wongaBlog like balloons, but with dancing
A friend’s son was on Radio 3 recently, and she asked if I knew how to download from the iPlayer. I didn’t, but it turned out to be easier than I thought:
- Download and install mplayer for Windows
- While this is happening, go to www.iplayerconverter.co.uk and look up the relevant show
- Click the show link to download a .ram file
- Open the .ram file in Notepad, and you’ll get a link beginning with rtsp:// – copy everything up to the .ra
- Once mplayer is installed, open a command window in the mplayer directory
- Enter:
mplayer -cache 2048 -bandwidth 9999999 “rtsp://blah.bbc.net.uk:554/something/something.ra” -vc null -vo null -ao pcm:fast:waveheader:file=monkeys.wav
Replacing monkeys.wav with whatever filename you like, and the rstp link with the previously copied link from the .ram file.
- This will – surprisingly quickly – download the show and convert it to a .wav.
- I’m on Vista, and the Program Files(x86) directory is protected from new files, so I found monkeys.wav in Users\me\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files(x86)\MPlayer for Windows\ – your mileage may vary.
- Convert the wav to an mp3 with Lame, and you’re done.
I can’t take credit for much – most of this was lifted directly from a Linux guide, and turned out to be directly applicable.
Obviously BBC radio is copyright the BBC, and I don’t endorse stealing content, but I don’t have any problem with archiving family appearances, or downloading a show to listen to later on your iPod.
It's also worth checking if the show's available as a podcast.
I say this because the other day I got a sketch on Newsjack and wondered if I could record it from iPlayer before I remembered I was already subscribed to the podcast. Not a good sign. (I mean, Newsjack? Really?)
Very useful instructions, thanks
I tried this but I don’t know how to “open a command window in the mplayer directory”
When installing mplayer, make a note of the installation directory. I can’t remember it exactly, but it’ll be something like c:\Program Files\mplayer or c:\Program Files\mplayerclassic.
Click the Start button, then if you’re on Vista / Win7 type ‘cmd’ into the search box and hit enter – on XP click ‘Run’ and do the same. You’ll get a black command window with a flashing prompt. Type:
cd\[the directory path minus the initial c:\]
so, for example:
cd\Program Files\mplayer
and hit enter. The prompt will change to reflect your new location, and you can continue with step 6 above.
Thanks for this, I recently got an Email read out on 6 Music and had to cut it out. The BBC servers are super-fast!
Where is the file saved once it is downloaded? I cant find it…..
It’s probably somewhere in your Users\[Username]\AppData directory. Mine was in AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files(x86)\MPlayer for Windows\.
Hi,
Do you know of a way to download now that the BBC have moved away from realaudio to wma?
BBC Radio Ripper works directly even with WMA streams. Having said that it now only works in real time – or longer since the WMA stream comes down in real time then there is a convert to mp3 overhead.
I haven’t investigated it since the update, sorry. If I do I’ll update the post.
I know another streaming downloader, it is Hidownload (http://www.hidownload.com)
Hidownload can work as good as this one in downloading BBC iplayer radio I think.
But it’s method of application is a little different from you recommended.