How To Download BBC iPlayer Video

BBC iPlayer is a good place to watch some very good videos that playing everyday in different BBC channels. How can we download them into our computer hard drive for watch late? First, you should have right to watch BBC iPlayer video, that means you must have physical British IP address, because BBC only offer video for British residents, they paid TV tax. I am not live in UK so I am using another way to watch BBC iPlayer video, but this is another story.

Actually, BBC offers download video for iPlayer users, it called BBC iPlay Download Manager, it helps you download videos from BBC iPlayer. It has two types you can choose, one is regular flash format .flv, another one is high quality .MP4 video format. But it has a big problem that is BBC encrypt its video, it limits playing time, and only use in a new version of Windows Media Player. I had try download BBC iPlayer video but it could not play in VLC Player, GOM Player, and other players. Only thing you can do is use Tunebite or Digital Media Converter to decrypt and convert it to other video format, but you have to spend time to it.

Only thing we can do is use a software to capture BBC iPlayer stream file while you watch it online, as some software capture Youtube videos do. Most video capture software are not support capture videos from BBC iPlayer, Hulu and this kind of videos, because they are not use regular HTTP protocol, they use flash RTMP streams. Most downloaders are not support this kind of protocol. Unfortunately I could not find any free software can capture BBC iPlayer video, but I know one commercial software can do this job, this is Replay Media Catcher.

Replay Media Catcher can capture videos from BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and other website videos. Replay Media Catcher is not a freeware, it costs about $29 US dollars, but if you have enough internet experience you may find another way to get use it for free.

Well, let us back to main subject. After you install Replay Media Catcher you can double click its icon, after it running it will ask you "Would you like to start recording now", click "Yas" button keep to detect stream file.



Go to BBC iPlayer, choose a video you want download, click "Play" button to play video on screen, Replay Media Catcher can detect stream file and record it. You can stop play video after it captures stream file, it will still keep recording, but do not close BBC iPlayer video window.


That is all we can do, I use Replay Media Catcher to capture BBC iPlayer videos without any problem. But one thing you have to pay attention that is do not choose "play high quality" when you want capture and record video, if you do that the recorded video can not play with other players, but regular quality is fine.


BBC iPlayer是观看视频的好地方，它每天播放BBC不同频道的电视节目。但是我们如何能下载这些视频到电脑硬盘上？首先，你需要有一个英国地理位置的IP地址，因为BBC只对英国观众开放视频节目，他们支付电视税。我不住在英国，所以我使用另一种方法来观看BBC iPlayer上的视频节目，不过这是题外话。

其实，BBC提供观众下载视频的软件，它叫BBC iPlay Download Manager，可以帮助你下载BBC iPlayer上的视频节目。它有两种格式可供选择：一是普通的.flv格式，另一种是高清晰的.MP4格式。但是它有一个问题，BBC对它的视频节目进行加密，下载的视频只能在新版的Windows Media Player播放，并不能在其他的播放器上播放，如VLC播放器、GOM播放器等。而且它还对播放时间有限制。唯一可做的是使用Tunebite或者Digital Media Converter来解密和转换成其他格式的视频，不过这需要花点时间。

唯一我们可以做的是使用一个软件来抓去BBC iPlayer所播放的流媒体，这与其他一些软件抓取Youtube视频流媒体的原理是一样。不过大多数流媒体软件并不支持BBC iPlayer和Hulu这样的视频网站，因为他们并不使用常规的HTTP协议，而是使用flash RTMP流媒体协议。不幸的是我并没有发现任何免费软件可以抓取BBC iPlayer上的视频，但是我知道有一个商业软件可以达到目的，这就是Replay Media Catcher。

Replay Media Catcher可以抓取BBC iPlayer、Hulu上的视频，以及其他网站上的视频，Replay Media Catcher并不是一个免费软件，它价值29美元。如果你对网络非常有经验的话可能不难找到一种方法免费使用它。

好了，让我们回到正题上。在你安装Replay Media Catcher后可以双击系统托盘上的软件图标，打开软件后它会问你："Would you like to start recording now"，你可以点击"Yas" 按钮，让它侦测和抓取流媒体。接下来可以打开BBC iPlayer网页，选择你喜欢的视频后点击屏幕上的播放按钮。Replay Media Catcher会立刻侦测和下载流媒体。当它开始下载文件后你可以停止屏幕上的视频播放，这并不是会影响它下载视频文件，但是不要关闭BBC iPlayer窗口。

这就是我们要做的事。我用Replay Media Catcher来抓取BBC iPlayer上的视频并没有什么问题，但是你要注意的是不要选择"play high quality"播放视频，因为在该状态下所下载的视频并不能在别的播放器上播放，但是普通画质格式并没有任何问题。