VCR's for Streaming

StreamDown
Streamdown is a shareware download from CoCSoft. It's free for 15 days, then requests a $39 registration if you plan to keep using it. I downloaded the trial version (V3.2) and kicked its tires for a few days.

The settings are simple - give it a URL source – http, ftp. rtsp, mms, and it retrieves the media files referenced in the URL. You can set up a list of URLs to download, and StreamDown will process the list, downloading three at a time by default. Streamdown can read and follow links to Real's .ram and WindowsMedia's .asx files, as well as direct URLs to those media on streaming servers.

What's more, StreamDown can also follow the references inside complex metafiles. Given a URL to an ASX playlist file, StreamDown successfully downloaded the playlist and all the media files, but not the banner graphic that went with the presentation. In the case of a complex SMIL presentation, all of the audio and video files referenced in the presentation were downloaded and again, images were ignored, so parts of the presentation wouldn't play. Furthermore, the SMIL file itself was broken, requiring editing to fix some syntax oddities in the downloaded file.

Still, for simply getting audio and video files downloaded from any available source, StreamDown does the trick.