RadioRecorder works on Macs to record streaming / real audio and can be programmed to record / capture at a certain time. is there anything similar (and free) available for PCs? TIA

a

Net Transport will capture a stream without transcoding.

http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/pa...Net%20Transport

Net Transport does indeed work very well (I've been using it to capture RealAudio streams for several months now), but be aware that its scheduling feature is rather buggy. Specifically, it will start at the correct time, but I have yet to have it stop at anywhere near the scheduled time - scheduled to capture for 4 hours, it routinely stops 1-2 hours early.

The way around this is to use Windows' Scheduled Tasks. You'll need to make two: one to start the program one minute ahead of your desired start time, and then a second one to send the URL of the stream to Net Transport at the desired start time (just add the URL to the end of the command line that launches Net Transport in the tasks's properties dialog box). The first task is also the one that will stop the capture, so you'll need to specify that in the Settings tab ("Stop this task if it runs for xx hours xx minutes").

In Net Transport's System Settings options tab, you'll need to disable all the confirmations, and then make sure that "Start downloading on program startup" is enabled.

Be aware that if you want to capture from the same URL multiple times (for instance, a daily radio program), you'll need to manually delete the completed capture from the task list in Net Transport before the next one starts or else Net Transport will just sit there with a dialog box asking if you want to recapture the stream. There may be a way around this, but I haven't found it...

Interesting. I have had no problems scheduling stream captures, but then I've never asked it to run for four hours.

There is, under options, a setting to delete a job from the list after completion. That should solve the recapture stream problem. It should not over-write a file. If one starts another capture it will suffix '(1)' to the filename if necessary.

I have also used Net Transport for WMA and MP3 streams. It's a great program, but I remember getting off to a slow start string to figure it all out.

Depends on the stream - if it's a file on a RealAudio server, then yes, it works fine, but if it's a live stream, Net Transport never considers it to be completed, and therefore won't delete it from the list.


Correct, even with live streams.


Agreed, the learning curve is a little steep, but once everything is set up, it works very well, and in my experience does a better job of staying connected to a live stream than StreamBoxVCR...actually, it *always* stays connected to a live stream (although there may still be dropouts depending on network conditions), whereas StreamBox would frequently drop and reconnect (and sometimes not reconnect, just sit there displaying 0.0 bps) on the exact same stream.

being the noob that i am, i'm not sure that i'm following this. i want to capture / record the stream from the .ram format (i'm almost exclusively talking about real player files) into mp3. would that be 'transcoding'? and if so is there anything that does that? thanks

a

one other question... there are a couple of places that play music via a little pop-up window that isn't real audio / wma. how can i capture those? is there anything that will record / capture what's passing through my sound card? thanks II

a

That is exactly what I do - capture RealAudio streams and transcode to MP3 for listening on my iPod - but it takes two steps: capture with Net Transport and then convert to LAME MP3 using either dBPowerAmp or Winamp. It sounds like you want a one-click solution - I think there are a couple shareware programs out there that can do that, but I remember trying one of them some time ago (can't remember the name) and the quality of the MP3 encoding was terrible. They made a big deal about how fast it was, and all you got was a single drop-down menu where you selected the bitrate. I have no idea what the actual MP3 encoder was, but I'm quite sure it wasn't LAME, and it definitely sounded like it was tuned for speed, not quality.

All the usual warnings about transcoding from one lossy format to another apply - you won't be able to retain the exact same quality as the original file, it may introduce audible artifacts, etc., etc. - but if you use an appropriate preset in LAME (in my case, transcoding from 256k RealAudio AAC to LAME -V2 --vbr-new), it can sound very, very close to the original, if not identical the majority of the time.


My favorite app for doing that is Audiograbber, using its Line In Sampling feature (it can record straight to LAME MP3). Your soundcard needs to have an option in the recording control panel for recording from something like Wave or Stereo Mix or What U Hear, but most do.

sounds like Net Transport is what i need. i figured out how to get it to work with one site but can't seem to get the one i'm more interestered in to go. if the URL opens and plays on real audio player, is it safe to assume that it will also work with Net Transport? is there a website for setting this thing up correctly/or for one's intended purposes? as i mentioned, i'm a noob with this audio stuff and in need of all the help i can get. thanks!

a

I've not encountered a RealAudio stream the Net Transport couldn't handle. However, telling Net Transport where to find the stream can be a very convoluted process. This is one of the things I strugled with. If you tell us specifically what site/stream you're interested in, I or someone else here could walk you through it.

