Capturing Video And Audio Streams: How-To

By John Deprice

Streaming media is taking the Internet over - online radio, news, digital videos, podcasts, webcasts are just going to grow. Find out what tools you need to capture streaming audio and video so you can replay it later.

CoCSoft Stream Down (CoCSoft)

Like the proverbial hedgehog, CoCSoft Stream Down knows one thing well: in this case, how to capture streaming-media files and save them to disk. Just enter the URL of a streaming-media file and the program stores the content in the directory of your choice. In addition to FTP and HTTP, CoCSoft Stream Down can handle several streaming protocols: RTSP, MMS, MMSU, and MMST. It comes in handy during peak Internet usage times, when streaming files don't play well. You can download them, and play them later. If you don't know the file name, you can easily copy and paste it into Streamdown using the Windows "File Properties" command.

WM Recorder (Applain)

WM Recorder is a fairly straightforward way to capture streaming Windows Media Video or Audio content to a file on your PC. It's just what the doctor ordered for music videos, news feeds, streaming music, radio broadcasts, adult and subscription content, corporate webcasts, and anything else that streams down onto your PC. WM Recorder is also brainlessly simple. Simply open WM Recorder, click Record, and play the video or audio you want to capture. Files are saved on your PC automatically, so you can watch or listen anytime, even without an internet connection.

AudioStreamer (R.M. de Boer Software)

AudioStreamer is the Internet radio receiver and recorder that lets you enjoy the thousands of radio stations available on the Internet. While listening to your favorite radio station, you can record any radio station you want, anytime. The recording library shows you all your recordings, sorted by Genre or Radio station. If there's any artist name available while recording, it will be saved into the MP3 Tag automatically. You can also rename file(s), change or view MP3 Tag info for every file, or play the files you recorded earlier as well as add your favorite station to the Favorites list, or add a new station you found on the Internet. If necessary, the program will burn mp3 files onto a CD.

Cybercorder 2000 (SkyHawk Technologies)

Cybercorder provides VCR-like recording for radio shows or any audio input. Recordings are stored on disk as WAV or MP3 files with optional audio compression to save disk space. Recordings can easily be played back by selecting the recording from the list of completed recordings. The customizable playback window allows users to easily advance the recording forward and reverse various step sizes. The thing that makes this software very different is the fact that you can schedule as many recordings as you like or instantly start a recording for the specified amount of time. The scheduled recordings can be scheduled for a single time or for selected days of the week such as Mon-Fri 9AM. Program descriptions can be given to the scheduled recordings to later identify the recordings.

John Deprice is a big fan of streaming tools.

More Resources

Alternatives to MP3
Although MP3 is the most popular format for encoding music, it is by no means the only one. There are two basic methods for compressing audio - lossless and lossy, and for each of these methods there are many formats.

Adding Sound To Your Web Site - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Many webmasters like the idea of adding background music to their web sites but most shy away from doing it worrying about slow loading pages and large file sizes. There are many different ways to add background music to your site and some of them don't require large files to achieve professional results.

Why I Hate Flash Audio and What I Did About It
I love spoken-word audio. I've been listening to seminars, lectures, and books on tape for years.

Transmit Clean Digital Audio with Digital Coaxial Cables
In the world of digital audio, there are two types of cable to choose from; optical cables which use light to transmit signal and digital coaxial cable. These audio cables will enable your home theater system to transmit digital data between components.

7 Ways to Use Website Audio in Your Marketing Arsenal
Most visitors to your website are using computers with audio capabilities. Recently introduced techniques make it easy to take advantage of this capability.

How To Record Streaming Audio, Internet Radio And
When it comes to music on the Internet, you have two legal choices: you can stream tracks, or you can purchase them as individual downloads.Replay Music can record streamed songs from most applications, break them into individual files (either as WAV or 128- to 320-Kbps MP3 files) and even tag them with the correct song and artist info.

Adding Streaming Audio to Your Website
Adding streaming audio to your web site can help you enhance the message you send to your customers and can serve as a wonderful confidence-building tool. In the past, audio was used primarily as a decorative effect, but advances in technology and the increased use of the internet by consumers have made it easy for you to add streaming audio to your web site and create a personal bond with your clientele.

Creating Web Content Using Audio Recordings of Expert Interviews
Creating Web Content Using Audio Recordings of Expert Interviews The easiest way to create content for your websites is also one of the best ways to create value for your clients. It's a wonderful technique that when used well can make a big difference to how professionally your work is perceived in the marketplace.

Heres Exactly What Makes Web Audio So Powerful
Have you ever tried to communicate with another person using just actions and sign language? It gets pretty frustrating, doesn't it? Especially when you know that if you could just SAY a few words, they'd get the picture, almost instantly.Well, imagine if the website you've put up on show.

