How to Record TWiT
You may want to record TWiT audio or video for personal use or to share with others. All audio or video streamed by TWiT is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. If you have already captured the video and want to convert it to a different format please read the Converting TWiT Video tutorial for further instructions.
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GNU Wget
This is the preferred method and works for both TWiT video (using the BitGravity stream) and audio (using twit.am). Wget can be used on all major operating systems including BSDs, GNU/Linux, OSX and Windows.
Installing
We have guides to help you install wget on the following operating systems:
- Mac OS X
- Microsoft Windows (XP/Vista)
- (GNU/Linux should come with wget pre-installed)
Capturing Audio
To capture an mp3 of the live broadcast, use the following command:
- wget http://twit.am:80/listen -O output.mp3
This will save an mp3 file called "output.mp3" to the current working directory. Since this is a live stream this will not stop on its own. When you want to stop recording, press ctrl+c and this will terminate wget. You now have the 64kbps mp3 on your system.
Capturing Video
Capturing video is very similar to capturing audio. Use the following command:
- wget http://bglive-a.bitgravity.com/twit/live/high --ignore-length -O output.flv
This will save an flv file (using h.264 video and mp3 audio) to your system called "output.flv". You will also need to stop this using ctrl+c.
cURL
CURL accomplishes the same task as Wget. It can capture both the audio and video stream from TWiT Live. It can also be used on all major operating systems.
Installing
We have guides to help you install cURL on the following operating systems.:
- GNU/Linux (Guides are distribution specific. Find yours on the list.)
- Microsoft Windows (XP/Vista)
- (Mac OS X comes pre-installed with cURL)
Capturing Audio
To capture an mp3 of the live broadcast, use the following command:
- curl http://twit.am:80/listen -o output.mp3
This will save an mp3 file called "output.mp3" to the current working directory. Since this is a live stream this will not stop on its own. When you want to stop recording, press ctrl+c and this will terminate wget. You now have the 64kbps mp3 on your system.
Capturing Video
Capturing video is very similar to capturing audio. Use the following command:
- curl http://bglive-a.bitgravity.com/twit/live/high --ignore-content-length -o output.flv
This will save an flv file (using h.264 video and mp3 audio) to your system called "output.flv". You will also need to stop this using ctrl+c.
Auto-Reconnect Bash Script
You can get the bash script from here (last updated on May 4, 2009 at 00:21 EDT). To run this program you will want to save it to your /usr/local/bin directory as 'odtvrecord' and make sure it's executable by running the following command on it:
- $ chmod a+x odtvrecord
This Bash script will make it easier for you to capture TWiT. It takes two parameters for input; The first is the filename (without the extension) and the second is the part number (you should not have to ever use this). If the stream disconnects this script will attempt to reconnect and save the output as a new file. The following command would start to capture to a file called twif16.1.flv:
- $ odtvrecord twif16
If the stream disconnects (without you pressing Ctrl+C) then the script will attempt to reconnect and will output the new captured data to twif16.2.flv.
Timed Recording Bash Script (depends on Auto-Reconnect)
You can get the bash script from here (last updated Nov 28, 2009 at 16:20 EDT). To run this program you will want to save it to your /usr/local/bin directory as 'odtvtimer' and make sure it's executable by running the following command on it:
- $ chmod a+x odtvtimer
This bash script will start 'odtvrecord' like normal but it will also stop it for you after a specified amount of time (default is 60 minutes). This makes it easier to set a cron job to capture a certain show. The following command would start to capture a file called twif16.1.flv and set it to stop recording after two hours:
- $ odtvtimer twif16 120
Justin.tv
Justin.tv is one of the three streaming providers for the TWiT network. Justin.tv automatically records and archives all of the video streaming from Twit.tv.
To download videos from Justin.tv, you need to use a Firefox addon. Install [Downloadhelper http://www.downloadhelper.net/install.php] and restart Firefox.
Go to http://www.justin.tv/twit/videos and find the segment you need.
Once you found the correct clip, you will notice 3 colored balls (1) rotating to the left of Firefox's URL or address bar. Click on the small downward pointing arrowhead to the right of the colored balls. This will show the name of the FLV that Justin.tv has assigned to this file (2). When you move the mouse over the filename you should see the menu (3) appear. Select "download" from this menu and save the flv file on your hard drive.
