Saving BBC streaming video clips?

de Terry Pinnell 01/31/2008 11:43

Anyone have a recommendation for a straightforward method to capture a
BBC video clip (typically streaming RealPlayer media) to my HD please?

I looked for a short example with which to experiment and found this
24 second clip:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/articles/d/devon_thebarton.shtml
I can view that OK by clicking WATCH THIS VIDEO. But how do I capture
it permanently? (Ideally in MPEG or WMV. But if in 'rm' format, I can
probably use something like SUPER to convert it).

Apart from half a dozen commercial programs, my research produced one
possibility called Real7ime Converter (R7C). But I can't get it
working. Probably because I use RealPlayer Alternative, as I found
RealPlayer too intrusive.

I also tried a method based on the assumption that, after playing in
full, the file must be in my Firefox cache folder. But immediately
after playing that short video example, I found not one but two new
files in there:
_CACHE_001_
_CACHE_002_

Neither have extensions (which I find an annoyance - one small
advantage that IE Temporary Internet Files had!) so I tried adding
one, to give
_CACHE_001_.rm
_CACHE_002_.rm
But although d-clicking opens Media Player Classic, I just get an
unhelpful error message "RealMedia error".

Any practical advice would be much appreciated please. There must be
some no-brainer way to do this!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK