Seen or heard something you like online and want to keep it? David Crookes looks at the options
The word ‘rip’ is a curious one, and it’s nearly always associated with something bad happening. If you rip a piece a paper, you destroy its previous form. If you’re ‘urban’ and hip, then rip means you’re dissing someone. People get ‘ripped off’ or they ‘let rip’ with smelly consequences. Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola ripped his expensive trousers (although he didn’t seem too bothered). And if you RIP, then you’re dead. It’s just not good.
The same goes for ripping audio and video off the web. “The feature obviously needs legal disclaimers,” said the boss upon commissioning this article. And that’s because it is a very contentious subject. There is a belief that ripping stuff is inherently bad; that it rides roughshod over other people’s intellectual property. The idea that you’re not just downloading or extracting or saving but are ‘ripping’ something seems somewhat aggressive and wrong.
And in many circumstances it is. But then consumers have long had a strained relationship with entertainment media. Although we have access to more content than ever before, arguments over what we should be allowed to do with it once it comes into our view or hearing range have raged for decades.
Not too long ago, children would spend their Sunday evenings recording their pick of that week’s Top 40 songs on the radio, trying to press pause just before the DJ started to talk. Today, that would be termed ‘ripping’. People would produce romantic mix tapes and hand them to loved ones. ‘Ripping and burning’, we would argue. They would also think nothing of using a dual cassette deck to copy an album to a C90 blank (even though Amstrad, which made twin-tape decks mainstream, made clear in its adverts that copying was illegal).
In more recent times, music lovers have made copies of CDs for their car, and they have been ripping discs to iTunes and other MP3s account. Yet this was actually illegal until last October, when a new law made it lawful to copy CDs, DVDs and Blurays, provided they’re for personal use. “These changes are going to bring our intellectual property laws into the 21st century,” the minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, said. But many would argue that they haven’t.
For those wanting to rip video and audio from the internet, the situation is very different. It may be legal to change a purchased TV, movie or e-book download from one format to another, but if you make a recording of streamed music or video from the likes of Spotify and Netflix, you may well find yourself on the wrong side of the law.
If nothing else, you will be falling foul of a service’s terms and conditions. Netflix, for example, states, “You agree not to archive, download (other than through caching necessary for personal use), reproduce, distribute, modify, display, perform, publish, license, create derivative works from, offer for sale, or use (except as explicitly authorised in these Terms of Use) content and information contained on or obtained from or through the Netflix service without express written permission from Netflix and its licensors.”
Spotify expects users to respect IP, so it bans ‘copying, reproducing, ‘ripping’, recording or making available to the public any part of the Spotify Services’. And there are clear reasons for this. Streaming services have a wealth of content, available to view or hear immediately. To rip these could be akin helping yourself to a bunch of DVDs and CDs in HMV.
But ripping is all about common sense. It’s about making judgements over what is moral and keeping within legal guidelines. And it’s about bearing in mind that if you make copies of something from the internet and share it or sell it, then you will be rightly brought to the attention of the authorities. Do it sporadically and for strict personal use, though, and you will, most likely, be left alone. When you rip, you should do so with the greatest of respect.
Why Rip Content?
With all of that in mind, let us first look at why you may want to rip content from the web. For some, ripping allows them to view content at a time and in a form that is more suitable. For example, someone may want to record a streamed programme because it’s about to be pulled from a service that day and they don’t have the time to watch it there and then. In their mind, it would no different in many ways to recording something off the television. Indeed the law for broadcasting states that recording something to watch or listen at a more convenient time is acceptable. If it was not, then the likes of Sky+ and TiVo would never have got off the ground.
Ripping also lets you store useful prerecorded content, allowing it to be forever available to you should anything happened to a host website. You may come across something on YouTube that you like to like to refer every now and then, such as a tutorial showing a particular computing technique that you always struggle to grasp. Ripping it would keep that video close to hand, even if the poster decided to delete his or her account in the future. It would also make the content available offline – useful for those moments when you do not have access to an internet connection.
In terms of audio, you may discover a sound clip on a website that you want to keep hold of. Or there may be a show that you really want to listen to later that does not have a podcast option. Some people find they have uploaded their own audio creation to a website and accidentally deleted the original. Ripping could be the only way to create a new file.
Downloading Videos
So how can you do it? In many cases, it may be as easy as using the Torch browser (www.torchbrowser.com), which has a built-in media grabber that needs no extra software, converters or extensions, and works with a single press of a button. There are also extensions for Chrome such as Chrome YouTube Downloader and Video Downloader Professional.
YouTube is very protective of its service, though. It takes a strong line against any copyrighted videos that are uploaded to the site, using a system called ContentID, which matches the audio and video of each upload against content provided by networks, record labels and film studios. If a video is found to be breaching copyright, it is usually removed (although the content owner can ask for a split of the advertising revenues instead).
It also discourages downloading. Nowhere on the site will you find a quick option to download any of its millions of videos for offline viewing. Indeed, YouTube is so against this kind of thing that it will seek to discover the most popular current methods of downloading its content and try to work out technological methods to prevent them from working.
