RMC 4.1.6.0 recording YouTube clips in 2MB chunks

[minipc]

Out of the blue, about a week ago, RMC4 started downloading YouTube clips in 2MB chunks, instead of whole clips as it had previously been doing. Only the first flv (30 to 40 seconds in duration) chunk appears to be playable. Subsequent chunks are reported as having a zero duration when you try to play them.

There are a couple of other posts in this thread that mention this phenomenon, but there is no explanation nor help in resolving the problem.

This may be a YouTube issue, because recordings from other sites are not split into chunks.

If anyone knows a solution, or a way to stitch the chunks together, I would be very grateful.

[Jeff Lenney]

Hi MiniPC

I'll ask our RMC expert to take a look at this. She should chime in shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

[demotester]

i am a RMC expert myself :p

@minipc
Do you have any testpage url? (which youtube video are you referring to?)

[minipc]

actually there are more than a few, mostly music videos, here are the most recent ones from my browser (chrome) history

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdB3Oyd5HtU (the one that prompted me to post)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLQCA2h8kA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h1oRP7FfBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDyUhI1ArPo&feature=relmfu

in fact, reviewing my browser history, the problem seems not to be as long standing as i first imagined, as i was able to download complete clips as recently as mar 30th.

[demotester]

i cant play 2 of the 4 links ("This video contains content from UMG. It is not available in your country.", "This video contains content from WMG. It is not available in your country."). The other 2 links download fine, for example:
YouTube - Aloe Blacc - I Need a Dollar (Live in Studio).mp4
64,0 MB (67.119.557 Bytes), 1280x720 resolution, 24fps.

good luck.

[minipc]

thanks for checking out the links. sorry that they weren't all available in your territory. curious that you managed to download those you had access to without problems. i have just checked them all, and they still are downloading in 2MB chunks for me, as are these several movie trailers and advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKMYAOmTj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5AqJww06bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOddp-nlNvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJud4cv-0vI

[demotester]

as are these several movie trailers and advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKMYAOmTj0

29,1 MB (30.523.102 Bytes), 1920x1080 resolution, 24fps, 4633B7ED.
video: 1571kbps (AVC)
audio: 88kbps, 2channel, 44.1kHz (AAC LC)

Sorry minipc, if nobody can reproduce your error ("2MB-chunks"), then nobody can help you. My opinion. Maybe you have some more luck with Applian tech support. i am outta here, bye :p

[minipc]

absolutely no need to apologise, demotester. i appreciate your efforts in this matter. the fact that you are unable to replicate the phenomenon (i'm avoiding calling it an error, because it may just be a feature of the application that i do not understand - after all that's how micro$oft explain them) obviously makes it impossible for you to investigate further. but your suggestion to approach technical support seems advised.

i shall explain that it may just be me who is affected, as those that have tried to reproduce the problem have so far been unable to. it is definitely a problem with youtube, thought. because, for instance, the exact same pirates of the caribbean 4 trailer from metacafe is downloaded as a single file, the length of which appears equivalent to the total length of the chunks downloaded from youtube. if and when i get to the bottom of it, i shall update the thread. thanks again.

[demotester]

you know what i did (yesterday i think..)? i did a complete new installation of my windows (xp-sp3 for that matter). this way i can make sure that whatever problem arises (with any software product) the problem isnt "me" but "them".
If i have a clean pc and a clean installation of RMC and i fail to download a youtube video as expected, then:
1. my fliends should be able to reproduce the error (let's call it error :D), and
2. if they can, then the problem is either RMC's or Youtube's.

