[MPlayer-users] Downloading rtsp/mms streams

[Nico Sabbi]

Galen wrote:

> I thought it would be so simple, just dump the contents of a stream 
> to  my hard drive, you know with mplayer -dumpstream  
> "stream://format-goes-here.com/file.suffix" and life was good. Alas  
> no...
>
> Here's the problem in full detail, but in short, I can't get mplayer  
> -dumpstream to work properly and I really need some suggestions where  
> to go next.
>
> I'm trying to download some video streams, specifically some from the  
> PBS Frontline website. I'm trying to get the content located here:
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/view/
>
> I'm running Mac OS X, version 10.3.6 with a generally "tidy" system -  
> frequently repaired permissions, all updates installed, etc. I am 
> using  the binaries found at mplayerosx.sf.net - specifically 
> lastbinary.sit.
>
> Both Windows Media and Real streams are available. The Real streams 
> are  higher quality despite being equal in bitrate to the Windows 
> Media, so  I would prefer them, but I could live with either format I 
> suppose.
>
> It was easy to get the URL for the RealMedia stream for the first  
> chapter on the site:
> rtsp://149.48.144.100:554/wgbh/pages/frontline/2303/real/ch1_hi.rm
>
> I confirmed this URL works by entering it into RealPlayer, where it  
> promptly and correctly played.
>
> Next I tried it in the command line. First time around, I got some  
> weird end of file errors and protocol problems before the download  
> would even start. I then installed the Real codecs according to the  
> directions listed here:
> http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php? 
> story=20041005010240934&query=real+stream
>
> That seemed to solve the problem. Well, almost. Now it seems the 
> entire  (or virtually the entire) download completes when I get a 
> strange  error. The resulting stream.dump file opens with RealPlayer 
> but shows  no video or audio. Sometimes, the stream can be opened with 
> MPlayer  (I'm using the OS X GUI version in this case) but only video 
> will play,  no audio. Here's the complete command-line transaction:
>
> Galens-PowerBook:~ galen$ mplayer -dumpstream  
> "rtsp://149.48.144.100:554/wgbh/pages/frontline/2303/real/ch1_hi.rm"
> MPlayer dev-CVS-030914-12:11-3.1 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team
>
> AltiVec found
> Reading config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf: No such file  
> or directory
> Reading config file /Users/galen/.mplayer/config
> Reading /Users/galen/.mplayer/codecs.conf: 60 audio & 150 video codecs
> font: can't open file: /Users/galen/.mplayer/font/font.desc
> font: can't open file: /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/font.desc
> Using usleep() timing
> Input config file /Users/galen/.mplayer/input.conf parsed: 52 binds
>
> Playing  
> rtsp://149.48.144.100:554/wgbh/pages/frontline/2303/real/ch1_hi.rm
> Resolving 149.48.144.100 for AF_INET6...
> Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: 149.48.144.100
> Connecting to server 149.48.144.100[149.48.144.100]:554 ...
> Cache size set to 640 KBytes
> Connected to server: 149.48.144.100
> rtsp: read error.
> rdt chunk not recognized: got 0x00
> rdt chunk not recognized: got 0x41
> Core dumped ;)
>
> Exiting... (End of file)
>
>
> Because Real wasn't working, I decided to try Windows Media. 
> Similarly,  I got and verified the URL:  
> mms://video.pbs.org/general/windows/media4/frontline/2303/windows/ 
> ch1_hi.wmv
>
> When I used this with mplayer, the result was even less hopeful than  
> the result with Real - the file never began downloading, immediately  
> erring out:
>
> Galens-PowerBook:~ galen$ mplayer -dumpstream  
> "mms://video.pbs.org/general/windows/media4/frontline/2303/windows/ 
> ch1_hi.wmv"
> MPlayer dev-CVS-030914-12:11-3.1 (C) 2000-2003 MPlayer Team
>
> AltiVec found
> Reading config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf: No such file  
> or directory
> Reading config file /Users/galen/.mplayer/config
> Reading /Users/galen/.mplayer/codecs.conf: 60 audio & 150 video codecs
> font: can't open file: /Users/galen/.mplayer/font/font.desc
> font: can't open file: /usr/local/share/mplayer/font/font.desc
> Using usleep() timing
> Input config file /Users/galen/.mplayer/input.conf parsed: 52 binds
>
> Playing  
> mms://video.pbs.org/general/windows/media4/frontline/2303/windows/ 
> ch1_hi.wmv
> Resolving video.pbs.org for AF_INET6...
> Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: video.pbs.org
> Resolving video.pbs.org for AF_INET...
> Connecting to server video.pbs.org[149.48.144.100]:80 ...
> Connect error : Connection refused
> Resolving video.pbs.org for AF_INET6...
> Couldn't resolve name for AF_INET6: video.pbs.org
> Resolving video.pbs.org for AF_INET...
> Connecting to server video.pbs.org[149.48.144.100]:1755 ...
> connected
>
> alert! eof
> read error:: Connection reset by peer
> pre-header read failed
>
>
> MPlayer interrupted by signal 11 in module: open_stream
> - MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
>   Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and
>   disassembly. For details, see DOCS/en/bugreports.html#crash
> - MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen.
>   It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your
>   gcc version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read
>   DOCS/en/bugreports.html and follow the instructions there. We can't  
> and
>   won't help unless you provide this information when reporting a  
> possible bug.
>
>
>
> Can anybody point me in the right direction here? I'm not all that  
> familiar with MPlayer and I just want to be able to reliably download  
> Real, and if possible, Windows Media, streams. I'm on OS X and I've  
> tried other tools and hunted extensively, aside from VLC (which has  
> weird errors along the lines of mplayer) and mmsclient/mimms (which 
> err  our) and asfrecorder based apps (which also err out) there is 
> nothing  except screen recording left for me to capture a stream with. 
> I know it  is possible, and I know MPlayer is a versatile application, 
> so I'm  asking for some suggestions...
>
> Thanks,
>     Galen


works perfectly here, did you try to compile a recent cvs checkout?