How to download streaming videos?

For example, I'm trying to download the video from this url:
http://webactix.com/video/evp2-video-split-testing/

Not all streams are the same format and sources differ, just like youtube downloader wont download outside of youtube. Probably the best universal downloader is WMrecorder, small price for a reliable tool.
http://www.wmrecorder.com/

For pause during recording??
Well I used to DAP  it can queue files for downloading later on it worked very well
http://www.speedbit.com/

Merete,

WMRecorder don't have pause/resume feature. Does DAP download streaming videos?

pawan-agr,
I can't actually remember but I never needed to pause it, so I just refreshed my knowedgbase
And yep looks like it pauses
According to  WM recorder
Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward Live Streams
 you can preview while recording, pause and resume live playback, rewind for an instant replay, or fast forward back to the live part after a pause.
http://www.wmrecorder.com/wm_recorder.php
It does have a trial that actually works you just get a text message over your recording till you buy, it works very well  

pawan-agr, Speedbit has a lot of separate tools, Didn't you see this one,
SpeedBit Video Downloader – Free Video Grabber
http://www.speedbit.com/video/
from the main page
 http://www.speedbit.com/
Sorry bout the dual posts I missedf your comment about DAP ie Speedbit

And another  
yes DAP downloads video as well,
Video Preview
Watch previews of videos as they download

 It's a been while since I used it, 5 years ago back then it was free and all  I did was add the url and it started.
It also has pause and rewind
http://www.speedbit.com/features/

I think for wmrecorder to work, I should keep on playing the video on my browser. That's kind of bottlenneck i think.

It would be great if I can download/pause/resume without the need for the browser.

Not to my knowledge?
In WM recorder add the URL let some of the video play first so it can pickup the signal,
then you can close the web page, It's the same with youtube downloader I have to wait until the video has downloaded at least halfway on youtube then youtube downloader will continue without any IE pages open.
There are a few different ways to do it - you can record in Real Time, or record from captured URL's. Plus, you can choose AUTO Recording Mode (under the Options button, select Turn AUTO ON).
Take a look through the manual,
http://www.wmrecorder.com/user_guide_14.htm
The best way is to test it
I'll test recording the link you posted if you like, but as they said the trial will give only 5 minutes of recordings, I'll download it first then try recording your link
Check in later

Ok it records as soon as I opened your web page, then a small popup came asking me if I wanted to close all web pages.
So I closed all pages
Doesnt look like it pauses while recording in live stream recording

Image1.jpg
image-2-recording-no-web-pages.jpg

I just use cam studio capture if the clip is that important to me quality is not the key but the information I need.
Consider free cam studio, set the capture to regeon of the screen or the whole page
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/CamStudio
http://camstudio.org/

Merete,

Thanks for all the suggestions but they are not helping me to do what I want.

I want something which can record the url of the live streaming video and let me pause/resume the download anytime. That means I should be able to download 20% of the video today, pause it then again resume the download from their and download the rest of the video.

Dap video downloader does this as I said,. The URL are enqueued and if you stop DAP it will continue the next day once you run it, click on the url and start it.
It also has pause and rewind
http://www.speedbit.com/features/
I know P2P software like U torrent does it too but that's torrents and does not function with URL
try these includes dap too
 take a look at Fresh Download
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/downloader/fwdown.html

Merete,

I think Download accelerator plugin doesn't download the streaming videos as I have used it in the past.

Can you please try downloading from this url and tell me if it works?
http://webactix.com/video/evp2-video-split-testing/

Actually "Download streaming video" is actually impossible.  There is actually two ways to view video on the web, "progressive download" or "streaming" but from a users point of view they do appear very similar: http://www.reelseo.com/progressive-download-vs-streamin/

YouTube uses progressive download.

So, the tools you have tried are optimized to help with "progressive download" because streaming video requires a client player (Like Windows Media Player)

I have a feeling the site you are trying to access is true streaming video so the tools for progressive download will not work.

@tedbilly
I concur and have stated to pawan-agr his options using the WM recorder even tested it for him.
Most web video are progressive and require at least a small portion to be played before downloading.
I think the main reason is the cache is not used as much, otherwise the temp files would blow out of size. No caching increases the speed and reliability of the download. These days the internet is very high traffic and high speed DSL

Not to forget the site is not offering it as a download either

Streaming videos can be of course downloaded as I have tested with wmrecorder and media catcher.

The problem is those tools don't support pause and resume whenever I want. I want to download videos in a span of 2-3 days and during those days I'll be pausing and resuming the download multiple times.

