The VideoLAN Forums

I'll pleade newbie ignorace here. I've searched the forum and played around with the player but with no success.

I want to capture (i.e. in my lingo, download to my laptop) a video stream. The stream is http://video.gaithersburgmd.gov/MC_111411.wmv. I've tried several different ways with the player, including Media>Open Network Stream, then entering the link and selecting convert at the bottom (going for MP4). Sadly it doesn't work and all that resulted was a very small file.

I've also checked the online help so I apologize if the answer to my ignorance is staring me in the face.

And, if there is another tool you can suggest for a simple video download/capture, I'd appreciate that suggestion.

Thank you for your time.

..., including Media>Open Network Stream, then entering the link and selecting convert at the bottom

Hi
Use the VLC 'Record' button instead of 'convert'.
Like this:-

VLC > View > Advanced
Then look for the 'Record' button.
Then VLC > Media > Open Network Stream and paste the link.
Then 'Play' and hit the 'Record' button.

File will be saved like this:-
vlc-record-2011-11-17-01h21m29s-mmsh___video.gaithersburgmd.gov_MC_111411.wmv_MSWMExt=.asf-.asf

The downloaded file seems to use
"Windows Media Video 9 (WMV3)" video codec
and
"Windows Media Audio Professional (WMAP)" audio codec.

When I play the downloaded file in VLC the sound is very low.
Maybe (my version of) VLC doesn't handle "Windows Media Audio Professional (WMAP)" audio codec very well.
The file plays OK with SMPlayer though (probably because mPlayer uses some extra Windows codecs).



EDIT
There's nothing wrong with the audio after all, it was VLC had the sound turned down.

That worked!!! Of course such a duh moment! Thanks for the quick help. Now, I can edit it down. Thanks again!!!

And yes, the quality isn't the best. Again, appreciate the help.

Warm regards!

Worked great for me, also!

Thanks to Bat999 for posting this.

(and thanks to Last Pass for remembering my login and password, when I did not!)

I once used VLC to capture a stream I like to record each week, but all of a sudden it quit working. It would capture the audio, but only the first frame or two of video.

When I asked about it in here (a few months ago), someone suggested doing a demuxdump in a command line.

That worked , and played back OK, unless I tried to fast forward in the playback, at which time it just quit.

Bat999's solution is Perfect!

I even went back into the menus and Customized my toolbar so that the Record button is there by default.

After struggling for weeks with demuxdump, I can't believe how cool this works!

I think I donated $5.00 way back when I first started using VLC, but I'm going back to the homepage right now and doing $50.00 ... it's worth it just to have this forum!