Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio stream "DVR" software

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's what the description of Total Recorder Pro says:

--------------------------------------
Background record (i.e. capture) an Internet-broadcast in MP3, WMA and Ogg Vorbis formats. This 
feature allows you to do the following:
  - Record Internet broadcasts in their original format without decoding and       re-encoding.
  - Record without using an external player.
  - Extract track information from a stream.
You can also slow down or speed up the playback of an Internet broadcast.
--------------------------------------

This is great except one of the major internet broadcasters I want to record -- the BBC -- uses 
RealAudio (so do many local broadcasters, for their higher-quality streams). Now, I could definitely 
record their streams live using Total Recorder since it grabs whatever's coming out of the 
soundcard. But you'd need to "tune" to the proper BBC stream, then set Total Recorder and keep the 
stream playing, live, and TR will then record whatever time in the stream you tell it to.

There used to be a great little program called RARecorder. You'd give it a URL for a Real stream and 
it would grab the stream and save a WAV or MP3 on your hard drive. If it could accellerate the 
stream (ie if it was from a file on a server and the real server was set to allow forward-cache), it 
would grab the file faster than real time. Unfortunately, the programmer never took that program to 
the next level, allowing for timer recording in the background.

So, bottom line, the latest version of Total Recorder gets you partway there, but not being able to 
background-record Real streams is a big handicap.

-- Tom Fine


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio stream "DVR" software


> Tom Fine wrote:
> > I'm wondering if some clever programmer has written a program that "records" (captures) audio 
> > streams in the background (ie you tell it the website and set a timer and it grabs it and saves 
> > it to a file on your hard drive).  I believe the latest  version of Total Recorder has a timer, 
> > but it needs to get an audio feed from the soundcard to work. What I'd like is something that can 
> > grab Real or Windows Media streams "live" and then save them to the hard drive for later 
> > listening, without having to play the audio "live."
> >
> > Does anyone know of or use such a program? This would be for a Windows XP computer.
>
> TotalRecorder (at least in the professional version) has a timer, captures from a URL and can 
> capture in the streamed format. In that mode, if it uses the sound card at all, it is as a 
> passthrough. Of course, if you want to convert the feed - sample rate, bitrate or possibly 
> format - it does use the soundcard.
>
> Though I am a longtime user of the program, I've not taken advantage of all the features so cannot 
> be certain that it will serve your purpose.
>
> Mike
> --
> mrichter@xxxxxxx
> http://www.mrichter.com/