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Contents

Overview
Requirements
About Recording Real Streams
Setting up your Firewall
First Time Setup - Choosing an Adapter
How to Change the Folder for Recorded Files
Real Time Recording vs. URL Recording
How to Record in Real Time
How to Record Using URL Recording Mode
Playing Recordings
Renaming Recordings
Extracting from Recordings
Fixing Recordings
Recording Other Streaming Media Types (smil, mp3, mpeg, avi, wav)
Settings Reference

Overview

RM Recorder is an easy-to-use, powerful way to record Real™ video and audio streams. You can save your recordings as files on your PC, and view them anytime you like, even without an Internet connection.

Here are some of the benefits:

• Records both video and audio.
• One click recording.
• URL Mode lets you manually enter a specific URL, and record it at the highest quality, even on slow connections.
• Multiple streams can be recorded at once.

Important: RM Recorder is intended for use as a personal archiving tool only. Please respect the rights of the copyright holders of any material you record.

Requirements

RM Recorder requires Real Player 10.0 or later.

• Supported Windows versions: 98, ME, XP, and 2000
• Supported Transport Protocols: RTSP, HTTP, ICY
• Supported File Types: rm, ra, ram, smil, mp3, mpeg, avi, wav
  

About Recording Real Streams

RM Recorder works by capturing streaming video or audio sent to Replay Player. RM Recorder does not violate any of the provisions of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and is 100% legal to use for personal use recordings. Redistributing recordings made via RM Recorder is a violation of copyright law, and is not the intent of this software, nor do we condone it.

RM Recorder can record almost anything you see in Real Player. RM Recorder can NOT record:

• Content protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Currently, RM Recorder cannot convert to other file formats.

Setting up Your Firewall

When you use RM Recorder, it needs access to the Web to do various tasks. Often times, your firewall may not allow RM Recorder access. Here's how to configure two of the most popular firewall solutions, Windows Firewall and Zone Alarm.

Windows Firewall:

1. Open Windows Firewall. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, then Network Connections. Next, choose Change Windows Firewall Settings. Windows Firewall appears.
2. Click the Exceptions tab. The screen below appears:
   
   
   
   
3. Click Add Program, and then select RM Recorder from the list. Your will see this screen:
   
   
   
   
4. Click OK. RM Recorder will now be able to access the Web.

For Zone Alarm:

1. Open Zone Alarm, and click the program Control Tab.
2. Locate "RM Stream Recorder". If RM Recorder is blocked, you'll see red Xs next to it as shown here:
   
   
   
   
3. Click each X, and select Allow. When you're done, your screen should look like this:
   
   
   
   
   

First Time Setup - Choosing an Adapter

When you install RM Recorder the first time, you will be asked to select a folder where your recordings are to be stored, and to choose your Network Adapter. RM Recorder will try to detect the adapter in use.

The Network Adapter should be the one you use primarily for accessing the Internet, as RM Recorder monitors this to make recordings.

With RM Recorder version 10 and later, you can also record in Proxy mode. This is used when RM Recorder is unable to record directly using your adapter.

You can always change the adapter as follows:

1. Click the Adapter button. The Recording Mode screen appears:
   
   
   
   
   
2. Pick the adapter used to connect to the Internet, and click OK.
3. OR, check Proxy Mode, to record in Proxy Mode.

If you're unsure which Adapter is in use, click Check all network adapters, and RM Recorder will try to determine the active adapter.

You can also choose URL mode if you're always recording from a known URL. If you use this option, you won't be able to make use of the one-click recording feature of RM Recorder.

How to Change the Folder for Recorded Files

By default, recorded files are saved in the folder C:\ WMR Recordings. You can change this folder as follows:

1. Click Settings, Recordings Folder. The Browse for Folder dialog appears:
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to the folder where you want your recordings saved.
3. Click OK.
   

Real Time Recording vs. URL Recording

RM Recorder records in two modes: Real Time and URL.

Real Time Recording is available only if WinPcap has been successfully installed and the network adapter was properly detected. WinPCap is a standard part of the installation process.

RM Recorder monitors the data traffic of your browser searching for recordable files. When any of the supported file types is detected the URL (Internet address) and the file name are displayed. Click the RECORD button to start recording the file shown in the FILE / URL window. Click RECORD again to initiate another recording when a new recordable file is detected and shown in the FILE / URL window.

URL Recording: Addresses of recordable files (URL’s) are saved in the file urls.txt located in RM Recorder directory. You can automatically add URL’s to this file when option Save all visited URL’s is enabled or by using the Copy and Paste (see below).

To initiate URL Recording click URL’s on the main window. This opens the Saved URL’s window. Double click a URL to start recording.

How to Record in Real Time

Recording in real Time is the easiest way to make a recording. Here's how to do it:

1. Open RM Recorder.
2. Start playing the clip you want to record using Real Player.
3. When a recordable file is detected, the File and URL fields are filled with the information about that file, as you see here:
   
   
   
   
4. You can change the file name before recording if you like (recommended). To do this type the new name in the File window. Do not use file extensions.
5. To record, click the Record button.

The clip to record is replayed in Real Player. Once the recording starts you can stop the Real Player and initiate another recording. Usually, the recording will occur much faster than it plays.

The clip will be saved in the recordings folder. (Click Settings, Recordings Folder to see where this folder is located.)

To abort a recording:

• Click Stop before the recording is done.

