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We are looking for people with skills or interest in the following:
- Mobile Platform App Reviews for Android and iOS
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- Streaming Media Recorder
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Best Free Streaming Media Recorder
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Introduction
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Sick of just watching streamed videos and audio tracks, and not being able to save them? So are many others, and this demand has given rise to nearly a dozen utilities that will record them to your PC. While it is possible to record streaming media, you need to be very aware that a lot of streamed content is copyrighted and that recording such content may violate the copyright laws of your country. So, in advising you about products that record streaming media I am assuming you only want to record non-copyright material. Right? The bad news is that the best recording utilities in this category are shareware not freeware. That is because the websites of most of the better free programs like StreamBox VCR and GetASFStream have been 'chased off' the web by copyright owners and their lawyers. You can still occasionally locate the aforementioned software on obscure download sites, but none of them are stable enough to warrant listing here. A better option for most users is to use a free web service to record the streaming media, and if that fails, simply record the streaming media while it is playing on your PC. |
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Discussion
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If you just want to do something simple like record a YouTube video, then sites like ZamZar, SplanDoo and YouConvertIt will do the job for you. Just fill in the address of the stream and select the format you want and you are finished. Depending on which site you've chosen, either a download link will be emailed to you or you will be able to download the captured file directly from the site. Unfortunately, this simple approach will not work for many streams. In this situation I suggest you simply play the media stream on your PC and record what is happening on the screen and coming out of your speakers. Sure, there is some loss of quality, but the great advantage of this approach is that it completely bypasses the whole question of DRM protection: if you can play it on your PC then you can record it from your PC. And you can record it in a form that is free of any protection and can therefore, be replayed through any device that supports the appropriate file format.
In comparison, to other streaming media recorders in this category, Krut delivers almost the same good quality as Jing and further shines at recording streams, almost without interruptions, which usually come in the form of short time delays measured in milliseconds.
Recording quality is average and it too has issues with certain video and sound cards, but the good thing about it is that it can save files in both .swf and the more popular .avi format. Also, CamStudio gives you an option of recording outputs with or without an audio stream.
Other interesting features are: image capturing; ability to manually select recording area on your screen; and playing created videos in its own video player. Jing is also the only application which automatically saves your recordings to vendor's servers and creates links for public viewing - which is a splendid feature. Unfortunately, Jing saves videos in .swf format only and the free version records for a maximum of 5 minutes.
It is basically an entire video editing application which, beside recording, can also edit videos in many ways including: applying watermarks; text; and even adjusting video colors. Further advantages of Debut are scheduler, image capturing and saving video in the most popular video formats such as .avi and .mp4.
In fact there are several free and shareware programs designed specifically for this task, but my favorite way of doing this is to use the record option which is available in the Audacity audio editor. By using Audacity, you can not only record streaming audio but edit it as well.
All these solutions bypass the format problems and DRM protection issues. They don't; however, bypass the legal issues. I am not going to preach to you on this matter; instead I trust in your good judgement. |
Of all applications in this category 
Just as you can record streaming videos playing on your PC, you can also record audio streams playing through your PC speakers.|
http://www.zamzar.com/url/ http://splandoo.com/ http://youconvertit.com/OnlineVideo.aspx |
Additional requirements: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, online registration
Codecs included
2.7.316 15-02-2013
For earlier Windows versions see vendor's homepage
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Editor
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This software category is in need of an editor. If you would like to give something back to the freeware community by taking it over, check out this page for more details. You can then contact us from that page or by clicking here |
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Tags
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| free media recorder, streaming media recorder, record stream media free, best free media recorder, top free media recorder, best free streaming media recorder, top free streaming media recorder. |
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Comments
Orbit does not grab all streaming videos. It often falls short on sites where it cannot ID the URL. THey would need to integrate a URL finder. I tried SNOOPER and it too does not detect some hidden URL.
