The following is a 'work in progress' so please post any comments or
corrections.
Summary of techniques for saving RealMedia to your own HD.
A file on a website with a .ram or .asx or .m3u extension is just a
pointer to the actual media file(s) location. (filename.ram for
streaming Real Media, filename.asx for streaming Windows Media and
filename.m3u for mp3)
The following techniques work successfully on a Win98 machine with the
K-Lite Mega codec pack v1.35 installed.
(
http://www.codecguide.com/about_mega.htm) This installs plugins to
enable me to play RealMedia files in Internet Explorer and Firefox and
also installs Media Player Classic v6.4.8.4 to play RealMedia files
from the HD. I use Firefox v1.0.4 as my browser.
Techniques:
1. Search your own internet cache.
2. Locate the .rm file from the downloaded .ram file.
3. Locate the .rm file from the browser plugin.
4. Un-associate filetypes
5. Real7ime Converter (R7C) v1.1
6. Net Transport v1.94c
7. Net Transport (when link is javascript)
8. Audio samples from amazon.co.uk in .ra format
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1. Search your own internet cache.
Delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files then run
the streaming media file from it's host site. Now open
C:\WINDOWS\Temporary Internet Files and with any luck you will find
the .rm file. This also works for other non-saveable stuff such as
Shockwave/Flash.
---------------------------
2. Locate the .rm file from the downloaded .ram file.
Download the .ram file. Rename the filename extension to .txt to allow
it to be read by a plain text editor such as Notepad.
example: filename.ram renamed to filename.txt
Open the file in Notepad. The location of the ACTUAL media file should
be in plain text.
(Note. The filename extension should be .rm)
Copy and paste the address into your browser. You should be offered
the option to Open or Save the file.
Example:
Download dds.ram from the following address:
http://www.waramps.ca/multi/ddds.ram
Rename to dds.txt and open in Notepad. You should see the following
line of text.
http://www.waramps.ca/multi/ddds.rm
Copy this line of text to your browser, and Save the file to your HD.
---------------------------
3. Locate the .rm file from the browser plugin.
Click on a link to run a RealMedia file. The RealMedia file will start
using the plugin. It will open in a new browser window. This gives the
option to run in a stand alone player.
Hover your mouse over 'Launch this in a standalone player' or
'Non-embedded Player' and the location of the .ram file is now shown
(You may need to maximise the window to see it)
For instance:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/nb/00377_4x3_nb.ram
Download the .ram file. Rename the filename extension to .txt to allow
it to be read by a plain text editor such as Notepad.
Open the file in Notepad. The location of the ACTUAL media file should
be in plain text.
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/nationonfilm/nb/00377_4x3_nb.rm
Unfortunately, with this particular example, the address starts rtsp
instead of http (Real Time Streaming Protocol) see Technique 7 for a
solution to this.
---------------------------
4. Open up Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer) and click View,
then Folder Options. Then click the "File types" tab and remove the
file association for RealMedia files. This causes windows to ask you
to either Open the file from its current location or Save it to disk
whenever it encounters a .rm file. When you're done downloading just
add the file type association for RealMedia .rm files to automatically
play in RealPlayer. Some systems do this automatically.
---------------------------
5. Real7ime Converter (R7C) v1.1 is a converter of any RealPlayer(tm)
streaming medias (video and sound) to AVI/WAV/MP3 format. It is a
realtime converter because it does not manage Real Time Streaming
Protocol(tm) (RTSP) directly so the needed time to convert a media
will be greater or equal to the time of the media.
Homesite:
http://r7cproj.euro.ru/indexe.htm
---------------------------
6. Net Transport v1.94c is a download manager that supports RTSP
(Real-Time Streaming Protocol). This function is available in the
freeware version.
Run Net Transport and it places a small 'DropZone' target in the top
left hand corner of the screen. Drag a link from a website onto the
target.
Homesite:
http://www.xi-soft.com/default.htm
---------------------------
7. Net Transport (when link is javascript).
Run 'Net Transport', Select the destination folder by clicking on
Tools > Options > Download, browse to the folder you want and click
OK.
Clicking on a link on the BBC's 'Nation on Film' pages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/railways/
example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nationonfilm/00377?size=4x3&bgc=C0C0C0&nbram=1&bbram=1
This runs a javascript file that starts the media streaming in a new
browser window.
Right-click on the option to 'Launch this in standalone player'
Select 'Copy Link Location'
example:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/nb/00377_4x3_nb.ram
To download the file. Click on the 'New' button in the toolbar. The
'Add New Download' dialog appears - with the address already copied
into the Source URL field - so, you just need to hit the OK button.
The .ram file is downloaded automatically followed by the .rm file.
example:
00378_4x3_nb.ram followed by 00378_4x3_nb.rm (906kb)
or
00378_4x3_bb.ram followed by 00378_4x3_bb.rm (2.7Mb)
Note. The letters nb in the filename denotes narrowband, bb in the
filename denotes broadband on the BBC site.
Download Net Transport from:
http://www.netxfer.com/default.htm
---------------------------
8. Audio samples from amazon.co.uk in .ra format.
Open a site in Firefox that contains links to .ra samples.
example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...1041/sr=8-10/ref=pd_ka_10/202-1418087-4491034
You will be invited to either 'Open with' or 'Save to Disk' a file
called hurl.exe.
Click on 'Open with' and choose firefox.exe
Firefox will open a new browser window and offer you the same two
choices 'Open with' or 'Save to Disk' for a file called something like
hurl.exe-2.ram
Choose Save to Disk. Rename the file extension from .ram to .txt and
read the contents.
You will see something like:
pnm://rm.content.loudeye.com/~a-600111/0674679_0101_00_0002.ra
Replace the 'pnm' with 'rtsp' and drop it into Net Transport.
