Saving (caching) online streamed FLVs?

[nanomir]

Hi all,

Sometimes, I get the direct FLV link of an online video, and view it in VLC by simply pasting the link via Media / Open Network... and simply pasting it in the Address field and clicking Play - this works quite good, no complaints.. Using VLC 0.9.4 Grishenko on WinXP.

However, sometimes the websites are really slow which makes this kind of viewing problematic. So I was wandering if here is an easy way to instruct VLC to cache the downloaded stream to a file, and then use the file for viewing (this, I hope, would make seeking in earlier, downloaded parts possible - else with a non-cached stream, I guess a new request is sent to server each time one seeks, and if the server is already slow, still the same interruptions will be visible).

So, I've tried to use Media / Convert/Save..., click Network tab, paste flv url in the Address field and click Convert / Save. From this point on, I've tried (GSOS = Generated stream output string):

1. check Play locally, check File, enter C:\aa.flv as filename, check Dump raw input (GSOS is :demux=dump :demuxdump-file=C:\aa.flv)
   results:

   VLC can't recognize the input's format:
   The format of 'http://x.com/x.flv' cannot be detected. Have a look the log for details.

   main error: no demux module matched "dump :demuxdump-file=C:\aa.flv"
   main error: no suitable demux module for `http://x.com/x.flv'

   ... and there is no playback...
2. check Play locally, check File, enter C:\aa.flv as filename, nothing checked under Profile/Encapsulation (GSOS is :sout=#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,dst=C:\aa.flv}})
   results: No errors, no messages, seems to stream (aa.flv increases in size) - however, only audio is heard, no video is shown. Opening aa.flv has the same problem - only audio is reproduced, no video is shown.
3. check Play locally, check File, enter C:\aa.flv as filename, check FLV under Profile/Encapsulation (GSOS is :sout=#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,mux=flv,dst=C:\aa.flv}})
   results:

   main error: no sout mux module matched "flv"
   stream_out_standard error: no suitable sout mux module for `file/flv://C:\aa.flv

   ... and again only audio plays - however, aa.flv is at 0 bytes...
   (with a wrong URL i'd additionally get:

   Your input can't be opened:
   VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://x.com/x.flv'. Check the log for details.

   main error: open of `http://x.com/x.flv' failed: could not create access: no sout mux module matched "flv"

   )
4. check Play locally, check File, enter C:\aa.flv as filename, check RAW under Profile/Encapsulation (GSOS is :sout=#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,mux=raw,dst=C:\aa.flv}})
   results: No errors, no messages, seems to stream (aa.flv increases in size) - however, only audio is heard, no video is shown. Opening aa.flv is deeply problematic - VLC cannot go past 00:00; hence neither audio nor video reproduced.
5. check Play locally, check File, enter C:\aa.flv as filename, nothing checked under Profile/Encapsulation, check Stream all elementary streams (GSOS is :sout=#duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,dst=C:\aa.flv}} :sout-all)
   results: No errors, no messages, seems to stream (aa.flv increases in size) - however, only audio is heard, no video is shown. Opening aa.flv has the same problem - only audio is reproduced, no video is shown.

Of course, if I go with simply pasting the link via Media / Open Network... as described at start, both video and audio are reproduced without problems for the very same URL.

Any ideas on how to achieve this caching of online streams easily? Thanks....

[VLC_help]

AFAIK demux=dump is broken ATM. Easiest thing for FLV is to use separate tool or web service for downloading the files to hard drive.