Got the hump that streaming gives RISC OS the bump? Get RTMPDump!
RTMPDump is a command line tool for fetching RTMP streams and saving them to a local drive, which nicely complements FFmpeg and FFplay – so it is perhaps no surprise that version 2.3 of the software has been ported to RISC OS (as release 1.00) by none other than Christopher Martin, who has been responsible for bringing us new versions of those two applications.
RTMP stands for Real Time Messaging Protocol, and was originally developed by Macromedia (now owned by Adobe) for streaming data between a Flash server and a Flash player – data which often includes audio and video, making it a common method for streaming video content over the internet. BBC iPlayer, for example, uses RTMP.
When Christopher prepared the documentation, he had only tested it on an IYONIX, though he suggests that RTMPDump should, in theory, run an anything with a StrongARM or newer CPU, adding that “It may do what you want on older CPUs, but don’t be surprised it it faults.” One of the possible problems is that the software contains cryptographic code optimised for ARMv4, which could result in some instructions being unrecognised on anything pre-dating the StrongARM processor.
Also required are version 1.07 of the SharedUnixLibrary module, and a wimpslot of at least 1,672KB.
The software includes documentation, but no front-end application launcher or resource folder, and users will benefit from having UnixHome installed and seen by the filer, since RTMPDump uses it to cache authentication about Flash players, saving unnecessary downloads.
More information about RTMPDump can be found in the ReadMe and Help files contained within the zip file, not to mention on the project’s web page (but do note that the RISC OS port is not known to its developers). For information about how to download videos from specific websites and services, the best tool to use is your search engine of preference – there are a few to choose from.