CD/DVD Master Preparation Tips
"CD/DVD Master" is the disc you provide to your CD/DVD vendor for replication or duplication of that media. Here are some helpful tips for creating a high quality master:- Always use high quality media.

Eight Reasons Why You Must Add Audio to Your Website
NUMBER 1 : INTERNET USERS REMEMBER WHAT THEY HEARDid you know that Internet users remember only 20% of what they read while remembering an amazing 70% of what they hear? Audio on your website will help your message stay with fresh your visitors for longer.NUMBER 2 : AUDIO INCREASES SUBSCRIPTION RATESUsing audio to convey a personal message to entice visitors to subscribe to your newsletter will result in up to 400% more subscribers than using traditional subscription marketing methods.

Add Audio to Your Web Site and Increase Your Sales up to 35%!
Ok, you've got your site built, you have traffic coming to it, agood product at a reasonable price..

What The Muscle Power of Audio Can Do for Your Site
How Audio can Influence SalesAudio can enhance your website by letting your visitor listen to your voice, which is the next closest form of marketing besides a face to face meeting.Who can use Audio?Anyone can use audio, it all depends how knowledgeable you are when it comes to designing your site.

Seven Ways to Warm Your Prospects Using Website Audio
Gone are the days when putting audio on your website consisted of subjecting your visitors to gaudy musical fanfares and various clich�d sound effects. Fortunately, audio has now become a lot more sophisticated and new techniques that allow audio to be streamed have made it possible to use your own voice as a highly effective marketing tool.

Internet Radio: A Sanctuary in the Rubbish Tip
The internet, it's a whole world of information and entertainment, but every day it fills up just that extra bit more with complete trash. At every corner, popups, banner ads, viruses, spyware, the list goes on, well I've had enough and I'm sure you share my opinion.

MP3 vs. WMA
There are just a few audio compression formats out there, just like there are only a few image compression formats (you may have heard of them: JPG, GIF, BMP). Two of the most popular audio formats are WMA, or Windows Media Audio, and MP3 (Short for MPEG, Moving Pictures Experts Group, Audio Layer 3).

wav; Recording Voice or Instruments
A graduate student in Belfast wrote to me about a project he was doing. It is an inter-active instructional CD on the Tin Whistle.

Get Personal by Adding Your Voice to Your Site
Many customers in today's online business world are shopping around online for a reason; either they are too lazy to go to stores, do not like the masses of people, or they might just want to shop in the comfort of their home. What ever the reason might be, we can conclude that they are not in a store, but rather they are on your site.

Dont Use Web Audio The Wrong Way
Have you ever wrestled with a set of instructions, but then got so frustrated with it all that you threw them aside in a fluster and tried to figure out how to do it? yourself?Resulting in?Making a great big mess of it all?Similarly, if you really want to use Web Audio the right way, the way that WORKS, then you need to know what DOESN'T work.Here's what many people do, pretty systematically? to hinder their marketing and audio responses:1.

Audio Websites -- Web Developers: Make Money Now
Are you a website developer looking to establish a long-term relationship with a web content provider that could make money over the long-term for both of you? Have you considered becoming an expert in the providing of website audio content -- in webcasting and podcasting? Knowing how to present web audio and how to manage such a site can be your key to making money over the web.It is hard to pick up a periodical about the web these days without coming upon an article about the ever increasing use of substantive audio content in websites.

More Audio Streaming Information:

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Streaming Audio Recorders
1. i-Sound WMA MP3 Recorder 6.

The Ten Commandments To Creating Amazing Audio Products
1.Thou shall create audio products as the fastest way to come out with a product.

Why Arent You Using Audio?
As use of the Internet continues to grow geometrically, we see an increased demand for information to be provided by a variety of media. Viewing options can range from simple text to PDF documents to video clips.

Why I Hate Flash Audio and What I Did About It
I love spoken-word audio. I've been listening to seminars, lectures, and books on tape for years.

Five Tips to Become a Soundbite Genius
1. Speak in soundbites to everyone.

How to Add Audio to Video
Digital media is everywhere you look. Music and video production have made it to the grass roots level thanks to the affordability and widespread use of powerful computers.

Add Audio to Your Web Site and Increase Your Sales up to 35%!
Ok, you've got your site built, you have traffic coming to it, agood product at a reasonable price..

Jingles - What Constitutes A Successful Jingle Campaign?
What constitutes a successful jingle campaign? In this article we will examine and listen to 4 successful jingle campaigns and look for key ingredients to their success.Jingle Campaign #1, Mr.

7 Ways to Use AUDIO to Increase Your Web and E-mail Sales
Thought about adding audio to your Web site yet? You should. While great copy does a good job of selling your services and products, audio will amplify the effect of your words.

How to Use Your Computer as a Recording Studio
A few years ago there was a revolution in recording technology. As computers became more powerful, they started to replace traditional tape recorders that were the heart of most recording studios.