Image via WikipediaEDIT 2012-05-15: Updated guide so it uses the "new" git code repository! Thanks BecomingJulie!
Time for an updated guide - I told you previously that things change quickly! :)The new major release 2.x of rtmpdump brings new tools which make things much easier. How much? Well downloading shows of The Colbert Report, The Daily Show and episodes from South Park Studios is now almost a breeze!
What is this gamechanger you say? It's the new rtmpsrv program which comes with rtmpdump 2. It does the guessing game for us and gives a copy-pastable command. In short you have to position it between your browser and the internet and allow it to perform essentially a man-in-the-middle attack on the handshake of the proprietary protocol.
Compilation on GNU/Linux (for other system please read the README file):
sudo apt-get install build-essential git zlib1g-dev libssl-dev
git clone git://git.ffmpeg.org/rtmpdump cd rtmpdump make SHARED= SYS=posixThe program is now compiled for use on your system! Now the harder part - you need root access to configure the iptables firewall which should be a part of any modern Linux distro. This is the part which will reroute the RTMP communication of the flash plugin in your browser through a local port:
sudo iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 1935 -j REDIRECTExcellent, now start the program rtmpsrv which will listen on the local port:
./rtmpsrvBrowse to a media site and wait for rtmpsrv to write out a command in the console. If you see multiple chapters on the media site, try skipping to another one. I'll describe why in a minute.
OK! You should see at least one long string starting with rtmpdump. rtmpsrv did its job so close the browser tab and stop rtmpsrv with a Control+C signal. Ending rtmpsrv seems to be a problem. The cleaning up process seems to go nowhere at times but sending several Ctrl+C events usually produces a segfault. :/
Also delete the firewall redirect so that you can access the media server directly:
sudo iptables -t nat -D OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 1935 -j REDIRECTIf you're in luck taht is it and you only need to run the output of rtmpsrv, like this:
./rtmpdump -r "rtmpe://cp9950.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -a "ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -f "LNX 10,0,42,34" -W "http://media.mtvnservices.com/player/release/?v=4.2.2-8" -t "rtmpe://cp9950.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -p "http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/thu-january-14-2010-kathleen-sebelius" -C Z: -y "mp4:mtvnorigin/gsp.comedystor/com/colbert/season_06/episode_008/cr_06008_act1_768x432_1720.mp4" -o output.flvThe problem with Comedy Central shows are commercial breaks which cut the show into different separate chapters called acts (see the end of command above). This gives us a bit more work but it's so worth it avoiding the horrible full screen flash experience! Smooth full-screen playback has arrived, Randall! :)
This particular episode of The Colbert Report has 4 acts - all you need to do is change the actX in the command and the output filename must be different for each act too. Ending up with 4 differnet videos is kind of lame but manageable. If you know of a FLOSS stitching solution, please comment! (Avidemux doesn't wanna, PiTiVi wants to transcode, haven't tried LiVES yet).
SouthParStudios.com has a different gotcha - the first clip is the intro which is the same for all shows. Only the following acts are show specific. I managed to get a second command from rtmpsrv by seeking in the browser as mentioned above. Behold:
./rtmpsrv RTMP Server v2.1c (c) 2010 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu; license: GPL Streaming on rtmp://0.0.0.0:1935 WARNING: Trying different position for client digest! rtmpdump -r "rtmpe://cp40493.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -a "ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -f "LNX 10,0,42,34" -W "http://media.mtvnservices.com/player/release/?v=4.2.1" -t "rtmpe://cp40493.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -p "http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251890" -C Z: -y "mp4:mtvnorigin/gsp.comedystor/com/sp/extras/intros/PromoIntros/HDintroPromoXX_768x432_750.mp4" -o output.flv rtmpdump -r "rtmpe://cp40493.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -a "ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -f "LNX 10,0,42,34" -W "http://media.mtvnservices.com/player/release/?v=4.2.1" -t "rtmpe://cp40493.edgefcs.net:1935/ondemand?ovpfv=1.1" -p "http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251890" -y "mp4:mtvnorigin/gsp.comedystor/com/sp/season_13/1313/acts/sp_1313_act1_768x432_750.mp4" -o output.flv ^CCaught signal: 2, cleaning up, just a second...And we have lift-off! See the act1 above? Incrementing this value will give you all the acts.
I am the first to admit this should be a total overkill for a good viewing experience but the current situation isn't really bearable. While fast modern multi-core desktop processors are capable of much smoother playback my aging Pentium M and a masses of netbooks struggle with this task. And of course (legally) downloading the shows and watching them offline is now possible! I think modern smartphones and media devices should have no problem with playback of these local files but as always YMMV.
Creators of rtmpdump, on behalf of the Linux masses suffering from stuttering full-screen playback with flash, I salute you!