Do any of the mentioned stream recorders here able to record say those videos shown in Justin.tv or in Freedocast.com or any of the LIVE streaming ONLINE TV broadcasts?
Thank you in advance.
I'm looking for something like Free Music Zilla, but more reliable. I use it mostly for audio but occasional video as well. Some social networks have changed the way their music is streamed lately and this program no longer works at them. Please recomend only freeware programs. Thanks
Sir,
I will be very grateful if you could let me know as to how to get a printout from a stilled video picture while playing the Real Player.
You could suggest another player,if it can do the needful
You could also direct me to some other website/person who has the know how.
Thanks,
Try the free Grabber utility offered in the web based photo editor Pixlr.com. I use it all the time.
[Edit] Commercial software details removed.
I just did that...you just use a screen capture program. Or, use an image editor which has a screen capture built into it. Then, you can edit the picture. I like Gimp to do that usually, but a really easy one is XNView.
Greetings,
If that which one desires to capture loads into a browser's cache (such as a Flash video from YouTube or a MP3 audio file), then you're in luck. An app that I've used for many years now is NirSoft's VideoCacheView (Publisher's site: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html // CNET review [which needs updating]: http://download.cnet.com/VideoCacheView/3000-2381_4-10781777.html ). It's a brute-force approach but it does get the job done (and works with IE, Firefox, Opera & Chrome).
After capturing the file in question, say a .flv (Flash video), one can convert it to another form, such as a MP4 (or for audio, a MP3) and if, for example, it is one part of a longer stream broken into segments (as one often finds at YouTube), it can then be joined together with other such segments to form a continuous whole using editing software. (A less elegant, but still useful, approach is to simply label the segments in a unique successive order and place them in a file, thus allowing them to play automatically, and virtually without discontinuity, in various media players, such as GOM.) So, for example, if one should like to capture that extraordinary performance of the Finale of Bruckner's 8th by Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic posted at YouTube (in three segments), you are good-to-go.
Hope others find this useful.
I thank Birkoff for his work, but I think that this issue should be tackled in a different way.
I'm a heavy streaming video downloader, and I'd never used an screen-recording app for that.
That approach has obvious heavy disadvantages:
* You can only download at the pace of reproduction
* Video window should be treated with extreme caution, even, in some cases, should be on top, which hinders other usages of the computer at the same time.
I will only consider this approach as a last ditch effort, and to date I've always found a more convenient way via an Streaming Media Downloader.
I'm quite sure that screen recording apps are more suited, and more used for, teaching computer procedures and remote assistance.
In fact Jing, the favorite app, can only record 5 minutes videos, too little for most streaming videos, but well suited for its stated use as a teaching and remote assistance app.
So, I suggest splitting this category in two (or three):
* Media Recording apps (could be, and should be, IMO, further split into "Screen Recording" and "Audio Recording")
* Streaming Media Download apps, that could include the Web services cited, plus all the "real" Streaming Media Download apps.
My recommendation for Streaming Media Apps are Orbit (quite effective, very useful also as a download manager), DownloaderHelper Firefox extension (quite convenient and easy to use), Easy YouTube Downloader Firefox extension (very specialized, but very effective, easy to use, and with many options) and StreamTransport (this one is amazing: it can download the most difficult streaming videos I have to face; it works with ANY video streaming site: they use Hulu download as its "highlighted feature", but it is not restricted to it in any way).
Hope this helps.
Greetings.
Great note! I normally use JDownloader and Orbit for streaming media but a couple of days ago I was having trouble to capture a webinar video so I downloaded several other applications without success until I tried StreamTransport per your advice. Thanks!
By the way, in the past I used to have a program with a green button in my firefox address that when clicked would show the playing webpage media in a drop down menu but lost it after upgrading to W7 and cannot remember which addon it was. Do you know it?
Enjoy a great xmas season!
Thanks for your suggestions alejobd.
I should add to my list jDownloader.