One site that seems to have kept ahead of the curve is KeepVid.com. It allows users to input the URL of a YouTube, Facebook, Twitch.tv, Video or Dailymotion video and then click on a download link. The site gives you the option of 3GP, FLV, MP4 and WEBM formats, and the whole service is browser based, so there are no apps to download. You just need to make sure you have Java runtime installed.
KeepVid may also work with videos you spot on the pages of websites that hide the URL of their files. URL Snooper (tinyurl.com/mmsnooper1) has been created to get around this problem. If you see a video you like but you can’t work out where it is located, run this app and it will tell you. You can also use the VideoDownloadHelper extension for Firefox, which analyses web pages and tries to find relevant links.
If nothing else, you could use Any Video Recorder (www.anyvideo-recorder.com). It needs to be downloaded, and it only works on Windows PCs (there is no Mac or Linux version), but it allows you to record whatever is playing on the screen at that particular moment. This means you can not only rip YouTube videos but also those on other sites, including catch-up services. Some of its abilities are morally dubious, though. It can remove DRM from iTunes M4V movie rentals and purchases, and it can record rental HD videos and protected DVD movies, both of which we cannot recommend you do.
Capture Recorded Broadcasts
That said, if you want to download programmes from the likes of the ITV Player and many other catch-up services for later viewing, then Any Video Recorder would be your best bet. But you don’t need external software for a good number of services: a fair few have download options built in.
Sky Go lets you download films to watch offline later if you are a subscriber, and Demand 5, Channel 5’s offering, has its own paid-for download function, with costs ranging from just 99p to £1.99. The shows are stored for 14 days and they can be watched as many times as you want over 48 hours. We would always recommend you pay if the option is available.
If you want to stock up on some free content, though, the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD are perfect choices. Most of their shows can be downloaded and stored for 30 days, which gives you plenty of time to watch. After that period, the programmes are deleted. For that reason, you don’t necessarily need any third-party recording software, and it’s a shrewd and helpful move by these broadcasters.
For it to work, you need to install BBC iPlayer Downloads (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/install). When you see a programme you like, select Downloads and choose between Standard or High Definition. The download option on the BBC iPlayer is also available for many devices including tablets, and the Xbox 360 was added on 17th March this year. The BBC is working to bring the same 30-day feature to BT Vision and Virgin HD.
Record Live Broadcasts
There are times, though, when you want to capture live broadcasts. This can tricky, because there is no source file to obtain and, as each frame is played, you’re unable to go back and recapture. It’s lost forever in the digital sky, so you have to grab the live stream as and when it’s being broadcast. On top of that, you need to find a way of getting a live channel on your desktop in the first place. Thankfully, that part is a little more straightforward.
You could do worse than try TVPlayer (tvplayer.com), which broadcasts live Freeview channels including the Food Network and Cbeebies. You should also try Filmon.com. This also has a host of live television from the UK and beyond, covering free-to-air channels such as the BBC, ITV, Dave, Yesterday, CBS Drama, 5*, 5USA and Pick. There are also lots of video-on-demand programmes and user-generated content.
With Film.com’s downloadable desktop app, you can record these channels, but it comes at a cost. Three hours will set you back £5/month, going up to 300 hours for £190/year. You also have to pay if you want to watch in HD (this gives you ten hours recording space, though). For the ease of use and a simple way of ripping live TV, you may feel that’s worth the cost.
That said, there are alternatives, and these also work with TVPlayer. StreamTransport asks you to enter the URL of a web page, and it automatically detects a stream. When you select it and click Download, a file is created and the video is captured live. You have to keep an eye on it, so you can stop it when it’s finished, but it’s very powerful and should capture most of what you throw at it.
Screencastify is also a good choice. Made to operate within Chrome, Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, it allows you to open up a browser window, press record and grab whatever rolls on screen from that point. It saves the footage to your computer, but it can also store footage on Google Drive. This means your recordings can be viewed on a wide variety of devices, but do be careful when uploading copyrighted material to a service like that.
Certainly Screencastify’s primary aim is to allow you to create video tutorials and to record presentations (you can add a webcam and connect a microphone), even though its use extends well beyond that. The free version limits you to just ten minutes, and to get unlimited recordings, you have to pay €20 (around £14). It’s a small price to pay for such a professional, wide-ranging app, though.
Two other apps to consider are CamStudio and Movavi Screen Capture Studio. CamStudio is free and open source, and designed for the same purposes as Screencastify: demoing software, producing tutorials and recording on-screen glitches that you may want to show to a computer repair person. It also provides AVI video files that can be turned into streaming Flash videos. Movavi Screen Capture Studio lets you capture streaming video, Skype calls, video guides and more, while providing editing tools so you can even enhance the footage you have ripped so it best suits your need. You can select the screen area you wish to capture and the frame-rate.
Ripping Audio
Ripping audio is perhaps more straightforward than video, because you only have to grab one kind of media. KeepVid.com is worth considering if you need to extract audio from YouTube videos. As we have seen, it has a built-in option to do this, making the whole process very easy.
