Streamrecorder.net has basically been designed as a graphical user interface to record media streams with either VLC or MPlayer. The developer has added enough room to add a third program in case the user prefers another multimedia program to do the recording.

Configuration is unfortunately complicated as the program requires not only the paths to VLC and MPlayer but also paths to four other Open Source programs to be entered before the settings are saved. It can be that we have overlooked a function to make the process less complicated but we were not able to find one during our tests (deleting their references might helped, we have not tried that).

Streamrecorder.net is ready for usage afterwards. Everything else is configured in the main program interface. It is there that the stream url is entered, that the duration of the recording is defined (unlimited or time based), the output format and directory is specified and the recorder, joining and post processing is selected.

The recorder can either be MPlayer, VLC or a third recorder specified by the user. Videos and mp3 can be joined and the post processing options will ad ID3 tags and mp3 header correction to the mix. Both the joining and post processing options can be extended as well by another program specified by the user. The command line arguments have to be specified by the user as well.

The reporting is excellent as it displays many information about the recording and processing of the stream. The software could use some reworking on the configuration side to make it easier to configure. There should be an option to disable joining and post processing so that these programs do not have to be added to the options screen.

Other programs like Streamripper are easier to configure and allow to record multiple radio stations at once.

Streamrecorder.net requires the Microsoft .net Framework and can be downloaded from the Sourceforge project website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Might be just what you need to watch the current US elections live but it is of course working all the time not only during the elections.

To start open Windows Media Player. Press the keyboard combination [CTRL U] to open a small window where an url of a media stream can be entered. Paste the following url in the form exactly as it is shown below:

rtsp://cnn-cnnlive-1-primary.wm.llnwd.net/cnn_cnnlive_1_primary/

Hit ok to load the stream. It usually takes a few seconds before the stream becomes active due to the buffering process. After that everything should run smooth and fine.

The screenshot above was taken from the live CNN stream. It works pretty well. Any tips to get this running on different operating systems or media players? Let us know!