While recording a clip you can use the option Preview Recording to view the recording in progress. Note that the seek bar is not available when previewing recordings.

How to Record Using URL Recording Mode

If you know the URL you want to record from, you can record as follows:

1. Open RM Recorder, and enter the URL into the URL field.
2. Enter a file name into the File field. The .rm extension is unnecessary. In this example below, the rtsp... stream is being recorded, and the file is saved as oqo.rm.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Record to begin recording.

To find the URL of a stream:

When RM Recorder is loaded, as you play clips in Real Player, RM Recorder keeps a log of the URL for each clip. You can then go back later and record from this log, as follows:

1. Click the URL's button. The URL log window appears:
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click the URL to record.
3. Click the RECORD button in this window.

You can also record URLs if you know the URL - on the main screen, enter the URL into the URL field, enter a filename, and click Record.

Adding to the Log: You can add any filename and URL pair to the log as follows:

1. Enter the filename and URL into the File and URL fields at the bottom of the RM Recorder screen:
   
   
   
   
2. Click Save URL.

Saving Visited URLs

By default, RM Recorder saves all recordable URLs that Real Player has played while RM Recorder is active. You can turn this off by unchecking Save Visited URL's in Settings.

Copy and Paste URLs

To Paste a URL already copied to the clipboard, click URL’s on the main screen to open the Saved URLs window. Right click anywhere on the window and select Paste from the pop-up menu.

Playing Recordings

Once you've made a recording, you can play it within RM Recorder as follows:

1. Click Play. The Recorded Files list appears:
   
   
   
   
2. Double-click the file to play.
3. The chosen file plays inside Real Player.

Making a Playlist

On the Play window, right click anywhere and select the option Play All Listed Files. Real Player creates a playlist that includes all listed files whether Real, Windows Media Player or other media types.

Renaming Recordings

Recordings are automatically named, but it's easy to change the file name either before or after recording.

To change the recorded file name before recording:

• Enter the name of the file into the File field before recording. In the screen below, the recorded file will be named oqo.rm:
  
  

To change the recorded file name after recording:

1. Click the Play button.
2. Locate the recording to rename.
3. Right click the recording, and select Rename File.
4. Enter the new name of the file.

Note: The file extension will be automatically chosen by RM Recorder.

Extracting from Recordings

To extract a piece of a recording into a separate file, you can use the Split function as follows:

1. Click the Play button to see a list of your recordings.
2. Right-Click the recording to split.
3. Choose Split from the menu. The Split dialog appears:
   
   
   
   
4. Enter the start and end time for where to perform the split.
5. Enter the new filename for the extracted file.
6. Click OK and the split will start.

Note: When splitting timed recorded files (files with a start time different than zero) you need to specify split times greater than the start time. RM Recorder will signal this situation.

Fixing Recordings

Sometimes a recording needs to be "reprocessed" to fix problems with the initial recording. File errors that can be fixed are offset, timing, codecs and indexing errors. This option should be used if the Real Player playback shows a continuous "Loading..." , when sound is missing or when it takes a long time to seek through a long file.

To fix a recording:

1. Click the Play window.
2. Right-Click the recording to fix.
3. Choose Reprocess File.

Recording Other Streaming Media Types (ram, smil, mp3, mpeg, avi, wav)

Some other types of media files can be recorded by RM Recorder as well. To record these types in real time, you need to keep RM Recorder active while playing these streams. RM Recorder will monitor what URLs are recordable, and place the URL and File name into the File and URL windows. When a URL and File Name appear in the URL and FILE windows, just click Record.

You can also record from known URLs -- just enter the filename and URL into RM Recorder, and click Record. (See How to Record Using URL Recording Mode.)

Recording Shoutcast Streams

First, you need to assign the Shoutcast media type to Real Player. To do this open Real Player and click Tools, Preferences, Media Types. Next, check Other Media. Then with RM Recorder active, open your browser to www.Shoutcast.com and select the show you like. When the show starts playing click Record.

Settings Reference

RM Recorder has a few ways to fine-tune the recording operations, all accessible by clicking the Settings button. Here's how the settings screen appears:



The various options are:

Change Ports / IP's

If your PC uses a different port for RTSP or HTTP protocols, you can change them here.

Recordings Folder

Use this option to choose the folder where your recordings are saved.

Disk Space

This option shows you how much free space is available on each drive.

LAN Proxy Settings

If you use a Proxy server to access the Internet, enter your Proxy settings here.

Recording Speed

Use these settings to set the desired recording speed. Turbo Mode allows recording at the highest bandwidth that your Internet connection can provide. How high the recording speed will go depends on the remote server available bandwidth. In most cases 3 to 5 Mbps can be achieved on cable connections. Turbo Mode works for On Demand (pre-recorded) streams and should only be utilized with cable connections or DSL connections higher than 256 Kbps.

Update RP Settings

This option should be used if you changed the Real Player settings after RM Recorder was installed. In particular the settings of interest are Connection Speed, Proxy and Network Transports found in Real Player's Tools, Preferences menu.

Mirror Recording

This mode allows recording while Real Player plays. In this mode Real Player needs to be active for the entire duration of recording. The Mirror mode should be used for overloaded web sites with reduced bandwidth capability, especially live broadcasts.

Save All Visited URLs

Check this option to have the URLs window maintain a list of everything that has played while RM Recorder is active. This is helpful so you can go back and record something you've watched previously.

Always on Top

Check this option to have the RM Recorder window always visible on top of other windows.