Blog: Let’s Talk About Replay Media Catcher and HTTPS

Let's Talk About Replay Media Catcher and HTTPS
‎Yesterday, ‎May ‎16, ‎2014, ‏‎2:05:10 PM | debbie

Keeping up with the constant changes in streaming protocols is just the job for Replay Media Catcher's Engineers. They like a challenge and frequently whip up very smart solutions to very tough problems. If you've installed the most recent version of Replay Media Catcher, you'll see that we've made some great improvements. And if you like to download streams from YouTube, then you've likely seen the new prompt to install a CA certificate. So what's that all about? Have no fear! We're here to break it down for you. Let's get nerdy, shall we?

YouTube and some other sites now stream their media over an HTTPS connection by default. So what is HTTPS? Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure is the secure version of http. Typically used when a secure connection is necessary. Like for ecommerce transactions and such. When you connect to a website that is using HTTPS, the session is encrypted with a Digital Certificate.

Let's first look at how Replay Media Catcher downloads, then we'll explain how installing the CA Certificate helps it to do it's job better. When you switch on Replay Media Catcher, it starts sniffing the network traffic. Looking for media to download. As you come across streaming video or music, Replay Media Catcher decodes that network traffic and if it understands what it is seeing on the network, it tries to detect and download the media based on intelligence we've written for that protocol. Pretty slick, right? That's how Replay Media Catcher can download so much more without browser plugins. It simply does not need them. It only listens to the network.

Let's say you've switched on Replay Media Catcher's monitoring and you're happily browsing along and decide to download the latest viral video on YouTube. Remember we said that YouTube is now streaming their media over an HTTPS connection.. SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. When you see HTTPS in the URL, you are using the SSL/TLS protocol to speak to that website. Replay Media Catcher will then not understand that traffic and disregard it. That sounds like bad news, right? Nope! Read on…

If you're running Replay Media Catcher version 5.0.1.46 or later, you'll notice a new prompt when it first sees media from a site that is streaming over HTTPS. This prompt explains that in order for Replay Media Catcher to scan for media that is streamed over HTTPS, a CA certificate is required to be created. A CA (Certificate Authority) is an authority in a network that issues and manages security credentials.

You can choose to allow HTTPS scanning or not. If you choose no, Replay Media Catcher will ignore any HTTPS streaming and you'll be sad. That breaks my heart. Say YES!

If you choose YES, (and we recommend you do) then Windows will prompt you to install the CA certificate. Windows presents you with this:

The title of the window says "Security Warning". Yeah, well…it's not a problem. Windows is just letting you know that a certificate is about to be installed. Windows says that it cannot validate the certificate as actually being from Replay Media Catcher, but have no fear. We have created a certificate called Replay Media Catcher 5 SSL Scanner Root. Essentially, it allows Replay Media Catcher to scan HTTPS traffic like that being served by YouTube for downloadable media. It is absolutely safe. And you are not putting yourself or your computer in any danger by installing it.

Don't miss out on all the great streaming goodness that Replay Media Catcher can download. It's waaay smarter than any other streaming media downloader. Guaranteed!

Don't hesitate to contact us with any questions!

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Replay Media Catcher 5.0.1.50

Replay Media Catcher 5.0.1.50

‎Yesterday, ‎May ‎16, ‎2014, ‏‎1:16:32 PM | debbie

• Improved support for uploading to websites while SSL scanning is on.
• Fixed audio splitting from line in
• Improved UHS downloading (ustream.tv) when audio/video sync is out at the start of the stream.
• Some torrent fixes

Replay Media Catcher 5 & Removing Certificate

If needed to be done.

Press Start > Run

Type in,

certmgr.msc

Press enter.

Locate Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificate.

Press tab one time to locate the list of certificate.

Look for Replay media Catcher 5 SSL...

The below step I am not 100% certain to do but if you right click the Replay Media Catcher 5 SSL item in the list you will see in the context menu the delete option.

JAWS 15 user.

Replay media Catcher 5 & HTTP/SSl checkbox

I did also find the RMC5 settings for enabling/disabling the checkbox for HTTP/SSl within Replay media Catcher 5.

The steps are if blind users need to are,

Run RMC5

Press alt+l for the Library menu

Choose Settings

When dialog screen loads right arrow until you hear Internet tab and press your enter key to make it the active tab.

Press tab one more time now.

Right arrow until you hear HTTP ADV tab and press your enter key to make the HTTP ADV tab the active tab sheet.

Press your tab key now and you will hear the checkbox for the HTTP/SSL scanning option

Prfess your spacebar to uncheck the checkbox if needed.

Press your tab key a few times to locate the OK button and press enter to save your settings.

The above assumes you installed the certificate already.

Replay Media Catcher 5.0.1.46 & Recording External Audio Source

Like with Replay Radio 9.0.1.46 you can record the audio sound from an external audio source like from a radio or stereo receiver with Replay Media Catcher 5.0.1.46. Simply choose the Schedule tab with enter keypress and then tab over to the schedule for a future time button and press enter key on this button. The Scheduler screen will appear where you can set the time, capture and device settings. You will need to connect a cable from your external source to the computer's input or for me to the USB sound card's mic input 1/8 inch jack.

Replay Radio 9 & Recording from a source

This feature was added in an earlier version with Replay Radio 9 and I tested today. Was able to schedule a recording with a start time to record from an external source like from a radio unit's headphone output jack connection to a USB sound card's mic input jack. Scheduler was set to capture from record audio (device) and Device was set USB Sound Device. I used a 1/8 inch cable to connect the radio's output to the mic input of the USB sound card. I have JAWS set to use my laptop's internal sound card while in Windows OS I have the default sound card set to the USB sound card. This allows me to use my screen reader without being interrupted. Possibly if I used amplification I would have heard the sound output from the radio but with no amplification I could not monitor the sound from the radio during recording with Replay Radio 9. Works great for me.

Replay Radio 9 & Replay Media Catcher 5 New Releases

Replay Radio 9.0.1.46

‎Today, ‎May ‎02, ‎2014, ‏‎38 minutes ago | debbie

• Support for audio splitting and "at complete" schedule events
• Fix for shorthand timestamp naming in split recordings
• Now allows m4b to be imported into iTunes

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Replay Media Catcher 5.0.1.46

‎Today, ‎May ‎02, ‎2014, ‏‎55 minutes ago | debbie

• Support for https/SSL downloading of YouTube videos via Certificate installation. By installing the included certificate, Replay Media Catcher 5 SSL Scanner Root, you will now be able to save YouTube videos over https and while logged into your Google account. (Settings->Internet->HTTP Adv) VPN users might need to switch to OpenVPN to capture some music videos.
• Support for new YouTube webm adaptive video formats.
• Support for audio splitting and "at complete" schedule events
• Removed RTMP monitoring of port 443 by default
• Now does a thumbnail lookup after each download is complete
• Now handles naming of YT streams that don't have a referer header in ssl scanner
• Now allows m4b to be imported into itunes
• Improved conversion support
• Improved HLS protocol detection, downloading and display.
• Implemented HDS recording (downloading already supported)
• Extra support for RSS feeds