If you want to record tracks from other sources, though, then the best around is Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder. It can record the sound coming from your system with a single click, allowing you to record music, radio and audiobooks. It can also record Skype calls, and there is no limit to the length of the audio you rip. Apowersoft even makes it possible to create a scheduled task, so you could leave a radio station running and ask the app to record at a certain time. Do bear in mind that if you open anything else up when it is recording and it makes a noise, that will also be ripped.
Replay Media Catcher 6 works on similar lines (applian.com/replaymedia-catcher). As well as being able to capture video and convert the media to more than 130 device and file formats, it lets you record and convert audio from any website or source at high quality. It even tags recorded MP3 music files using what it calls smart MP3 naming. Files can be copied to a phone or tablet, and it integrates with iTunes, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive. You have to pay for it (the Capture Suite costs £49), but there is a month-long trial to be had.
Things can get legally murky, though. In 2002, a Swedish audio research company called PopCatcher patented software that could distinguish between music, speech and advertisements on a radio station. It was released in 2007, allowing people to do what the kids did when taping the Top 40 all of those years ago: remove the songs and leave the chatter and clutter behind. As new music played on the radio, PopCatcher grabbed them. It called it “curation by radio station”, and an app on Google Play was released. It was later pulled, and it is not currently available.
Another app that still exists, Radiotracker, lets you make individual song recordings from any internet radio station, pulling from a database of 90,000 channels. It boasts recording edited to the millisecond, and it has a timer for time-controlled radio recordings.
Even so, these kinds of apps are not necessarily needed given that the likes of Spotify exist. There are lots of apps that allow you to rip tunes from Spotify online, but to do so is blatant piracy. For this reason, many of them end up disappearing, including Downloadify which was a Chrome extension that let people permanently download songs available on the streaming music service.
Although ripping the songs means you’re able to listen to them on the go without having to find an internet connection, this function actually exists within Spotify, albeit for a fee. Spotify Premium lets you listen to your playlists offline for £9.99-a-month while stripping away the ads and offering highdefinition sound quality. The ripping of audio, then, should really be focused on the music and sounds that would otherwise be hard to obtain, so long as you subsequently use them appropriately.
Get Ripping
And that’s the thing with ripping audio and video. If it is done responsibly and for your own use, then there should be very few issues, legally and morally. Ripping can make life easier, and it can get you content that may not be available later. By ripping something live, for instance, you can guarantee to be able to refer back to it without having to wait for the content creator to make it available for download as a podcast (if indeed he or she does that at all).
Similarly, by ripping something prerecorded that you have struggled to find through normal download channels, you can make it work better for you. Being able to put content on your phone so you can watch it offline, or being able to store it on your hard drive so you will be able to view or hear it months after it has been withdrawn can be very useful. But, as we have stated all along, you need to make those judgement calls and adhere to the law. Ripping is only seen as a naughty word because some people do very naughty things with it.
Appendix
Download A YouTube Video
KeepVid is a web-based tool that creates downloadable links for YouTube videos.
Choose A Video
The first thing to do is actually find a video that you want to download. Open YouTube.com and browse the site until you come across a clip that you would like to retain.
Make A Note
Go to the URL bar of the page you’re on and highlight the web address of the YouTube video. Then copy it. Make sure you copy the entire URL.
Launch KeepVid
Now go to keepvid.com. At the top of the screen is an input bar. Paste the URL from the second step into this and then click the Download button to the right.
Choose A Format
KeepVid will present the video for download in a variety of formats from MP4 and FLV to 3GP and WEBM. It’s also possible to extract the audio by selecting Download MP3.
Watch The Video
The video will now be downloaded to your computer. You can then open it in a compatible video viewing package and play it back.
Download All Of Netflix At Once
A service called PlayLater has been around for a few years, billing itself as the first DVR for online video and letting users record movies and shows from streaming websites. It claims its service allows the viewing of content on the go, when there’s no internet connection available, and it says it gets around the problem of servers going down midprogramme (something that is not much of a problem these days).
It costs $24.99 a year or $49.99 for a lifetime, and it’s only available in the US but some people have already raised some dodgy uses for it, such as being able to take out a one-month subscription to Netflix and then downloading everything you could ever want during that time – as long as you have the storage space on your computer, anyway.
PlayLater insists that its service is legal. “PlayLater is technology designed to let individuals watch legal online content whenever and wherever they like,” it says. “Just like the broadcast DVR and the VCR before it, PlayLater is designed for personal use and convenience.” But, as always, the legalities depend on how people use it, and downloading Netflix in bulk would not be advisable.
Converting Files: How To Ensure Your Files Work For You
If you’re ripping content from the web, you may find that it’s not in the format you were hoping for. If this is the case, then one solution is to head for Zamzar.com, a free online file converter.
Launch Website
Go to Zamzar.com. You’re able to covert files without downloading any software, and if there’s a file you can’t convert, you ask its engineers to take a look.
Find A File
Click on Choose Files and select the source from your hard drive. Zamzar.com can handle more than 1,200 file types.
Select A Format
Now you need to tell Zamzar.com which format you would like to convert your files to. Choose from the drop-down list.
Email Address
Input your email address and click Convert. Zamzar.com will process your file and give you a time estimate. When it’s finished, a link to the file will be emailed to you for download.