[cjedj]

Hi

I regularly download the show from the Listen Again stream, using a program called Replay AV. This is better than just listening to the stream on the PC, as it only takes 5-10 mins to download, and then I can stick it on my iPod.

Problem is, since last week, I can't download the streams anymore. I can still listen to them, but Replay AV won't actually download them anymore. Nor will Net Transport or HiDownload, so I assume something has changed at the BBC's end.

Does anyone else ever do this, and have you been having similar problems?

[Console]

The only thing that really could have changed at the server end is the URL; what is the URL you are trying to download? It should be something like: -

rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio1/moyles_mon.ra

Have you tried listening to the streams themselves? Does it work that way?

[cjedj]

Yes, that's exactly the URL I've got. I can listen to the streams using it (and the others for the other days) no problem, but they just won't download.

I had no problems until last week...

I was wondering if it could be a firewall issue, but as I can play the streams OK then I'm not sure how it could be...

[Console]

Try having your stream downloader to get another (non-BBC) stream and see if it can do it correctly.

[cjedj]

Yes, Replay AV will download streams from other stations OK. I've tried downloading a show from the XFM Listen Again service just now, and it was fine.

As a comparison, here are the logs - would you have any ideas? The strange thing is that I can play the streams fine, it's just that the app fails to connect to the BBC one when I try to download it. Thanks in advance

Chris Moyles Stream
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Download capture type: Stream Capture
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Recording : Moyles Mon
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM URL : rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio1/moyles_mon.ra
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Filename : Z:\Desktop\Replay Recordings\Moyles Mon\Moyles Mon.cap
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM URL : rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio1/moyles_mon.ra
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Starting Job #1
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Status 52652644: Looking up host rmv8.bbc.net.uk...
Sun Dec 9 2:31:05 PM Status 52652644: Connecting to host rmv8.bbc.net.uk...
Sun Dec 9 2:31:07 PM Status 52652644: Connection to host rmv8.bbc.net.uk failed .
Sun Dec 9 2:31:07 PM Stopping DL Recording


XFM Stream
Sun Dec 9 2:39:29 PM Download capture type: Stream Capture
Sun Dec 9 2:39:29 PM Recording : XFM
Sun Dec 9 2:39:29 PM URL : http://mediasrv-the.musicradio.com/Audi ... 4989&cap=0
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Filename : Z:\Desktop\Replay Recordings\XFM\XFM Dec 09.cap
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM URL : http://mediasrv-the.musicradio.com/Audi ... 4989&cap=0
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Starting Job #9
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Looking up host mediasrv-the.musicradio.com...
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Connecting to host mediasrv-the.musicradio.com...
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Host mediasrv-the.musicradio.com connected. Waiting for http://mediasrv-the.musicradio.com/Audi ... 4989&cap=0.
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: GET /Audio/?episode=24989&cap=0 HTTP/1.0
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Accept: *.*, */*
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Host: mediasrv-the.musicradio.com
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Accept-Encoding: gzip
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Transferring data from http://mediasrv-the.musicradio.com/Audi ... 4989&cap=0.
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Received data for 52647892
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Content-Type: video/x-ms-asf
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Cache-Control: max-age=0, no-cache
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Server: Cougar/9.01.01.3841
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Content-Length: 162
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:38:19 GMT
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Pragma: no-cache, xResetStrm=1
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Supported: com.microsoft.wm.srvppair, com.microsoft.wm.sswitch, com.microsoft.wm.predstrm, com.microsoft.wm.fastcache, com.microsoft.wm.startupprofile
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Session Started
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Download complete.
Sun Dec 9 2:39:30 PM Status 52647892: Session Ended

[Console]

Well, I can't see why it wouldn't be connecting to the host, so the only other thing I can suggest is that you try another program. See this post for details of setting up mplayer, which is a free CLI-based media player that can dump audio streams from the net. You'll have to convert them to mp3 afterwards yourself, but that's not too hard.

