StreamRecorder.NET is a free program for Microsoft Windows devices to capture multimedia streams over the Internet.
It is relatively easy to record media streams such as those offered by Internet Radio stations or video streams if the right program is available to do the job for you.
Both VLC and MPlayer offer all the tools to record both types of streams. The problem is that users have to use the command line to do that which is not very comfortable, especially not for inexperienced users.
Streamrecorder has been designed as a graphical user interface to record media streams with either VLC or MPlayer. The developer has added enough room to add a third program in case the user prefers another multimedia program to do the recording. This only works obviously if it supports the capturing of media content and if the process can be controlled from the command line.
Streamrecorder.net
Configuration is unfortunately complicated as the program requires not only the paths to VLC and MPlayer, but also paths to four other Open Source programs before the settings can be saved.
It can be that I have overlooked an option to make the process less complicated but I was not able to find one during tests (deleting their references might helped, have not tried that).
Streamrecorder.net is ready for usage afterwards. All remaining options are configured in the main program interface. It is there that the stream url is entered, that the duration of the recording is defined (unlimited or time based), the output format and directory is specified, and the recorder, joining and post processing is configured.
The recorder can either be MPlayer, VLC or a third recorder specified by the user. Videos and mp3 can be joined and the post processing options will add ID3 tags and mp3 header correction to the mix.
Both the joining and post processing options can be extended as well by another program specified by the user. The command line arguments have to be specified by the user as well which makes this more of an option for advanced users.
Closing Words
The reporting is excellent as it displays many information about the recording and processing of the stream. The software could use some reworking on the configuration side to make it easier to configure. There should be an option to disable the joining and post processing parts so that these programs do not have to be added on the options screen.
Other programs like Streamripper are easier to configure and allow to record multiple radio stations at once. Then again, those don’t allow you to record other types of media.
Streamrecorder.net requires the Microsoft .net Framework and can be downloaded from the Sourceforge project website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.