How do FLV downloaders work?

[CrazYmonkeY159]

So I was wondering. You get these plugins for Chrome and FF that let you download streaming content over the web. I was wondering how do they work? I want to make a similar application that doesn't require a browser, in Python or Java (or whatever is easiest)

any advice appreciated

 

[agentrfr]

They just sniff the http stream or read the source code for the web page you are on, and get a link for the video as a download. Nothing special. It should be quite easy to make yourself.

The real challenge is trying to capture a live stream, because of all the encryption and compression it is usually quite difficult to record it yourself. That and there is no "download" link for a live broadcast

Both java and python read http easily, you should be able to just do a line scan for a string containing an .flv or .mp4 link.

 

[Totempole]

VSO downloader is a dedicated app for downloading streaming content.

I don't know exactly how they work, but my best guess is that they monitor connections
over RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and the most commonly used ports i.e 554.