Capturing VOD

Downloading an entire presentation 

Please note that embedded subtitles, CEA-608/708, will not be transcoded alongside other file information when using frame accurate capture.

MPEG-DASH

The input URL is an MPEG-DASH manifest file. The output is fMP4. We recommend capturing from an MPD that has a $Time$ -based SegmentTimeline. (To configure origin for live capture, see: Using a dedicated capture server manifest)

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o video.mp4 \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.mpd"

Note

All the fragments of all the different bitrates are downloaded, therefore the output file contains multiple audio and video tracks.

If the DASH manifest contains a Tiled Thumbnail track, as described in Using CMAF Tiled Thumbnails as a source, the Tiled Thumbnails will also be captured, and saved as a separate track in the fMP4 output.

If timed metadata is present in the MPD or signaled in-band in the media segments, this is saved as a separate track in the fMP4 output.

HTTP Smooth Streaming (HSS)

For Smooth Streaming presentation the input URL is the manifest file to the video. The output is fMP4.

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o video.ismv \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/Manifest"

Note

All the fragments of all the different bitrates are downloaded, therefore the output file contains multiple audio and video tracks.

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS)

The input URL for HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is a media playlist (.m3u8). For convenience the first media playlist is captured when the input is a master/variant playlist. The output is MPEG-TS.

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o video.ts \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/tears-of-steel-audio_eng=64008-video_eng=401000.m3u8"

HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS)

The input URL is a HTTP Dynamic Streaming manifest file. The output is FLV.

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o video.flv \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.f4m"

Downloading subclips from a stream (previews, chapters)

Unified Capture can create subclips from a larger VOD presentation. One use case is creating preview clips from longer presentations. Another use case is creating multiple chapters from a longer presentation.

Specifying the beginning and end time is in HH:MM:SS.sss format. For example, creating a 15 second preview clip from a presentation:

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o video-preview.ismv \
  "http://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.mpd?t=00:03:00.000-00:03:15.000"

When only a single value for the t parameter is given, this will be considered the start time of the capture and the end of the presentation will be the end time.

When creating multiple chapters from a longer presentation you should specify both the beginning and end (except for the last chapter, of which you only need to specify the begin time). Let's say we have a 10 minutes and 32 seconds presentation and want to create 3 chapters (4 minutes, 4 minutes, 2:32 minutes):

#!/bin/bash

unified_capture -o chapter1.ismv \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.mpd?t=00:00:00.000-00:04:00.000"

unified_capture -o chapter2.ismv \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.mpd?t=00:04:00.000-00:08:00.000"

unified_capture -o chapter3.ismv \
  "https://demo.unified-streaming.com/k8s/features/stable/video/tears-of-steel/tears-of-steel.ism/.mpd?t=00:08:00.000"