Capturing clips from live TV to share immediately

February 21, 2014 4:43 PM

Is there an easy way to identify and capture a clip from a live TV broadcast (say, the State of the Union) and then post the video to YouTube or another source online?

I've seen people do this by using their DVR to back up the live video, then record what they need by using their phone's video camera to film the TV. But is there a better way?

Note: I'm aware of potential copyright issues, and am only looking to utilize this when it would constitute "fair use."

posted by Unsomnambulist to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Best answer: I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "identify", but for the capture part it sounds like what you want is a TV Tuner for your PC, which you can use to record OTA broadcasts.

If you need to record from a cable or satellite TV source, then that is significantly harder, since they scramble their signals and generally make things difficult when you want to record things. You *may* be able to get it to work if you use a tuner that supports the CableCard standard, but it's far from guaranteed, and you'll have to get your cable company to supply you with the CableCard itself (which they are required to do). Even then, however, it's possible that they will either prevent the recording with a broadcast flag, or require that the recording be DRM-encumbered.

Another option for a cable/satellite TV source is to use a stand-alone tuner that includes analog outputs, and use a video capture device to capture the video from those outputs.
posted by Aleyn at 5:24 PM on February 21, 2014

Posting a clip by itself to YouTube, with no context, commentary or transformative use, almost never falls under Fair Use. The State of the Union is at whitehouse.gov.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:34 PM on February 21, 2014