In our situation, i am on a clean system with a clean installation of RMC and i dont experience any irregularities. All fine.
Since you are the only(?) to experience weird behaviour, then i would assume that the problem has its origin in your system, and not necessarily in RMC or in Youtube. This is of course just an assumption. The point is: it is easy to verify whether this assumption is true or false (wrong). Ask me how. :D

[minipc]

demotester, thank you for your continued interest in this "error" (i concede that if the issue prevents me from using the application as intended to download usable clips, it is an error). with some trepidation, because i'm not sure i'm going to like your answer, may i please ask how is it easy to verify whether or not the problem has its origins in my system and not necessarily in either rmc or youtube? (for the record i don't believe the origin of the problem lies within either my system or rmc, because both those aspects of the situation are totally within my control. the only aspect of this problem that lies outwith my control is youtube, which i believe changed something in their system on or about the 1st of april. and if hoards of agent smiths suddenly appear from out of nowhere, i will know that i should have taken the blue pill instead of the red one!)

[stream-recorder.com]

Tried the first link only. Didn't have any problem downloading the 360p and the 1080p versions of the video.

p.s. I'm using RMC 4.1.9 beta in Windows 7 x64.

[demotester]

then i would assume that the problem has its origin in your system, and not necessarily in RMC or in Youtube. This is of course just an assumption. The point is: it is easy to verify whether this assumption is true or false (wrong). Ask me how. :D

How: Do what i did ;) .. Re-install a new windows system from scratch! :D
Okay, here "personal question": When WAS the last time that you had re-installed a new windows? (with Windows BootCD, etc.)

No kidding. A fresh, ultra-clean Windows system resolves maaaany problems. And i would bet my demo license that it solved all your download chunk issues as well. Just look at meee! :) :

[minipc]

How: Do what i did ;) .. Re-install a new windows system from scratch! :D
Okay, here "personal question": When WAS the last time that you had re-installed a new windows? (with Windows BootCD, etc.)

No kidding. A fresh, ultra-clean Windows system resolves maaaany problems. And i would bet my demo license that it solved all your download chunk issues as well. Just look at meee! :) :

well... the last time i re-installed a new windows (on the affected pc) was... never. the last time i restored my preloaded vista from its recovery partition was when i upgraded my laptop hard drive which was (let me check my windows update history) feb 2008 and had me jumping through so many hoops i thought i was going to have to join a circus.

please don't get me wrong, demotester, i am seriously grateful for the attention you have shown this matter, though i think i might wait and see what applian technical support have to say before wielding that particular sledge-hammer. thanks again. you may very well be proved right in the end;)

[demotester]

you have 2 machines? the affected desktop pc, and then some laptop. i see. at least you know how to re-install windows: the recovery partition is exactly what i did (i have burned my own hdd image onto dvd+r). as you know, re-installing with image takes only 1 or 2mins. after that one has to reinstall all the applications (M$ Office, foobar2000, etc.) which takes some efforts. if time is an issue and if this matter is important, then the restoring of images is 1. the fastest, 2. the safest, and 3. the fairest strategy to approach it. On the other hand, if the matter is not really important (low priority) plus if time isnt an issue (because the issue is unimportant), then we (the public of this forum) can wait together and see how fast tech support resolves the whole matter.

It is an interesting case. i'll stay tuned.

[minipc]

you have 2 machines? the affected desktop pc, and then some laptop. i see...

to clarify, the affected pc and the laptop are one and the same machine. i was just using pc as a generic term for personal computer. i did not mean to imply it was a separate desktop computer. and at the moment, the issue is not critical to me because, as i made clear, youtube is not my only source of music videos and movie trailers, and it is the only site that the "phenomenon" affects.

personally, i would rather tech support point out some simple error on my part than have to speculatively rebuild my otherwise stable system (a rare thing in vista terms.)

thanks again for your interest.

[stream-recorder.com]

If you like tech support to reply, submit a support ticket and include your log.
https://forum.applian.com/showthread.php?18-Contacting-Technical-Support-and-Customer-Service

[minipc]

If you like tech support to reply, submit a support ticket and include your log.
https://forum.applian.com/showthread.php?18-Contacting-Technical-Support-and-Customer-Service

thanks, already done. just waiting for a response.

