KEEP TV SHOWS, VIDEOS AND MUSIC FOR GOOD
Break iplayer’s download limits
BBC iplayer ( www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) lets you download a wide range of the Beeb’s output to your PC, phone and tablet, but these downloads always come with a shelf life – 30 days from when they were aired for most shows – after which they will be automatically deleted. But, there is a way to beat this restriction and keep TV and radio shows forever.
Get iplayer ( www.snipca.com/21913) is the best program for downloading content from iplayer without any constraints. Download the latest version (get_iplayer-2.96.1.exe at the time of writing) and double-click the file to install it. Go to the Start menu, find the ‘get_iplayer’ entry and click Web PVR Manager.
When the program opens you’ll see an interface that looks similar to the iplayer’s, but with a few conspicuous differences. For example, Get iplayer has an advanced Tv-programme search tool. To search, enter the name of the programme (or a keyword in its title) into the search field, then use the ‘Search in’ field to define the search term (usually the Name, but there are options for description, episode names and more). Next, tick the relevant ‘Programme type’ boxes (BBC TV, BBC Radio, and so on – see screenshot below). If you can’t find the program you want, click the Refresh Cache button (see screenshot above right) to update Get iplayer’s program listings.
When Get iplayer shows its search results, just tick the box next to the programme(s) you want, then click Record. A new browser tab will open and the recording process will begin (an hour-long program will take about 10 minutes to record). Once it’s finished you’ll see a message saying ‘Recording complete’. Now go to your desktop and you’ll see an ‘iplayer Recordings’ folder, where everything you record using Get iplayer will be stored. These recordings are free of any time restrictions. Use a video player such as VLC ( www.videolan.org/vlc) to play the files. We’ve never experienced Get iplayer deleting programs after 30 days (as BBC iplayer does), even though it is supposed to in order to comply with the BBC’S legal demands. To be on the safe side, cut and paste any programme files you download to another folder.
Download Youtube videos without adverts
There’s more to Youtube than funny cat videos. The Telegraph recently published a list of the best shows on Youtube ( www.snipca.com/21937) that included the likes of The Darling Buds of May, Hornblower and The Prisoner among those available for free. The BBC ( www. youtube.com/user/bbc) and ITV ( www. youtube.com/user/itv1) also have their own Youtube channels where you can watch entire TV series, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage.
You can use 4K Video Downloader ( www.snipca.com/21942) to download anything from Youtube. Not only will the video be yours to keep and watch at your leisure, but it will also be free of Youtube’s adverts.
Find the video you want on Youtube, right-click it then click ‘Copy video URL’. Open 4K Video Downloader, then click the Paste Link icon (at the top left) to start the download process.
Next, select the quality of the video. The larger the file, the higher the resolution and the better it will look on your TV or PC monitor. We’d recommend you use the MP4 format and opt for 720p if the option is available. If it isn’t, choose the highest resolution available (360p in the screenshot above). Sometimes you might see 1080p or higher, but we’d suggest you avoid these higher resolutions unless you have plenty of free space on
your hard drive. Finally, name the file, click the three dots (…) at the bottom right to choose a folder and click Download to start the process.
If the video is part of a Youtube playlist (a series of shows), a message will appear with options to Download Playlist or Download Clip. To see what’s included in a playlist, go back to Youtube and check out the list to the right of the video (see screenshot right). Unless you’re interested in watching all episodes in a playlist, we’d suggest opting for Download Clip to save storage space. If you do want to watch other episodes you can always return and download them later.
Extract audio from a Youtube music video
Music videos are the most popular thing on Youtube and for that reason most artists you can think will put their latest songs on Youtube. The great thing about that is you can download the music without the video and play it on your MP3 player.
Once again, we recommend using 4K Video Downloader. As described above, get the video’s URL from Youtube, then click Paste Link. This time, click the Download Video dropdown and choose the Extract Audio menu (see screenshot right). Make sure the format is set to MP3 and select the quality level. Go for High Quality if you have lots of free hard-drive space or Normal if not. Change the download location using the three dots (…) at the bottom right, then click Extract to download the track without the video.
Download directly from internet radio stations
A great way to add to your music collection is to record content from internet radio stations – and you no longer need a mic, a casette player or even a radio. Rarmaradio ( www.snipca.com/21944) lets you download any radio stream being broadcast anywhere in the world. Download and install the program, then double-click Region (on the left) and click on the continent and country of your choice. After you select a country, a list of available radio stations will appear in the right-hand panel. To record the station without a pause as one file, click Record then ‘Continuous – No Split’. Alternatively, to record just the music played (saved as individual tracks), click Record, but choose ‘Continuous – Split Songs’. By default, the recordings will be saved to C:\MY Music\ Raimaradio folder. To add a particular station to your favourites, right-click it, then click ‘Add to Favourites’. Click Favourites in the menu at the top of the screen to access them.
You can record up to 10 radio stations at the same time. To do so, browse to find another station you want to record from (while another is already recording), click it, then click the Play button. This will cause a Record button to appear to the right of the Play button. Click Record, then ‘Continuously – Split Songs’ (or whatever option you prefer), and the recording of the station will begin. To stop recording a particular station, select it in the panel at the bottom of the screen (see screenshot left) and click the Stop button.
Record songs playing on Spotify
The free version of Spotify is a fantastic resource for songs, but the adverts between tracks are annoying (you can pay £10 per month for the Premium
version, which is advert-free). One way to avoid the adverts in the free version is to record from Spotify and then extract the adverts when you edit the recording into individual tracks. This method can also be used to split up a recording from vinyl.
To start you’ll need to download the free audio editor Audacity ( www.audacityteam.org/download). Open Audacity, choose Windows WASAPI in the top-left dropdown menu, then click the Record button. Next, open Spotify and play the album or playlist you want to record. Once the album has finished playing, click the stop button in Audacity. You’ll see that the album has been recorded as one long track. To break it up into tracks, click Analyze, then Sound Finder, change the ‘Add a label at the end of the track’ setting to 1, then click OK. You’ll now see that a new section called ‘Label Track’ has been added below your recording, and numbers have been added to sections of your recording (each one of these will be a full song or advert).
To save your recording as individual songs, click File then Export Multiple. In the pop-up box that appears, click Choose to select a save location, then select your preferred format in the dropdown menu. We suggest MP3, but you’ll need to download LAME ( www. snipca.com/21615) to create MP3S if you haven’t used Audacity before. Then make sure Labels and ‘Using Label/ Track Name’ are selected (see screenshot above left) and click Export. The tracks will be exported to the specified folder.
Play the exported files to find out which are adverts. Delete these and you’ll be left with an advert-free album. Rename each song to its proper name (or use a program such as Mediamonkey to rename the tracks automatically – see Issue 480, page 48).