replay media catcher does not find/record rtmp stream, but wm recorder will (sort of)

I was trialing replay media catcher to see if it would record a rtmp video stream, but it failed to find the stream - i further tried to input the url directly, but would get error messages

i did find that wm recorder is fully able to easily find and record the stream (which is a h264 file in a flash (flv) platform container) - unfortunately the resulting flv file is not seekable (ie., non-linear seek to end) - therefore if i recorded a long file i would have to play back the entire file to get to a certain point, vs non-linearly scrolling to the point i wanted to watch

i am presuming this may be a result of wm recorder not being a "native" flv recorder (at least, not as replay media catcher is advertised to be), so the solution MIGHT be to get RMC to be able to find and record the stream - if not, any other suggestions are very welcome

i did find that if it use wm recorder to record the file, and i also put it into preview mode, it will launch an flv player window - this window can them be "captured" by either RVC or presumably wm capture, and the resulting file is fully seekable, but this multi-step process does not seem to be as efficient as recording a fully seekable flv in the first place, if that is possible with any applian products

thanks much for any insights!

Hi!

Can you please provide me with the URL of the audio or video you're trying to record, so I can trouble shoot the issue?

Thanks Jeff - it's not a normal web url. It's a daily news video (CNBC) that is streamed as a courtesy to TD Ameritrade clients.

It is launched from a built in media player to an online stock trading platform - anyone can open an account and download the client trading platform software:

https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/client/index.jsp

i don't think one even needs to fund the account to get it to work, at least not initially. just sign up (maybe even with dummy info), download the software and then launch the "cnbc live tv" gadget and it will start streaming - i believe it is permission based, and the permission codes change each time you launch the client (even within a short time span)

here is mine that is working right now:

http://bglive-a.bitgravity.com/cnbcl...lication/x-flv

when i launch it in a browser, it actually does start to download - not sure if it would work for you - and it will probably only work for another 20 minutes today

you can try the one above - otherwise i can post a freshly permissioned url tomorrow morning, that should work for the whole day (at least from my ip address) -

otherwise, you could take the 10 minutes to sign up and download the TOS client and try it yourself (kind of fun and interesting in its own right :) )

as i said, the network stream is immediately caught by wm recorder, but not at all by replay media catcher (even when i specifically put the url into it)

and wm recorder would be fine, except that the flv file it saves is not seekable (and i lso tried running it through flvcheck, but no success)

so getting the stream to be picked up and saved by RMC while being a good first step, would really only be worthwhile if the resulting RMC saved flv file was a searchable flv file.

Hmm, thats interesting - Thanks for your prompt response as well.

Tnfortunately it would appear that file type is now encrypted.

For files such as this, you'll want to use Replay Video Capture, which is a SCREEN capture program we offer that records what it sees on your screen - regardless of the file type.

I DID test this file myself using RVC and it worked fine.

IF you haven't yet, please check it out here:

http://applian.com/replay-video-capture/

As for the file not being seekable with WMR - I no longer support WMR and havent used it in a while, but here is one of my old templates from a year ago - hopefully this helps.:-)

if not you may need to submit a ticket to that department for assistance:

The Seekable option enables the seek bar for a recorded file so you can move forward or backward through the file. However, there are instances when a file cannot be made seekable during recording even if this option is enabled. In this case, you should use the Reprocess option with the Seekable flag enabled.

The opposite is when you record a file that was seekable but you want to make it non-seekable. This may force your audience to see the entire clip. In this case, you can Reprocess the file with the seekable flag off.

Sometimes the recorded files don't have a seek bar so you cannot Fast Forward or Rewind. This is usually the case for live streams (Internet TV). If you select the Seekable option (in Settings) before recording, the file will always be saved seekable. Otherwise, you can use the Reprocess function (under the PLAY button) to reprocess the file with the Seekable option enabled. A file with the extension .sek.asf will be created when you reprocess.

I just tried this myself, to test this I did the following: I clicked on view and then loaded my saved windows media files. Easy to check each one with the player if they are seekable or not. For those that were not seekable, I right clicked on the file name and clicked on seekable and in a few seconds I received a successful notification. Did about a half dozen like this and the files are now seekable. The only thing changed was the current date and time of revising the file.

