Tech: How to download/save Realplayer videos?

Subject: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 04:39 PM

A friend of mine is a member of The Tsatskelehs, an "all-grrrl" klezmer band. They played at the Minnesota State Fair last week. The Star Tribune, a local newspaper, made a video of the band performing and put it up on their website accompanied by a nice article. (Click here.) To see the video, click the little video icon near the upper right corner of the page.

Trouble is, the video probably won't stay there forever. We figure that, after a couple of weeks, the STrib will probably delete it. In the meantime, we'd like to download the video and save it permanently. I volunteered to do this, thinking it would be easy. After all, I've done it many times with music files. But video seems to be different. Help! I'm stumped. Anybody know how to do this?

I use Netscape, and when I click on the video icon, it activates RealPlayer. RealPlayer doesn't seem to have a "save as" function.

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: IvanB
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 05:09 PM

Jim, here's Pene Azul's instructions for doing it from another thread:

It doesn't work for the links above, and rarely works at all these days. You're probably better off with a program like the one Ivan suggested if your connection will get you through the whole show.

Save the target of the link (In IE Windows, right-click on it and click "Save Target As" Choose a handy destination like your desktop.

If the file you saved has the extension ".ram" open that file in a text editor (like Notepad).

You'll see one or more URLs listed there. Copy the URL from the .ram file and make a link (blue clicky) out of it in a new text editor (Notepad) window. Save this file with the extension .html to your desktop. For example, you could call it test.html.

Open that html file, then save the target of the link you made (In IE Windows, right-click on it and click "Save Target As").

In the rare case where this will work, it will start to save the large .rm file.

Jeff

As he mentions, sometimes it works, sometimes not. I know from using RealProducer that you can choose whether to make the file downloadable or not when you create it. If the station has done this, I imagine you're out of luck. But, if not, the .rm file will have the video imbedded along with the audio. But it'll be a heckuva big download!

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 11:38 PM

Save the target of the link (In IE Windows, right-click on it and click "Save Target As" Choose a handy destination like your desktop. If the file you saved has the extension ".ram" open that file in a text editor (like Notepad).

I did that. The file I saved was called play.rbn.ram. When I opened the file, this is what I saw:

rtsp://g2-lvl3-pa28.rbn.com/star/star/g2demand/video/variety/klezmer.rm
--stop--
pnm://g2-lvl3-pa28.rbn.com/star/star/g2demand/video/variety/klezmer.rm

You'll see one or more URLs listed there. Copy the URL from the .ram file and make a link (blue clicky) out of it in a new text editor (Notepad) window. Save this file with the extension .html to your desktop. For example, you could call it test.html.

I did this, but I'm not sure I know what you mean by URL. Does the URL include the expression "rtsp:"? This is the first time I have seen one that didn't begin with "http:". To cover all the bases, I made 3 clickies, one beginning with "rtsp:", one beginning with "pnm:" and one beginning with "http:". Here they are:

rtsp clicky

pnm clicky

http clicky

I figure it should work just as well in a Mudcat thread as it does in an .html file on my desktop, right?

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:00 AM

Now, when I right-click on the either of the first 2 links (see previous message), and choose "save target as", I get the message:

Download could not complete!
Klezmer.rm from g2-lvl3-pa28.rbn.com

(By the way, when I LEFT-click on either of those two links, it launches RealPlayer and plays the video. So I must be doing something right.)

When I left click on the THIRD link, I get "The page cannot be found".

When I RIGHT-click on the THIRD link and choose "save target as", I get this message:

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer cannot download klezmer.rm from g2-lvl3-pa28.rbn.com.
Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.

So I guess this is one of those cases where it just doesn't work, right?

(By the way, it's only a 2-minute video, so it can't be THAT big, can it?)

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:06 AM

No no no...

Do this...

open the video from the web site... Watch the whole thing... then leaving the RPlayer window open, open your Windowz Explorer... Go into your Windows directory and look for a folder called TEMP or temp internet files... look in both.. the file (Whateverthemovieiscalled.rm) will be there...

Simply copy the file from that directory to where ever you want to keep it...

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:12 AM

also....some sites embed files in such a way that they are only played thru a protected link and cant BE saved easily...but.

in many cases, when you play a video or view an image, it is stored in a temporary file in your Windows directory...and then deleted when you shut down. So, after playing it, you go look and see if it is there...and copy it to another file where it WONT be deleted!...I have done this several times....

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:16 AM

Wait... I've been stymied... hang on....

Subject: RE: Help: How to download/save Realplayer videos?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 12:22 AM

Dang... I thought I had it sussed... sorry...