Yes, there are tools to capture a streaming video and record it as a downloaded file, however, it's not a progressive download and won't work with the progressive download tools.

We don't want to say "no it can't be done" and wish there was a solution, however, they are two distinct protocols for viewing video on the web and you cannot control which one people choose to use.

I think that no answer to this question should be provided, if the site/owner of the video wanted you to download it it'll have provided a way to do it.
If none of the possible answer that have already been provided has worked probably means that the idea is that the video isn't meant to be downloaded.

Streaming video usually are used so that user can watch the last part of the video as well without downloading the initial part of the video.

It also saves bandwidth for the video provider as user will download only the portion they'll watch.

The video provider obviously want to make as many people watch the video as possible. It doesn't mean that they doesn't want others to download the video, it's just that they used the technology and didn't think how other user consume the video content.

Have a look also at Camtasia Studio
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/?gclid=CJDB2ry106UCFUWEzAod0Eogkg

viki,

I'm already aware of such tools.

Here is what I actually wanted to do:
----
Is there any good software (free or paid) you can recommend which can let me download the streaming videos as well as let me pause/resume the downloads over the period of several days.
----

I do not want to start again the subject above, but what Merete suggested WMrecorder why is not good?
You said that has no the features wanted, but on this page at the bottom http://www.wmrecorder.com/wm_recorder.php says “Resume recordings”

My experience with video steam recordings is related only with Reply Media Catcher http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-stream/Replay-Media-Catcher-HTTP-RTMP-FLV-MP3-ripper-recorder.htm ,which I found very helpful, but I never tried pause/resume recordings.

For a list of software with resume function look here:
http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-stream/all-streaming-video-recording-software.htm


However only seekable (on-demand) streams can be resumed: http://all-streaming-media.com/faq/recording-media-stream/faq-resume-stream-recording.htm 

Search the word “resume” on the next pages:
http://www.wmrecorder.com/faq_10.htm#dropped
http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-stream/record-streaming-video-windows-media-and-real-video.htm
http://all-streaming-media.com/streaming-media-faq/faq-fix-connection-problems-for-Windows-Media-streams.htm

Sorry for so many links, but I hope you find your answer among them.

viki:

Here is what WM Recorder's help is saying"

How can I resume a dropped connection?

Resuming a dropped connection only makes sense for seekable streams. You can use either Browse Mode or the URL Mode to resume.

In Browse Mode, start the clip using Windows Media Player and selecting Open URL, next, move the seek bar to the resuming point. Pause Windows Media Player, then click Record in WM Recorder, and then restart Windows Media Player. When you finish recording use the Reprocess / Merge option in WM Recorder to join the two files.

In URL Mode, click Settings, Resume, select the URL and specify the resume time. When you finish recording join the two files using the Merge option.

The resuming is not simple enough as downloading other files. I am trying to find the software which can handle the resuming itself.

For example, if I let WM recorder recording a video and I went outside and when I come back I find that the connection has been dropped then how can I make it download again? I won't know at what time the connection dropped so I can't seek to the position where the connection was dropped.

Even if I know what was the last position, it's too much of work to record the video. I want to record the video for one time view only at my own convenient. The reason, I'm recording is that my connection is slow and sometime video doesn't play very well. In those case I just want to download the video and watch it uninterrupted later.

Viki,

Here is exactly what I want to do (can you please test if it can be done? I think it can't be done using the softwares you have suggested)

Currently I'm trying to download a video from this url:
http://webactix.com/video/evp2-video-split-testing/

What I want to do is, download the half of the video today, pause the download and then shut down my computer.

Next day, I want to open the software and resume the download and download the rest of the file.

Is it possible to do? If yes, how?

Try Maxthon web browser I'm running it now. Customisable and very easy to use, download a plugin for it then it has an inbuilt downloader and saves on a separate tabbed window, will continue next time you open Maxthon go to the download tab page and open the url to continue
http://www.maxthon.com/
here's the plugin
http://au.search.yahoo.com/search?p=downloading+video+in+maxthon&ei=utf-8&fr=cb-max

DAP will  also do what you want has resume even if you shutdown or lose internet connection
I use to have it as my main downloader as I could enqueu heaps
http://www.speedbit.com/features/
http://www.speedbit.com/dap/
http://www.speedbit.com/video/

Viki,

The solution is not exactly what I wanted but it's close enough to what I wanted.

Thanks for doing the research on this.