I hope this helps! :-)

Thanks for the clarification Jeff


As i said, WM Recorder is able to download and save the file, so i thought perhaps there was a way to also get RMC to save it (i thought that given that WMR and RMC are both Applian products, there might be overlapping development)

I am aware that the streaming file being previewed through WMR (with flvplayer, or any other flv playing program) can then be screen captured by either RVC or WMC. But as i noted, that didn't seem to be as efficient as directly saving a seekable file, which i was hoping might be the case with RMC (given that it is advertised as native flv stream capture program)

I very much appreciate your reference to your WMR template on creating seekable files. It seems that your template is from WMR version 11, whereas my version of WMR 14 has that option in a different path (from settings), and it is already checked, but is grayed out. And I wonder if it is applicable to flv files (and as you say, it may not work at all on this particular stream)

http://wmrecorder.com/support/wm-recorder/user-guide11/

http://wmrecorder.com/support/wm-recorder/user-guide/

I tried using the RMC "fix flv" tool on the wm recorder saved flv file to see if it could fix it to make it seekable, but it claims there are no meta tags and also reports a (much longer) incorrect file duration


i also uploaded a copy of the file that i tried to fix with RMC flvfix, in case you might have any interest in checking it out:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4ouk5e

it seems to only be playable in flv player (and not in vlc)


i also tried to fix it with this software:

http://www.buraks.com/flvmdi/

i used the gui version and enabled both the "Include Keyframes" and "Inject OnLastSecond" options, as described here:
http://www.squidoo.com/flv

and it seemed to work, but the resulting file still reported an incorrect duration, and even though the seek bar is now enabled (in flv player), the playable portion of the file seems truncated in only being able to start the playback near the end and then ending briefly afterward


btw, i also thought i would send a fresh link to today's stream:

http://bglive-a.bitgravity.com/cnbcl...lication/x-flv

thanks much - it may simply be as you described that it is not able to be made seekable, even if RMC were able to catch the stream

ok, i have an update - i re-read the applian fix file instructions as i was not able to do all that they suggested and i found a post in the applian forum which made the applian instructions more clear for fixing the time stamp:

https://forum.applian.com/showthread...-file-seekable

i can now open the file in any media player and the duration is correct and it now seems to be able to seek perfectly!

i am uploading it here just fyi:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qnqgf2

does this perhaps mean that it can somehow even be saved correctly from the start (in either WMR or RMC)? or will i always have to go through multiple steps in order to get the saved flv file to be seekable?


fyi, the steps i took are (from the start):

1) open WMR
2) launched the desired stream
3) record the file with wm recorder (which successfully catches the stream)
4) when file is done recording, open RMC
5) click tools
6) click Fix Flv
7) open the saved flv file in Fix Flv
6) click Fix Duration
7) click the File Contents (the blue bar just below Fix Duration)
8) click Fix Time (leaving it at the pre-set 15)
9) close Fix Flv and RMC
10) play resulting corrected file

Wow, thats quite a write up!

I'll be honest, I havent worked on the WMR Support queue for a while and we generally don't support it on this forum as our departments are in separate cities. Would you be able to submit a ticket to WMR Tech support please for further assistance with that level?

Thanks! :)

well, i guess i thought that other current and future readers of this forum might appreciate enough clear detail to possibly be fairly helpful to them

and i am happy to cross post this thread to the WMR forum (will have to find it), but not sure if it justifies a separate "support ticket", as WMR seems to work fine in saving the flv file (at least better than RMC, which doesn't seem to see the flv network stream at all)

and i guess if RMC simply can't see/save the file, the best solution will be the longer workaround i just described - or else maybe using a video capture program, like RVC or WMC - but i suspect in that case, the resulting file will be much bigger than the flv, and it will also require an unobstructed dedicated screen area, as well as no other computer sounds, since all computer audio will be recorded

so definitely not as good as my process (which itself isn't as good as saving a searchable flv from the very beginning - but sometimes tech has its limits :) )

thx jeff!