Downloading Best Show archives is making me madder than a rattlesnake at a Thai wedding
February 12, 2009 4:40 PM Subscribe
How can I automate the download of a couple hundred streaming audio files on an rtsp server?
So I'm trying to download the entire archives of The Best Show on WFMU and I'm getting nowhere. Here's the situation and my vague understanding:
-The archive page is here. There are a couple hundred past shows on there, all in .rm format, set up to stream only. I got permission from the station manager, and I'd like to download them all (and eventually convert to .mp3, but that can take place later on, unless it's just as easy to do at the same time).
-Every show's file follows a consistent naming scheme (thank god). For example, for the January 6th, 2009 show, the filename is rtsp://archive.wfmu.org/archive/BS/bs090106.rm. So for any given show, it's bsYYMMDD.rm. I'm assuming that it would be possible to go through looking for the "Listen" link, then looking backwards for the most recent date string, and then plugging that in.
-My google-fueled understanding of RTSP is that it provides the metadata, and then the actual binary data is served via RTP? What that means for me ... I have no idea.
- I've tried wget and curl on OSX to no avail. They don't seem to like RTSP.
What I'm looking for is some way to kick off a script to automatically go through and download all of these. Preferably I could do this in Vista, but OSX is also an option, and I suppose I could install some Linux if it's remarkably easier for some reason. My programming experience doesn't go much beyond Hello World, so this is probably way above my skillset, but I'm more than willing to learn if I can get some starting points. If someone wants to work with me on this, I would be more than willing to throw some money your way. If there's an existing software solution, that's awesome. Free-er is better, but I'm willing to throw down some $ for a working solution that does what I need.
So I'm trying to download the entire archives of The Best Show on WFMU and I'm getting nowhere. Here's the situation and my vague understanding:
-The archive page is here. There are a couple hundred past shows on there, all in .rm format, set up to stream only. I got permission from the station manager, and I'd like to download them all (and eventually convert to .mp3, but that can take place later on, unless it's just as easy to do at the same time).
-Every show's file follows a consistent naming scheme (thank god). For example, for the January 6th, 2009 show, the filename is rtsp://archive.wfmu.org/archive/BS/bs090106.rm. So for any given show, it's bsYYMMDD.rm. I'm assuming that it would be possible to go through looking for the "Listen" link, then looking backwards for the most recent date string, and then plugging that in.
-My google-fueled understanding of RTSP is that it provides the metadata, and then the actual binary data is served via RTP? What that means for me ... I have no idea.
- I've tried wget and curl on OSX to no avail. They don't seem to like RTSP.
What I'm looking for is some way to kick off a script to automatically go through and download all of these. Preferably I could do this in Vista, but OSX is also an option, and I suppose I could install some Linux if it's remarkably easier for some reason. My programming experience doesn't go much beyond Hello World, so this is probably way above my skillset, but I'm more than willing to learn if I can get some starting points. If someone wants to work with me on this, I would be more than willing to throw some money your way. If there's an existing software solution, that's awesome. Free-er is better, but I'm willing to throw down some $ for a working solution that does what I need.
wget may not like rtsp, but mplayer doesn't mind pulling down a stream:
$ mplayer -dumpstream rtsp://URL
You would then need to convert the stream dump to PCM/WAVE:
$ mplayer -ao pcm stream.dump
This is off the top of my head, and I haven't done it in a long time, so YMMV.
posted by dinx2582 at 5:03 PM on February 12, 2009
$ mplayer -dumpstream rtsp://URL
You would then need to convert the stream dump to PCM/WAVE:
$ mplayer -ao pcm stream.dump
This is off the top of my head, and I haven't done it in a long time, so YMMV.
posted by dinx2582 at 5:03 PM on February 12, 2009
Oh, I neglected to mention how to automate this. There may be a better way, but I would just create a quick BASH script. I'd write it out for you, but I'm a bit burnt out on terminal operations at the moment (long day).
posted by dinx2582 at 5:05 PM on February 12, 2009
posted by dinx2582 at 5:05 PM on February 12, 2009
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For the rest of you MeFiers, I'm sorry to be cryptic. Generally speaking you have to use a streamripper.
posted by yesno at 4:58 PM on February 12, 2009