Saving streaming video on a Mac

November 21, 2006 9:08 AM

How can I record video streams from RealPlayer and Quicktime on a Mac?

I am on a MacBook Pro. I would like to record some video streams that are running in RealPlayer and Quicktime. The ultimate aim is to post these videos on youtube. I have no idea how to do this, but would like to be able to do it without spending money (for instance, buying Quicktime Pro). I'm particularly keen on recording the Real video streams, in case there is a solution that would apply there but not in Quicktime.

Is this possible? Help is greatly appreciated.

posted by Dasein to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Snapz Pro
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:36 AM on November 21, 2006

Generally, mplayer can record streams as files. A version for OSX can be found at http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/ , however I'm not certain if the OSX version is fully featured (though it probably is).

On linux, a command like:
mplayer -v -dumpstream -dumpfile mysavedstream.rm
might be used.

Mplayer is probably your best bet if you want to capture the raw stream, whereas I believe Snapz works by intercepting the audio somewhere between the application and the soundcard driver.

Snapz is probably easier to use, but also costs $69 (Mplayer is free).
posted by JDT at 11:00 AM on November 21, 2006

easy and free way to record real streams: CocoaJT.

but you can't upload .rm files to youtube (or anywhere else i know of), so you'd need to convert them - and that's nearly impossible. some say ffmpegX can actually convert them. i've managed to get it to preview the files for me, but i've never managed to get a conversion done.

as regards quicktime streams (the ones whose url's start with rtsp:// ), pretty much your only hope (and even then it often just won't work) is the advanced streaming/saving features that vlc offers in its "open file" panel. they're a little tricky to figure out, but it can (sometimes) work.

after much research and twiddling, from what i can tell, that's about as far as it goes.
posted by progosk at 11:20 AM on November 21, 2006

you'd need to convert them - and that's nearly impossible.

You can convert RM to other formats with Sorenson Squeeze.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:26 AM on November 21, 2006

I don't know about "full featured", but I've saved RMs with mplayer on OS X before.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 1:04 PM on November 21, 2006