Safe, Quick and Easy Streaming Media Capture

Bruce Von Stiers

Have you wanted to capture videos from Youtube? Or perhaps grab a song from the Internet but didn’t want to use one of those downloading programs often riddled with viruses? Now there is a safe and easy way to do just that. There is a software company called Applian Technologies that has developed a safe and secure program for capturing and downloading digital material from the Internet.

This program is called Replay Media Catcher 4. It can capture and download streaming music and video files. It does this by way of a proprietary format.

The program is very easy to use. Once you open up the program it asks if you want to start recording. It will then try to identify the streaming file and then download it. A good part of the time the program will download the file before it even finishes streaming.

The downloaded files are saved in the flv format. But you can convert them into multiple formats. A video file can be converted to an MPEG1 or MPEG4 for example. You can convert a file to the Nokia phone format or to a Palm Pre. Convert to multiple Playstation formats or Xbox to play videos on your gaming system. There is a large list of file formats that your streamed download can be converted to.

The program also allows you to search the Internet for source material. You can do a video search, a music search or a radio search. Click on of the search options and entry box will appear in the right window of the user interface. Simply type in your search criteria and the program will look for it. Inputting “Santana” into the Radio Search box yields a huge list of internet radio sites dedicated to the rock band Santana. Using the same criteria in the music search box and sites like Yahoo Music appear in the window. By clicking on the icon, the Yahoo web page with the song Oye Como Va comes up. The program will automatically begin downloading the streaming media once it is identified.

You have a music video that you love but have to watch it on a specific web site? No worries. Almost all streaming music videos can be downloaded. I searched for Norah Jones and the program found multiple listings for her music videos. I downloaded the video for Come Away With Me. I also downloaded a the vintage rock video of Barracuda by Heart. For a more contemporary look, I downloaded a couple of Taylor Swift videos. Then it was Shakira’s Gypsy.

You can capture a good many videos from Youtube as well. I did several of these, from show clips to indie music artists and a few silly ones.

And there are some of the television networks where you can capture their streaming video. I captured and downloaded an episode of CBS’s Good Wife and one from ABC. NBC wasn’t as cooperative and the program wouldn’t sync with the streaming download from either Fox or the CW. I was able to grab the commercials but not the main program.

I also found out that I could capture music streaming from MySpace Music. At some of the sites the capture wouldn’t work, but for the most part it did.

The program also comes with a media player. Or you can use Windows Media Player or some other media player on your computer. Or if you’ve converted it to a portable format, watch or listen to the song or watch the video on it.

As for the cost of the program, it is fairly minimal. It costs only $ 39.95. You can download a free trial of the program to see if it fits your needs.

And not only is the cost minimal, the program allows you to schedule your captures and downloads. And Applian Technologies has developed a music fingerprinting technology that is included in the program. This allows you to automatically identify and tag recorded music files.

To find out more about this exciting steaming video and music program visit http://www.applian.com

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