Direct links to PBS' Frontline

September 22, 2005 7:03 PM

Is there a way I can find a direct link to the Windows Media files for the PBS program "Frontline"?

In particular, this program.

Is this possible? I'd like to download and play them in my own player. I tried viewing the page source with no luck. I'm a bit lousy with html.

posted by item to computers & internet (9 answers total)

This firefox extension will open the stream in the player instead of int he webpage. Maybe that gets you half way there. It can also make links to embedded media, so depending on the format you could just right click and save.
posted by Nothing at 7:10 PM on September 22, 2005

First, play the video using the webpage. Right-click on the video once it's started, and select 'Open in RealPlayer'.

When the Real app starts playing, go to File-->Clip Properties-->View Clip Info. The direct link to the .rm stream is there.

This is the direct link for the first section (broadband version).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:20 PM on September 22, 2005

The Windows Media format uses mms:// URLs. This is Microsoft's streaming format so there's no way to download them directly.
The Windows URLs look like:

mms://video.pbs.org/general/windows/media4/frontline/2011/windows/ch1_hi.wmv
mms://video.pbs.org/general/windows/media4/frontline/2011/windows/ch2_hi.wmv
etc.

To download them, that is to convert them to local wmv files, get a program like SDP and plug in those MMS URLs.
posted by quiet at 7:46 PM on September 22, 2005

see here.
posted by puke & cry at 7:53 PM on September 22, 2005

To get the URL, open the page in Firefox, go tools...dom inspector, right click on "#document"...copy xml, and paste it into some text editor. Then, do a search for what you want (wmv, rm, etc). Javascript builds the url, so the raw source isn't helpful. This method gets you the rendered source.

To download them as files you can play offline (once you have the url), you want to use mplayer or something to save the streams.

If you're on windows, quiet beat me to the sugguestion.

Otherwise, mplayer is a good way to go. Existing instructions here.

Both solutions will do windows media and real streams.
posted by easyasy3k at 7:55 PM on September 22, 2005

Ah, I see now that you didn't want the realmedia files. My bad.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:34 PM on September 22, 2005

here is another blog entry (jwz!) explaining how to do the mplayer thing.

all bow before mplayer/mencoder!
posted by joeblough at 9:35 PM on September 22, 2005

I have been slowly ripping every Frontline stream and compiling a giant torrent for every episode available on their site. I'm about halfway through with it, but when it's ready I'll post it to The Pirate Bay. Keep your eyes peeled, or do the occasional search.

It should weigh in at a few dozen gigs.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:58 AM on September 23, 2005

To get the URL, open the page in Firefox, go tools...dom inspector, right click on "#document"...copy xml, and paste it into some text editor.

Wouldn't Right-Click > View Page Info > Media tab be easier?
posted by yerfatma at 1:32 PM on September 23, 2005