[xavier242]

Originally Posted by swintonboy

Would appreciate some recommendations for software to do this please, preferably free ones!

Here are some I know about or have used. Stream capture is difficult to program and often different for each site. The technology changes frequently and this list is far from complete:

Command line stream capture programs:
streamlink, ffmpeg, yt-dlp, youtube-dl, get_iplayer, rtmpdump

Just because it has yt or youtube in the name doesn't mean it's only for Youtube. Some of the tools began as Youtube stream capture tools and other sites later added.

Usage can be a puzzle. The forums discussing the tools seem to have gone offline. Find sites that have stream captures and ask the poster for details. There's probably a blog, github, or pastebin with usage examples (post the link if you find one).

GUI or web browser stream capture tools:
3D Youtube Downloader (one of the better ones for Youtube, works on many sites), VideoDownload Helper, Replay Media Catcher, lay295 Twitch Downloader, StreamFab- good for some difficult sites (the demo mode allows a few captures), Live Stream Downloader, RTMPDumpHelper, VLC. Legacy tools: Flashgot, AdobeHDS, GetFLV, FLVDownloader, GetASFStream, Net Transport, Wireshark + winpcap + a hex editor, Ethereal + hex editor.

There are lots of other stream capture plugins or programs. New ones are released frequently.
Do a search with keywords like:
video stream firefox
video download firefox
video stream chrome
video download
video capture <the site name>
video download <the site name>

Determine the method used. If it's just recording the screen and re-encoding that, keep searching. Re-encoding is also known as re-compressing (lowers quality).

The most up to date tools tend to be web capture tools- you visit a webpage, enter an url and you get a preview of different resolutions/bitrate. Pick the highest resolution and bitrate native format. You have to be very careful with these sites. Some re-encode and may not tell you. Some load a browser hijack and give you a virus. I use the web tools with Firefox or a Chrome based browser running on Linux, which is less likely to be a target for viruses. If you have created a good sandbox, Windows can be used.

Sources:
Streaming sources can be hard to find. Often the streaming link is announced just a few hours before the gig- by the band email mailing list, twitter, facebook, or Reddit group. Twitch.tv lists some of their streams in advance. Stream captures are often cross-posted between file sharing sites.