It is best known as a downloads manager, specialized in cloud storage/file sharing services, but it can also download videos from several video sites, Youtube to begin with. You can choose several qualities, MP3 audio only, and it supports resume. It is my choice now to download from Youtube.
The jDownloader website is red rated by WOT and so will not be featured here.
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/jdownloader.com
Can you imagine why jdownloader might get a bad score from wot? Also, having obviously not used the open source and non-profit Jdownloader, why would you dismiss it oout of hand without learning any more about it? Wouldn't the admin developers of JDL use the cheaper *.org web suffix? I have never been to jdownloader.com and don't use wot but I can assure you that jdownloader.ORG is, in fact the website for the java based application jdownloader and is thereby not fradulent misleading or otherwise. so.... Instead of trying the *.com suffix, always try *.org as well and check your spelling in the url if what you see isn't what you expect when strolling 'round the web.
I have often found WoT to be unreliable, ratings skewed by uninformed or malicious users.
If you notice, we have already discussed this in the comments below.
There are actually two sites. The .com one is fake, and is rated red by WOT. The .org one is the real one, and is rated green. So, if the poster means the .org one, then it can stay, otherwise not.
Thanks Anupam, I was aware of this.
jDownloader as referenced is red rated.
JDownloader which wasn't referenced is the safe one.
Oh... thanks for clarifying. I did not notice that minor but important difference. Good catch.
I use the free ashampoo Clipfiner hd.Works with any browser and any video site as you can copy and paste the url,it will convert it to any format you wish i.e.avi that will play on windows media player.Or even convert a music video to mp3.
Radio? Sure!
The “RadioSure” gives you the smoothest radio listening experience. The main rule is – it should be simple, reliable and should just work.
Main features are:
More than 12000 of stations in the package
Supports most of the internet radio formats – mp3, wma, ogg vorbis, aac+ and so on
Quick and reliable search for your favorite radio stations
Smooth switching between stations including crossfade effect
Recording what you are listening to and packaging it into separate song files
Simultaneous recording of multiple stations
Automatic checking for software and radio stations updates
Command line parameters for automatization
Runs on Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit)
UNICODE support – all domestic stations are perfectly visible and searchable
and much much more…
Don’t you still want to try? Just download and enjoy it for free of charge completely!
http://www.radiosure.com/downloadz/
I agree with Kendall.
Instead of cutting & pasting from their website, why don't you tell us why you use it and why you like it?
What about StreamTransport. It seems to work well.
StreamTransport seems to be interesting but only records streaming content as opposed to Debut, Jing etc. which are able to record entire computer desktop activity and edit content as well.
Although streming media recorders might be (and are) able to record copyright content I feel StreamTransport in my opinion indicates too obviously that it has been designed to violate copyright content by recording what it is not supposed to.
Anyway, the program is malware clean and partialy does what we expect it to do but still does not match the features variety of the programs recommended above.
I had to modify the link in your comment because that particular software does not meet all the expectations of full-featured streaming media recorder.
The thing is that StreamTransport records only videos related to Hulu, which limits it to a point where it becomes useless to broader line of users who prefer having such software which can record everything on their computer's desktop, not just recording streaming videos particularly from Hulu.
It does work with other sites. As I type this, I'm getting a video of veoh.com and megavideo.com
StreamTransport does exactly what I wanted. Get the video, not the screen. Clean, simple, effective (so far). Works on CBC and ABC streams that I tried.
+1 for Orbit! It is a true stream recorder, as opposed to most of those apps which are Screen Session Recorders.
I like HarddiskOgg. Portable, stable, just works. Has some audio leveling tools. On-the-fly-line-in-to-Ogg Vorbis/Wave/Monkey's Audio/MP3-encoding
http://www.fridgesoft.de/harddiskogg.php
I have had a lot of success with harddiskogg it just works. I wish it had an "always on recording feature" so the last 30 seconds are saved in a buffer so that that if there is something you just heard that you want to save then it is already captured. Does anyone know of a program that has this feature?