How to capture Netflix live video streams.

Forums: Netflix, Internet, Netflix Video Streaming, Save, Capture
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Hello guys, I was curious to see if it is possible to record Netflix movies so I was wondering if any of you knows how to capture Netflix video streaming . What can I use to record and save Netflix video streaming: just about any app or I need a Netflix Video Downloader especially for this job?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 14,901 • Replies: 17

[+3] - ebrown p - 02/25/2010This is undoubtedly stealing, and it is illegal. It is also foolish-- there are much easier ways to steal movies that don't involve making a connection to netflix.

@adrianah,

It's possible to record Netflix movies, but it's illegal.

It is not possible to record and save Netflix video streaming and even when it was (briefly) the file is protected (encoded) with DRM and would not be viewable without authorization from Netflix.

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@Irishk,

It's possible to record anything you can see and/or hear. Just capture the decoded output. If you can see or hear it your computer is decoding it.

Of course, that doesn't make it legal or anything, just saying that it is theoretically possible to record anything you can watch yourself.

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This is undoubtedly stealing, and it is illegal. It is also foolish-- there are much easier ways to steal movies that don't involve making a connection to netflix.

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@Robert Gentel,

True. Personally, I'd never try it for fear of having my account cancelled (assuming Netflix has a capability to detect the pirating of their streams). What I really doubt, though, is whether the captured video would be watchable, and if not, the OP will have wasted a lot of time and effort for little or nothing.

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@Irishk,

Netflix is unlikely to catch you, but yes I agree it's not a great way to pirate movies anyway.

Thing is, I suspect the OP is doing Q&A spam and that he was planning to come back with another account to answer the question with a link to commercial software, so I'd not worry about the OP too much unless they come back and engage like a real user.

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@Robert Gentel,

Well, phooey LOL! I can usually spot those (spammers) quickly but I've seen this question on some of the audio/video forums and they're always quick to point out the illegality, plus the fact that it can't be done easily or satisfactorily.

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@Irishk,

Well gee thanks for the extremely warm welcome guys. I am not interested in pirating anything and my question on how to capture Neflix live video streams was mainly out of pure curiosity. The reason I started wondering this is because I wanted to know if I would be able to capture and save a couple of Netflix movies to my cell phone and watch them when I am on the go and don't have my pc near by.
If I wanted to pirate movies or do something illegal I just would have used some torrents and definitely wouldn't have asked this question on how to record Netflix movies here.
At least, it's good to know that theoretically it would be possible to record anything I watch on pc, though I'd love to hear a more specific solution on how exactly do you do this.

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@adrianah,

adrianah wrote:

The reason I started wondering this is because I wanted to know if I would be able to capture and save a couple of Netflix movies to my cell phone and watch them when I am on the go and don't have my pc near by.

Netflix is considering an app for the iPhone.

Quote:

If I wanted to pirate movies or do something illegal I just would have used some torrents and definitely wouldn't have asked this question on how to record Netflix movies here.

IMHO the easiest way to do it for now would be to buy the movie, rip it and transfer it. Very simple and plenty of freeware available to accomplish it.

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At least, it's good to know that theoretically it would be possible to record anything I watch on pc, though I'd love to hear a more specific solution on how exactly do you do this.

Netflix made it more difficult when they switched to MS Silverlight a few years ago, which, as I understand it, splits the files into separate audio and video streams, each encoded with DRM. Prior to that, it was pretty simple, but even now there is software (google it--I found two) that says it will defeat even Silverlight. It's still not legal, though, IMO.

Welcome to Able2know. Sorry for any earlier miscommunication; it was never my intention to offend.

