Join iPlayer and other video streaming

Perhaps one of the most annoying problems faced by people using an on-line video broadcasting is the ability to overcome the limitations of time. And, of course, there are many people who simply want to keep a copy for future vision, because they simply enjoyed what they saw.

The reason that most broadcasters do this is down to copyright and the real difficulties of the commercial areas of content distribution (so check you're not doing anything illegal). But what about the humble, average user? How you can record iPlayer, Channel 4 or Hulu videos on your computer so you can see when you want, just like your home VCR or DVD recorder?

Well, the answer is to buy some decent software that allows you to 'record' or 'capture' streaming video to hard disk.

Note that the recording and acquisition are not the same thing. With the 'Register', what happens is that the software actually connects to the system for broadcasters and then attempts to retrieve the recording from a specific location and continue to download to a folder on your hard drive. For example, you might actually be watching a program iPlayer, while the software is downloaded in the background. This registration is achieved by using something called RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol), which is a specific method of communication to handle streaming content on the Internet (RTMP was developed by Adobe Systems - a leading player in business software, multimedia) . However, this process of 'registration' is not always successful because broadcasters have incorporated some rather ingenious methods for pick-up that someone is trying to download their content!

So the only other way around this is to capture literally what you see on the screen. And this is guaranteed to work. Whatever you do with your software to 'capture' is to define a screen area you want to record, press the "Record" and that's all there is to it. Of course, there is a downside: you can not use the computer in the meantime! Yes, it's a pain, but at least you get what you want. Often the best thing to do is leave your computer to capture the program just before going to bed / room or whatever. Mind you, be sure to switch-off the computer screen-saver in advance otherwise the registration will contain the sound of the recorded program and a delightful movie of your screen-saver! ......