It will work.

You may need to get the actual rtsp URL from the .ram file. This is very simple - right-click on the .ram link, save it to disk, and open the .ram file in Notepad. It will contain the rtsp:// URL of the stream itself. Copy and paste that into Net Transport and it should work fine.

awesome! the link i'm most interested in is http://www.kcrw.com/pls/kcrwmusic.pls or at least that's the link i use when opening the stream with RealPlayer. when i followed mixminus' advice it looks like this:

[playlist]
numberofentries=5
File1=http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1045
Title1=(#1 - 89/10543) KCRW Music
Length1=-1
File2=http://64.236.34.4:80/stream/1045
Title2=(#2 - 71/7509) KCRW Music
Length2=-1
File3=http://64.236.34.67:80/stream/1045
Title3=(#3 - 69/5058) KCRW Music
Length3=-1
File4=http://64.236.34.97:80/stream/1045
Title4=(#4 - 1279/8129) KCRW Music
Length4=-1
File5=http://205.188.215.230:8016
Title5=(#5 - 9/20) KCRW Music
Length5=-1
Version=2

thanks a lot

a

I have had good results with TotalRecorder (http://www.highcriteria.com/). It is NOT freeware, but it's cheap and works very well capturing anything that passes through a soundcard. It automatically detects the ends of streams from Real and stops recording, and can save in several common formats (PCM, LAME, OGG, etc.).

I also use TR to record Skype calls for business.

An excellent choice. KCRW is one of the finest NPR stations in the country. Try highlighting and copying one of the URL's. e.g. http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1045
The go to Net Transport. Near the upper left of the screen you should find a button labeled "New" (button is a red right-pointing arrow.) Click the button and paste in the URL. In the rename field enter a file name for the captured stream. Something like KCRW.mp3 maybe. You should be able to figure out the rest. Try a test: Let it run for a couple of minutes, then try playing the MP3 file. The advantage of using the Net Transport like this is that there is no transcoding involved. Many of the so-called stream capture programs are just recorders that transcode an output file for you.

After you become adept at this, you might want to get and MP3 editing program that would allow you edit the MP3 directly, again without transcoding. The editor I use is no longer available so I can't recommend one, but I'm sure someone else can.

Good luck to you!

Just to clarify, this is not a RealAudio stream - it's a ShoutCast MP3 stream, which means you don't have to transcode to MP3 as it's already...MP3.

As a technical aside, it sounds like KCRW is unfortunately using the standard Nullsoft ShoutCast client with its horrendous MP3 encoder - easily among the worst 128 kb MP3 encoding I've ever heard. It's especially sad that so many ShoutCast stations are using that plugin when the excellent freeware Oddcast plugin is available, which is designed to use the LAME dll and as such, sounds much, much better than whatever encoder Nullsoft is using.

As far as an MP3 editor, the freeware mp3DirectCut is excellent - the interface is decidedly different than a standard WAV editor such as Cool Edit or Audacity, but it's not hard to learn (hint: use the keyboard, not the mouse), and is extremely fast. It also writes correct MP3 headers, which many MP3 editing programs do not do - not gapless, but simply the correct frame count so that any MP3 player/program can determine the correct length of the file.

hi all,

k, got it to successfully record several times but always when prompted manually, never with the scheduler. what are the specs i shouls be setting to?

also, is it possible to record the "poscast" link on this page? i can't seem to get it at all. this one would be awesome because it's already edited! thanks again

alfio

If you have an entry in the download queue, pause if it is running, then right ckick on it. Select 'properties', 'other settings', 'schedule', 'add.' You should be able to fill in the start and stop times.



Copy the link and paste it into the Net Transport. After you download the file, "mb", take a look at it with an editor (it is a text file). Look for URL's. I saw links to MP3 files and RAM files.

The Net Transport is a great program but like I said, it took me a really long time to learn to use it effectively. Good luck to you.

Can't give you much help on the scheduler as it has never worked correctly for me.

As far as podcasts, you can't grab those with Net Transport because they're designed to be downloaded, not streamed...well, there probably is a way to get them with Net Transport, but figuring it out would be a lot of needless (and pointless) work as you can just use iTunes to grab the podcast. It will save each podcast as a file somewhere in the iTunes music directory. While podcasts can technically be in any audio format, it's very likely that it will be MP3. Move/copy the MP3 file out of the iTunes folder to wherever you need it to be...and that's it.