Hi Guys
Does anyone know how i can get some footage off iplayer for my showreel.
When i ran production company they said just copy it off I player .
I didnt want to ask how so as not to sound stupid .
Please if anyone can help .
Cheers
steve swain
Nigel's spot on there is no software / site that could perform a crack on iPlayer / ITN footage. Best bet is to go to the production company for dvd or mov files.
Technically it is possible, very easily in fact, but it is a big copyright violation. I don't know how if affects things if you've been given permission.
The only thing that might work would be to get one of the progs that has a pop up window on your desktop which you then drag and shape to cover the area on your desktop which you want to record.
You should be able to find something like that on downloads.net I think it is...
But of course it would be illegal to record iPlayer stuff like that. And I doubt it would be of high enough quality to use in a showreel.
My tv service is cable from Virgin. BBC iplayer is on the catch up service so it should be straightforward to record from that. I don't know whether Freeview is similar.
All these capture from the web freebie progs do a similar job…….at the end of the day they try and take the embed information of the video and download a highly compressed version. However, the version they are copying is already highly compressed from the original footage file…..that's why it is on line…..so you can end up with a compressed version of an already compressed version I'd have said.
It is very tricky and frequently impossible to use web footage within a showreel…..which has been taken off the web (not and have it looking good in any case) ….especially if mixed in with all sorts of other video sources and aspect ratios…encoded and so on.
At the end of the day you need the original footage given to you.
Steve mentioned Iplayer on Virgin Box…..you could try connecting a camera up to the virgin box and outputting that footage direct feed from the box to the camera…….then that should be good enough to use I guess…..though if its from Iplayer it still might already be too compressed? I have done this many times from a sky box….and its worked very well.
As for Copyright……you are only putting it in a Showreel for yourself…..you are not selling it as such….a grey area I know and yes probably it could well infringe copyright. Steve will def know the answer to that as a legal expert. However, should you worry about it? Well put it this way….had you of recorded it from the TV at the time of transmission….would you worry about it then.
If so……then I'd say 99% of the show reels on here also infringe copyright…..along with 99% of the music used on the reels?!!! I personally would not worry about copyright for showreel material.
By the way: With an excellent camera ( not a cheap dicky dix job) …..correct room lighting….a good TV…..you can get also excellent results just filming direct from the TV……but you have to set it all up just right and you need a decent camera which wont give you lines.
OK, Long shot here as it requires you to have access to a few bits of hardware, which are thankfully quite common - perhaps even a friend could help out if they've got them to hand.
A PC or Mac with Windows Vista\7 Home Premium, an Xbox 360 (not PS3), a broadband router and two network cables and a DVD recorder.
Go to iPlayer, select the programme you're after. It'll appear in a page with the 'click to play' logo on. Ignore this video, its flash based and no good for your purposes. Below it you should see a bar with 'Recommend, Link to this, favourite and Download options' on.
Click 'Download options' and then click 'For Windows Media Player' from the menu that pops up. The video file will then download to your computer.
Once it's downloaded you've got 7 days (as with all iPlayer content) to view - so this is your time limit to work in.
Hook your PC and Xbox 360 to your broadband router and set up Windows Media Center on both (the longest bit of the job). Once that is done, select your downloaded video from 'Pictures and Video' then 'Video Library'. It should play nicely on your TV.
Once you know it works stop the video, plug the output from the 360 into the Scart IN on the DVD recorder. Switch to the DVD recorder on your TV, and to the Scart\AV in channel on the DVD Recorder - this is so you can see what you're doing. You should be able to see, via the DVD player, the same Media Center Interface from the 360.
Next up, load the DVD recorder with a blank disk and start playing the file on the 360, skip to the bits you want, press record on the DVD recorder and record them.
The end result will be a DVD-R with the same quality footage as if you'd recorded it from Freeview. Take this to your Showreel producer and they should be able to add it to your reel.
Right, job done. Just a couple of legal things I suppose:
* Don't remove the DRM on the downloaded file, the Beeb won't like that at all (this is why you're using Windows, to pass the DRM check correctly\legally)
* I'm sure no-one on CCP will be pirating anything but don't use this method to pirate stuff wholesale from iPlayer.
It's a bit long winded but the end result is the same quality as if you'd recorded it on broadcast from Freeview\sat.
Couple of quick corrections - there should be a few backslashes in there, so whenever you see an odd joining of a word - like Freeviewsat - I actually meant Freeview or Freesat.
Oh and you've got 30 days to view the download rather than 7, which does open up your window of opportunity somewhat.
With respect to all, as Mark K correctly states compression is the problem re quality. If you want to use false cracks (Zamzar type sites + and software) that give quite poor footage results and go around the houses do, but I'd advise to get the original it shouldn't be a hassle!!
Any prod company worth their salt will get you a copy. Then you can put into any edit suite without the possibilities of file corruption.
Learnt from bitter experience!!
Best to all! ;-)
13 years ago
16
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