Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

2006-04-30 14:13:57

I won't beat about the bush or make excuses, I'll just come straight to the point:

I wanted to convert some live radio performances to watch on my mp3 player. They are in *.ram format, so I learnt how to save the .ram link, then open it and get the rtsp:\\ link which I downloaded with Net Transport. Having dumped the lot onto my C drive I could convert it with SUPER. Lately, KCRW have been embedding their videos in a *.smil link - but this is also crackable once you open the link with an editor...

So here's the thing - or things: The two performances I had would only convert up to exactly half way; then the encoder wigged out and that was that. I thought I could work round it by splitting the *.rm file in half - trim off what I though was a dodgy area of the file, and convert them separately. So, for example, I split a 64MB file into two 32s. Now, the second 32MB won't play at all, but the first 32MB will play the whole performance. So, I split it again, and the same thing happens! I've got the darn file down to 508KB and it still plays the whole 40 minute performance. How is that possible?

1. Please explain to me this anomaly.

2. Dare I ask...is there a work around for the encoder only converting half the performance (no matter how many times I split the file.)

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #1 – 2006-04-30 14:35:07

1. what tools are you using?
2. whats the audio codec used in that ram files? (i suspect this halving may have something to do with he-aac in ram, maybe.)
3. do you think it is some sort of surestream? (multiple streams in one file)
4. did you try mplayer for decoding to wav?

you could try something like:
MPlayer -vo null -ao pcm:file=output.wav "rtsp://link/to/your/file.rm"

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #2 – 2006-04-30 14:53:11

1. Net Transport downloader to dump the whole rtsp:\\*.rm onto my C drive. So I don't need to grab and convert while it's streaming. The whole things is now on my hard drive. And I am using SUPER encoder to convert from *.rm to *.avi. It seems to be the only encoder up for the job; everybody seems to run a mile from converting Real Media.

2. I think the answer to this is: It doesn't matter, I have got round the *.ram problem by finding the *.rm. If this isn't the answer, then the answer is: I don't know, and how do I find audio codec? SUPER hasn't had any problem converting the audio to mp3, though, if that's any help.

3. Hmmm, "multiple streams in one file"...? I'm not sure I am savvy enough to answer this...I could look again at the *.smil and see if there is more than one rtsp. On the other hand, one download with Net Transport has given me the whole performance.

4. I think mplayer comes bundled with SUPER, but I haven't tried converting the audio to .wav. I could give it a go, but something seems odd about it giving up at exactly the half-way point.

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #3 – 2006-04-30 15:02:58

yes, get the latest mplayer compile and try 4.

here are some:
http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #4 – 2006-04-30 18:01:00

No luck! It is the way: The conversion hits 50% and then I get an error message "mencoder has encountered a problem" and it stops the process exactly half done.

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #5 – 2006-04-30 23:11:30

dunno, could be some sort of file not supported by mplayer, in that case you are pretty much out of luck, maybe there is a way to setup some sort of conversion using 'real alternative' + 'avisynth' (maybe.).

edit:
if it is surestrem, then you will have to extract the proper thingy with this for example:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86264

and then

check this:
http://www.jakeludington.com/dv_hacks/2005...nvert_rmvb.html

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #6 – 2006-04-30 23:58:38

This sort of problem can be very difficult to diagnose remotely.  Are you interested in the video or only the audio?  I didn't see that anyone else asked: can you play back the downloaded file with real player?

If you're doing any surgery on the file with something other than RealNetworks RM Editor, you will cause yourself pain.

Real Video: Please Explain the Bizarre World of This Anomaly

Reply #7 – 2006-05-01 16:13:44

Problem solved.

I did the whole thing with SUPER. I re-downloaded the *.rm with SUPER instead of Net Transport and then immediately fed the dumped file back into SUPER for conversion to *.avi; it converted the whole thing without stalling. It didn't like doing a second one straight off the bat without first needing to be exited and reopened, but I can allow it some foibles.

Pretty darn impressive piece of software, if you ask me.

I still have no clue how a *.rm file continues to play when it is a fraction of the size of the original download, but, when all is said and done...who cares?

Thank you to all of you who offered solutions to this glitch.