How to Download RTMP Video Streams

How to Download RTMP Video Streams

RTMP is a video streaming protocol used to stream audio and video over the Internet, between a Flash player running inside the browser on the user’s PC and a web server from where the video content is streamed. RTMP is different from regular HTTP streaming used by YouTube and many other sites. Unlike HTTP, RTMP can do live streaming where people can watch videos while it is being recorded. Videos delivered over RTMP are also harder to steal or download than videos delivered over regular HTTP. Because of these advantages, RTMP is one of the most popular protocols used to deliver protected streaming for both live and on demand video. Websites that use RTMP to stream videos include Hulu and Justin.tv.

If you are unable to download RTMP streams using regular video sniffing programs such as Orbit Downloader and Stream Transport, then try this method devised by Nir Sofer (of Nirsoft.com)
Nir Sofer has written a small utility called RTMPDumpHelper that helps you to easily download RTMP video/audio streams by combing it with another open source utility and proxy server called RTMPDump toolkit. By running RTMPDumpHelper, you can simply open a Web page containing a RTMP video stream in your favorite Web browser, and while you are watching the video, it'll be automatically saved to your disk as a .flv or .mp4 file.

How to Use

• Download RTMPDumpHelper and extract all files into a new folder.
• Download the Windows build of RTMPDump toolkit, and extract the rtmpsuck.exe executable into the same folder you created for RTMPDumpHelper.
• Run the RTMPDumpHelper.exe executable. This will also execute rtmpsuck.exe executable, and you'll see it as black console window.

• Run your Web browser, if it's not already running. When RTMPDumpHelper detects your Web browser, you should see 'Attached To Web Browser' message in the main window of RTMPDumpHelper. If your Web browser is not detected by RTMPDumpHelper, you should press F8 and manually choose your Web browser.
• Open a Web page containing a RTMP stream. At the moment your Web browser start playing the video/audio stream, you should see "Captured RTMP connection" message inside the main window of RTMPDumpHelper and the proxy server of RTMPDump toolkit will start downloading the stream into your disk.

• The video/audio file will be downloaded into the same folder where rtmpsuck.exe is located.
  

Related: Save Images and Videos From Online Flash Galleries by Monitoring HTTP Requests