[cjedj]

Well, I can't see why it wouldn't be connecting to the host, so the only other thing I can suggest is that you try another program. See this post for details of setting up mplayer, which is a free CLI-based media player that can dump audio streams from the net. You'll have to convert them to mp3 afterwards yourself, but that's not too hard.

Thanks but as far as I know mplayer only dumps streams in real time, as opposed to downloading them. Or have I got that wrong? It was the first thing I tried to use when I first started experimenting with downloading streams earlier this year.

Auntie Beeb must have changed something, as none of the download programs which I have tried (Replay AV, HiDownload or Net Transport) will work, but non-Beeb streams are fine.

Thanks for your help in any case

[jeddeth]

I use replay as well, but I haven't used it in the past week because my computer has been busy with other projects and I've been recording on my Sirius Satellite radio. But I will investigate this this week.

Since we are on the topic, do you also use the repla converter to convert from real to mp3? I find it to be so slow. I have been using jodix mp3 converter... but lately that hasn't been working either because the bbc streams have improper headers.

[cjedj]

I use replay as well, but I haven't used it in the past week because my computer has been busy with other projects and I've been recording on my Sirius Satellite radio. But I will investigate this this week.

Since we are on the topic, do you also use the repla converter to convert from real to mp3? I find it to be so slow. I have been using jodix mp3 converter... but lately that hasn't been working either because the bbc streams have improper headers.

I'm in a Mac environment (running XP with Parallels) so I tend to convert to mp3 from the command line on my Mac. I've got a shell script that will convert the .rm to .wav, and from there to .mp3. It's a bit of a workaround, but still quicker that Replay, which I agree is slow. A lot of that will be dependent of the horsepower of your computer as well.

If you get any luck with Replay this week, please let us know...I'd love to get to the bottom of this!

[Console]

I've got a shell script that will convert the .rm to .wav, and from there to .mp3.

Are you piping a wav stream directly from your rm player to an mp3 encoder, or are you saving the wav stream as a file and then encoding it? If you're doing it the second way, then you can cut down the time it takes to convert from rm to mp3 by doing the first method.

[cjedj]

I've got a shell script that will convert the .rm to .wav, and from there to .mp3.

Are you piping a wav stream directly from your rm player to an mp3 encoder, or are you saving the wav stream as a file and then encoding it? If you're doing it the second way, then you can cut down the time it takes to convert from rm to mp3 by doing the first method.

Not quite. It works like this (when it works ). Download the stream using Replay (takes 5-6 minutes usually.) This gives me a .rm file, which I save on my Mac. This is the step that has been failing recently with BBC streams.

I then use the shell script to firstly convert the .rm file to a .wav file (takes about 10 minutes), and then converts the .wav to .mp3 (another 20 mins or so).

As you can see, the audio isn’t really being streamed at any point, it’s simply downloaded as a standalone .rm file. I do this because it’s so much quicker than waiting 3 hours 30 mins to dump the stream using mplayer or for Replay to capture it “live”.

However I’m very open to suggestions for improving this, I’m sure there must be better ways!

[Console]

As you can see, the audio isn’t really being streamed at any point, it’s simply downloaded as a standalone .rm file.

Actually, as the audio is only available from the RTSP server, there is only the streamed version to download; there isn't a 'standalone' file. What you're stream downloader is doing is streaming from multiple points at once (like one starting at 0:00, another at 20:00, another at 40:00, etc), so it gives the impression that it is downloading it far faster than it can be streamed.

I then use the shell script to firstly convert the .rm file to a .wav file (takes about 10 minutes), and then converts the .wav to .mp3 (another 20 mins or so)

If you PM me the scripts you're using to convert from rm to wav and onto mp3, I may be able to shorten the times it takes to encode.

[cjedj]

Thanks for the info Console, good to know.

Also thanks for the offer of looking at the scripts - I'll PM them this evening when I'm back at my home machine. Much appreciated.