1 Reply

@Irishk,

Well, not offended but I do accept your apologies, I guess.
Cool, it's good news that they are even considering to actually make an app for the Iphone that could let you watch Netflix video streaming on Iphone. But this is just theoretical news, who knows how long will it take for this to actually happen. Plus I saw there in that article that you will need a Wi-Fi connection in order to access Netflix movies, so what's the big deal then? You'd still be dependent upon the internet connection.
Anyways, thanks for your suggestion, I did not know that Netflix video streaming is indeed drm'ed. So I guess I' ll google for some apps that could theoretically be able to record Netflix movies.
Just out of theoretical curiosity, of course.

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@adrianah,

adrianah wrote:

Well gee thanks for the extremely warm welcome guys.

Sorry about that, but there have been a few recent cases of Q&A spam for video capture so it seemed likely.

Quote:

At least, it's good to know that theoretically it would be possible to record anything I watch on pc, though I'd love to hear a more specific solution on how exactly do you do this.

As long as we are talking about video recording theory it's legal for us to answer this (according to the DMCA it's illegal for a website to even host instructions on how to circumvent copyright):

The theory is that if your computer can play it then it can already decode it. So you record the output. An example of this (though the quality wouldn't be great) is that you could use Cam Studio, a free screen capture program that can also capture audio from output.

There are probably better ways than that for cases like online video played through flash and silverlight players, and for the most part they are actually grabbing the video file itself (in flash cases this is the .flv file). If you use an extension like Firebug in Firefox you can view what files are downloaded when you visit a page, and get the url of the video from there.

For non-DRM files that is all it usually takes to get the video (you just need a codec to play .flv in your current media player or a stand-alone FLV player) but for DRMed files you will likely need custom solutions that I can't help you with.

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@Robert Gentel,

Oh, but of course we are talking about video recording only in theory, I don't wanna circumvent anything or cause trouble round here. As I already said if I wanna pirate something I am pretty sure there are a ton of places I could go on the internet to do this.
So theoretically all that one would need to record Netflix movies would be a screen capture program. Though if the quality one would get after theoretically recording a movies with such an app is not too good that it's probably not worth the trouble anyways.
Or that depends on the app used for this sort of thing and some particular recording technique it uses?
Anyways, guess I'm gonna google a bit on video recording theory to get a clearer picture of all this stuff. I'm kinda new to all this.

1 Reply

@adrianah,

adrianah wrote:

So theoretically all that one would need to record Netflix movies would be a screen capture program.

In theory that is the way that will always work as long as long as you can play the video.

Quote:

Though if the quality one would get after theoretically recording a movies with such an app is not too good that it's probably not worth the trouble anyways.

Exactly! I wouldn't bother if this were the only way to do it.

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Or that depends on the app used for this sort of thing and some particular recording technique it uses?

Kinda sorta, but I don't want to confuse you. It most likely doesn't and most likely screen capture methods would all degrade the quality.

I can't check myself, because Netflix streaming is not available where I am but I suspect that the highest quality way of doing it would be to actually decode the stream itself, but that is where you get into shady territory and programs that may not work for very long (i.e. Netflix will play a cat and mouse game with them).

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Robert Gentel wrote:

Thing is, I suspect the OP is doing Q&A spam and that he was planning to come back with another account to answer the question with a link to commercial software,

It's the old.... wait over a year to come back under another name to supply the spam answer... trick

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That's a really great program. I haven't used it for Netflix, though.

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That was probably a reply to a spam post that was removed. Sometimes spammers find old topics through search engines and they've been leaving links on this one.

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@adrianah,

Personally, I'm a loss as to why Netflix, or anyone else for that matter, uses DRM or goes to great links to prevent copying. As the OP pointed out, if I wanted a pristine digital copy there are plenty of places to get it. If I'm using Netflix, it's for the convenience and obviously I'm willing and able to pay for it. More people would be willing and able if they didn't have to jump through hoops to watch their films or make copies. DRM doesn't reduce pirating ... it provokes it!

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I tried this out despite me thinking this was fake. But...it worked. lol Time to call in to work and go on a Netflix watching spree.

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How to capture Netflix live video streams.

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