Thomas' Work Space

A common request in second language teaching institutions is persisting internet-based streaming video for instructional (re-)use (during exercises and assessments, which then makes greater time investments into pedagogical additions viable).

Even though we found a different (built-in) solution for the European parliament video clips, I am still experimenting with downloading interpreting and subtitling exam or exercise video clips from other, not as instruction-friendly internet sites.

Many instructors use youtube.com which does not provide such a download option out of the box.

We would have to carefully consider copyright and licensing issues for subtitling movies, however, news items like in the example seem less problematic. UK educational institutions have the right to record and archive, for teaching use on premises, public over-the-air broadcasts – including of movie materials. However, to set up such a Freeview/Satellite-TV recording and archiving solution this would require a considerably higher initial investment.

Here are the most commonly recommended software solutions for downloading:

1. Replay Media Catcher can record flash video, .FLV streams and audio, as well as .MP3 streams through the RTMP and HTTP protocol, also " QuickTime (HTTP).
2. WM-recorder can record windows media streams.
3. Nettransport has some batch functionality (download all on page instead of finding hidden urls)

I am still having best results with WM-recorder, which I first saw in action at the SEALLT in Dallas 2006. I am still using the demo version of 1.1 which comes with restrictions (5-minute recording limit? The recorder asks regularly for being restarted, but I seem to manage to record longer clips within one session, see example?).

Start wm-recorder, open a youtube.com video in Internet Explorer, wm-recorder automatically starts recording to a FLV file (flash video – you may need a media player, VideoLan should help). Default output directory is in a subfolder "Recordings" under the program installation folder. You may want to alter the defaults under the "settings" menu.

Entering a youtube-URL and filename manually and pressing "record" button in the wm-recorder interface strangely enough fails.

Group members can access an uploaded output sample in the hale-interpreting.groups.live.com: http://cid-0009a5a00a54c045.groups.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=self&resId=9A5A00A54C045!150  (Interested parties who still have no access can log-in with the windows live account and ask for an invitation). 

You can compare the (apparently equivalent) source quality here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEGd75awApM.