[demotester]

am waiting wiv you :)

[diesel1120]

I am having the same problem. Using Internet Explorer I can only get 2mb chunks on Youtube. I have tried about 40 videos and it does the same thing on all of them. This just started happening a few days ago. So it is definitely either Youtube or RMC.

[minipc]

I am having the same problem. Using Internet Explorer I can only get 2mb chunks on Youtube. I have tried about 40 videos and it does the same thing on all of them. This just started happening a few days ago. So it is definitely either Youtube or RMC.

diesel1120, thank you so much for your contribution. i was beginning to wonder why i was apparently the only one to be experiencing problems? my best guess is that youtube is doing something different that rmc cannot deal with, because it only started a week ago, and youtube is the only source of streamed media that i have so far discovered to be affected. had i known that i was not the only customer affected i would have set the ticket priority on my request for technical support higher than medium. as it is, i see that 0min have been spent on dealing with my request which was made 3 days ago. if you would consider making your own request for technical support, i would suggest setting the priority to high, and referring them to this thread, as i did. thanks, again.

ps. the fact that not everyone is affected may simply be an indication that youtube servers in different territories stream data in different ways, or that different versions of adobe flash player are involved, mine being 10.2.154.25 for Chrome 10.0.648.204 for Windows.

[demotester]

high! i am user like you folks and this place is a USERS' forum (and not an official support forum). you get official (and immediate) support thru the support ticket system. the RMC support techies (e.g. Shellie, Debbie) dont stop by here too often as you might have been noticing but they do respond to support tickets quickly (within 24-48hours).

youtube seems more complex (they use different streaming protocols!) than i had previously assumed. please could you post (again) 2 affected testpage url's (youtube video link!), so that i can try (again) to download it with *my* version of RMC?

We'll go thru this together. I am wiv you.

[diesel1120]

minipc- Youtube is always changing things. I was watching all videos perfectly fine with Firefox until a month ago when something changed. Only about 5% of Youtube vids work for me using Firefox for the last month. Searching around I noticed alot of talk about Youtube experimenting with switching to a new platform which Firefox will no longer support because it would require them to buy a 5 million dollar license to legally put that in the Firefox program. So I have been using Internet Explorer for the last month without any problems until a week ago. There are a whole bunch of people on the Youtube forums complaining about this last problem that started for everyone in the last week.I think you are right when you said it might depend what country or area you are from,because I can't imagine that everybody around the world on Firefox, IE, and Opera are having these problems. Just trying to watch the vids without using RMC has become a major problem.

[Jeff Lenney]

HEY ALL - UPDATE ON THIS ISSUE:

Looks like Youtube has come out with a new parameter range=0-2097151.

This used to be expressed as len and begin parameters, which we currently strip.

What causes the player to do this I have no idea. None of my browsers do it for the video the user was downloading - Coca Cola Zero - The Date.

Our programmer will code to remove this in the next release. I do NOT have an ETA on this fix, but it is a high priority fix.

Thanks for your patience :-)

[stream-recorder.com]

The update should be available pretty soon. But until then you can try to download webm videos from youtube. To do that:

Go to www.youtube.com/html5 and enable HTML5 videos for youtube.
Download the latest version of Firefox, Google Chrome or Opera, all of them support HTML5 webm videos.
Go to Tools -> Settings -> HTTP Download Tweaks and add the following Content Type/File Extension

video/webm
webm

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5598/rmc4webm.png

After changing settings hit the Stop recording button, then hit the Start recording button.


Many popular players support webm videos. For example, you can play them with freeware VLC player:
http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/3319/playwebmvlc.png

[stream-recorder.com]

If you want to test a beta version fixing the problem, you can download it from
http://downloads.jaksta.com/release/rmc/4.2.0.0/RCATSetup4.exe
http://downloads.jaksta.com/release/rmc/4.2.0.0/RCATSetup4-x64.exe

It might be better to wait for a stable release.

