How do I record the NASA HD TV feed?

Question

I have been trying to figure out a way to record NASATV HD live feed/broadcast but it seems to be harder than I envisioned.

Anybody with enlightened suggestions? I am in the dark...

Answer 1

After following the instructions from this site, I managed to extract the ISS live url for NASA TV and get it playing in VLC.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the server sometimes changes and the feed becomes invalid, so you may need to rerun the rtmp_discover script from the url above to get the correct rtmp details:

python rtmp_discover.py http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-media-channel 

Then you will need to recreate the commands (with the new url information) as described in the 'to play' and to 'to record' examples further below. As another note, you can play and record simultaneously if, for example, you do the following and include the tee command:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://cp152495.live.edgefcs.net/live/ustream-sj2_583@54778" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | tee mars.flv | vlc - 

As NASA now streams all of its material on Ustream, it is not as easy to stream it in VLC as it used to be. Previously you could use an asf stream and play it in VLC very easily.

For the following commands to work, you will also have to install rtmpdump from the repositories, as it is an essential program when dealing with these streams and sending them to vlc or to a file. Credit to the site I have linked above for giving a framework as to how this could be done.

To Play:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream2live-live//stream_live_1_1_9408562" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc - 

To Record:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream2live-live//stream_live_1_1_9408562" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live -o recording.flv

NOTE: I will try to add some more NASA TV channels, but be aware that some of them aren't available all the time.

For http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream.html:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://ustreamlivefs.fplive.net/ustream3live-live//stream_live_1_1_6540154" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc -

More NASA channels:

a) Johnson Space Centre (this one is in HD and may be useful for the upcoming landing of Curiosity on Mars:

To Play:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://flash91.ustream.tv/ustreamVideo/7549243/streams/live" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc - 

To Record:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://flash91.ustream.tv/ustreamVideo/7549243/streams/live" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live -o recording.flv

b) NASA TV media channel (HD- 1280x720)

To Play:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://flash58.ustream.tv/ustreamVideo/10414700/streams/live" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live | vlc - 

To Record:

rtmpdump -v -r "rtmp://flash58.ustream.tv/ustreamVideo/10414700/streams/live" -W "http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf" --live -o recording.flv

See important note at the top of the post regarding updating the rtmp url information in the examples above if they do not work for you.

Answer 2

Did you try to use vlc? Personally for me is the best open source media player.

What you can do is to open the stream and save it to a file, is quite straight forward.

Now I'm curious, I'll try this evening at home.

Here you have the documentation