXP but is assumed to not work on Vista or Win7 as the
TDI is no longer used on those OS versions. Also, none of the known
solutions are available as freeware.)

So you can use rtmpdump itself to download a stream on windows but getting the correct syntax to use is not at this moment an easy thing to do on XP and impossible on the latter versions of windows.

[Ed999]

The program RTMPSRV.exe (which accompanies RTMPDUMP.exe in most Windows distributions) can 'sniff' the connection and find the necessary settings for you.

Instructions on how to use it are included with it in most distributions. But here's a more detailed set of instructions -


All you really need is the HOST address of the RTMP file you want to download. Then go through the steps below. For example, this is the BBC iPlayer's host address:

bbcmedia.fcod.llnwd.net

The HOST address is the part of the rtmp URL at the very beginning. It's really the server's address. Example -

rtmp://bbcmedia.fcod.llnwd.net/ondemand?...


1. Download the programs RTMPDUMP v2.1d and RTMPSRV v2.1d (filename: rtmpdump-2.1d-windows.zip) with this link:

http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/downloa...1d-windows.zip

Extract both those programs from the zip file into the same folder.

You may find that this version of the programs works on YOUR version of Windows, because v2.1d will even work on Windows98! (Or run it on Windows 98: you being a savvy Windows 7 user will know how to run Windows 98 in a virtual machine inside Windows 7.)


2. Edit your computer's HOSTS file, as follows (these instructions are for Windows 98, and you'll need to modify them to point to the ATTRIB.EXE and HOSTS files if you have Windows XP/Vista/7):

(a) Go to START > RUN and type the following in the box, then click OK:

c:\windows\command\attrib.exe -R -S -H c:\windows\hosts

(b) Go to START > RUN and type the following in the box, then click OK:

edit c:\windows\hosts

(c) Disable the line in the HOSTS file that reads
127.0.0.1 localhost by putting a # at the start of that line

(d) Type a new line, immediately underneath that line, giving the host address of the RTMP file you want to download. Example:

127.0.0.1 bbcmedia.fcod.llnwd.net

(e) Save the changes: File > Save


3. Run RTMPSRV.exe by double-clicking it. Only then do you start the Flash stream playing, in the webpage that streams it (RTMPSRV.exe must already be running), and look at the window in which RTMPSRV is running: it will start displaying the true RTMP address of the file that's playing, outputting in fact the command string to download it!

Typically you'll see something like this -

rtmpdump -r "rtmp://[server]:[port]/[application]?[authString]"
-a "[application]?[authString]" -f "[Flash Version]" -W "[swfUrl]"
-p "[iPlayer page URL]" -y "[mp4: to .mp4 playpath]" -o file.flv

That will be displayed every couple of seconds, as each incoming packet is sniffed and analysed. But you only need the first one. So stop the RTMPSRV program after the first couple of packets have gone through. A few seconds will see this through.

Of course the easy way to save that vital command string is to write a batch file to run RTMPSRV.exe and pipe its output to a second .BAT file that will handle the actual download. The batch file must be one line, as follows:

rtmpsrv > download.bat

If you double-click that batch file, it will save all its output into DOWNLOAD.bat and all you need do (in theory) is run DOWNLOAD.bat to start the download! But first -

A. DOWNLOAD.bat must be in the same folder as RTMPDUMP.exe and RTMPSRV.exe

B. You must have an open Internet connection running.

C. You must re-edit your HOSTS file back to its original state (otherwise you'll simply get an error message).

D. There will be many copies of the download command saved into the batch file DOWNLOAD.bat, so you must edit it to delete all but one of them! Otherwise the batch file will keep deleting (overwriting) the download - every time it completes it!