[minipc]

If you want to test a beta version fixing the problem, you can download it from
http://downloads.jaksta.com/release/rmc/4.2.0.0/RCATSetup4.exe
http://downloads.jaksta.com/release/rmc/4.2.0.0/RCATSetup4-x64.exe

It might be better to wait for a stable release.

stream-recorder, many thanks for both your suggestions, though i thought i would wait and see what transpired from the support ticket request i made. it took a few days for them to acknowledge my request and some further days to confirm that there was indeed a problem with youtube that their developer would attempt to address.

yesterday, i finally received a suggestion from them to download and test the version of rmc (4.2.0.0) that you now refer to above, and i have at last had an opportunity to give it a try. there is some good news and some not so good news.

the good news is that the version 4.2 now manages to capture complete clips from youtube, instead of the 2MB chunks it was capturing recently. however the not so good news is that is captures a series of copies of the complete clips. so for instance, whereas before version 4.1.6 would capture the coca-cola zero advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJud4cv-0vI as a series of 2MB chunks, of which only the first partial fragment would play, now version 4.2 captures 2 complete copies of the clip both of which are playable. the longer the clips, the more copies are captured. so definitely an improvement, but not quite a complete solution, yet, perhaps? i have added my findings to the ticket and await a response.

thanks again for both your suggestions. if all else fails, i shall definitely give your html5 web video suggestion a go.:)

[stream-recorder.com]

now version 4.2 captures 2 complete copies of the clip both of which are playable. the longer the clips, the more copies are captured. so definitely an improvement, but not quite a complete solution, yet, perhaps? i have added my findings to the ticket and await a response.

Go to Tools -> Settings -> Download Settings -> Site Specific
and see whether you have the "Stop multiple downloads of the same video from Youtube" checked.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5889/rmc4youtubemultipledown.png

[minipc]

Go to Tools -> Settings -> Download Settings -> Site Specific
and see whether you have the "Stop multiple downloads of the same video from Youtube" checked....


thanks, stream-recorder, that was the first thing i checked (pun intended) ;) it makes no difference :(

[stream-recorder.com]

thanks, stream-recorder, that was the first thing i checked (pun intended) ;) it makes no difference :(
Please submit a support ticket with your log.

[minipc]

Please submit a support ticket with your log.

stream-recorder, i thought i already had?

in the interests of full disclosure, when i was given the link for the 4.2.0.0 download, i tested it on all the youtube examples i listed previously. when i realised they were all being captured as complete clips but multiple times, i confirmed that the prevent multiple downloads option was checked. i tried un-checking it, but it didn't seem to make any difference one way or another. i re-checked the option, and produced a debug log of the coca cola zero ad capture mentioned above, and attached it to a message outlining my findings that i added to my original support ticket. i then added the post above to this thread updating everyone on what progress had been made.

do you mean i should have submitted it as a new support ticket with log? if there's anything else you think i could do that might help, i'd be pleased to hear it. again, thanks for your interest in this problem :)

[stream-recorder.com]

stream-recorder, i thought i already had?

in the interests of full disclosure, when i was given the link for the 4.2.0.0 download, i tested it on all the youtube examples i listed previously. when i realised they were all being captured as complete clips but multiple times, i confirmed that the prevent multiple downloads option was checked. i tried un-checking it, but it didn't seem to make any difference one way or another. i re-checked the option, and produced a debug log of the coca cola zero ad capture mentioned above, and attached it to a message outlining my findings that i added to my original support ticket. i then added the post above to this thread updating everyone on what progress had been made.

do you mean i should have submitted it as a new support ticket with log? if there's anything else you think i could do that might help, i'd be pleased to hear it. again, thanks for your interest in this problem :)
It is better to ask Applian support about this. If you have submitted your log for the version 4.2 already, then I guess you don't need to open a new ticket.