HiDownload lets you capture streaming audio and save audio files to your computer. The streaming audio formats that HiDownload supports are Real Media files and Windows Media files.
When you start HiDownload a small window appears on top of all other windows. From your web browser you can drag and drop urls that contain streaming audio files onto the window. An example of this is shown below:
The little green box floating above the web page is the HiDownload window where you can drag and drop the streaming media url. The red arrow indicates where you would drag and drop the url to. The page in this example is taken from www.abc.net.au/streaming/default.htm which lists a number of radio stations which have live audio streams broadcasting on the Internet. In this example, the user can select either a Windows Media Player stream or a Real Player audio stream. After you drag the url onto the small green window, HiDownload pops into the foreground and allows you to select further information about where to save the file etc as shown below:
With this dialog window we can specify the source filename and where to save the downloaded audio stream to, as well as the number of threads to download at once. If the audio stream has a fixed size, multiple threads allow the stream to be split into several chunks and downloaded all at the same time. At the end the chunks are assembled into one saved audio file.
Once the file starts downloading you can see the progress in the main window as shown below:
This progress meter shows each thread being downloaded and the approximate time until the entire audio file has been downloaded. Clicking the file in the list displays additional information in the bottom pane. If this is a live audio broadcast stream we are saving then you can stop it at any time and listen to just the part saved. If it has a fixed length then the download will continue until complete (although you can stop it at any time as well and resume at a later time).
From this example you can see how easy it is to download a live broadcast audio stream and save it as a file to your computer.
HiDownload is just US$29.95 and can be purchased online using RegNow. Go to the HiDownload website to get a trial version of the software now. The trial version allows you to evaluate the software for 28 days.
See also
Capture streaming audio and video media with HiDownload
How to save video streams with HiDownload
