Stream captured live music video webcasts are allowed

[xavier242]

Live music video webcasts are typically allowed here provided they are stream captures with no re-encoding. Post only content that is free to view.

The exception to re-encoding would be with (mostly) lossless editors like Videoredo that only re-encode at the edit points.

Webcasts from Youtube are not typically allowed because the quality is poor, but there are exceptions. Youtube live streams are ok as they usually increase the video bitrate back to what it was in 2013-2015. Youtube webcast captures that were done in 2013 to 2015 are also sometimes ok (Youtube had 2 to 4 times higher bitrate back then).

Remuxes are ok- like a lossless conversion of .ts to .mp4, .mpg, or .mkv.

Screen recording (OBS or equiv.) is not allowed because of the quality loss when it is re-encoded.

When posting the lineage, please use the words "stream capture" with the name of the software used. Some software has both "stream capture" and "screen recording" modes available. Be sure to use stream capture and note that in your lineage. Include the parameters you used if possible.

This post overrides anything contradictory in the FAQ or posting guidelines.

Moderators,
Please don't be "trigger happy" to pull a post you believe may not be a stream capture. Mark the torrent Questionable and get a second opinion (from me if possible; I have 26 years of streaming video capture experience).

xavier242

[swintonboy]

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

[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.

[Datahound]

Some sites that have live music streams or stream captures. Post to TTD if you have some free time (allowed artists and unreleased content obviously):

Artist fan forums often have a media section.
Some artists have gigs on their own site for free.
https://archive.org/details/artsandmusicvideos finding anything on AO is a test of your patience and searching skill
http://www.dimeadozen.org check Dime frequently; due to the 30 (or 60) torrent seeding limit, content there expires quickly
https://www.guitars101.com could be better if the uploaders had reliable hosting
https://sharemania.us lots of content and lots expired, also lots of (bad) upscales (not allowed here)
https://rutracker.org don't hit 'n run, make sure it's allowed here
https://www.twitch.tv
https://tv.nrk.no
https://www.bbc.com
https://vimeo.com/watch
https://youtube.com (livestreams or captures done in 2013-2015)
Soulseek, note most people use the 32bit build without issue:
https://www.slsknet.org don't hit 'n run, make sure it's allowed here
USENET, make sure it's allowed here.
Public and private bittorrent. Don't hit 'n run, make sure it's allowed here.
Some music blogs are still active with content.

A few of the above are geo-restricted and you'll need a (unblocked) VPN to access (pick a VPN server in their country). Lineage varies from good to non-existent...sorry but xavier242 may have to approve or pull some of the gigs after posting.
DH

[xavier242]

Include these search terms for highest quality stream captures:
"1080i"
"FEED" "1080i"
"FEED"
Determine releasers known to post live music gigs and include their name as a search term.

A lot of video uploaders on other sites post dumb blend deinterlaced progressive video and give zero details of their process. Mostly it's ignorance of the importance of proper deinterlacing and documenting steps taken. This typically kills any hope of getting detail and/or HFR out of the video.

The interlaced files you may find with the above search terms are almost always stream captures properly done. The FEED ones are high bitrate and very high quality. For whatever reason, Pro video folks still use interlaced video for their highest quality streams. Not an issue if you have a proper deinterlacer (we have at least 2) and it helps weed out the crap.

There is a massive amount of PRO 1080i and PRO 1080i FEED live gigs in existence. Only a small percentage get posted to the torrent sites as native streams or properly deinterlaced. Indeed, I seem to be the only one to ever document using QTGMC and the parameters I used...

Do a search like:
https://bt4gprx.com/search?q=1080i%20ilya2129&p=1

...and you'll quickly become frustrated that no one is seeding them and they were not posted to TTD. Some can be found with enough searching (you have the filename!). Please try to find ones not here and post them to TTD.

You can lossless remux them but it's not necessary. Don't bother with a setlist unless you've watched the video to verify the songs (just say "sorry, no setlist"). The original unrenamed .ts file and .md5 checksum are all you need to post.

I'm going to try to get the Moderators to understand that these PRO 1080i files from a known releaser have enough self-lineage- ie. the filename itself is sufficient lineage.

[THERAIDERSDEN]

Perhaps you could pin a request thread for us to share info and links of upcoming web-streams we'd like captured. Due to the technical skill and experience involved.