How to save 'Shalka' to your computer
A couple of you IMed me asking how to do this after I mentioned it in another thread, so I thought I'd post a guide for anyone who is curious.
NOTE TO IMDB MODERATORS: Saving a webcast Flash file from the Internet for personal use is in no way illegal or immoral. It's not "piracy" or "bootlegging" to save something to your computer that is made to be downloaded to your computer, any more than it is to use Tivo or a videotape to save a TV show.
Now, on with the guide... Basically all you need to do is save the SWF files, which are the Flash files that store the actual cartoon. Then, you need a way to play them. I don't recommend following this guide step-by-step immediately, you'll probably understand what's going on a whole lot better if you read the whole thing front to back first before trying any of it. You'll save yourself some time and confusion.
SAVING THE FLASH FILES
Frst you must get a feel for how the show is separated and stored on the BBC's website. The show is divided into six "episodes," and each episode is separated into several "parts." Each part is an SWF file, or Flash files named broadX.swf (where X represents the part number of the file within its episode.)
Be sure to keep the files separated by episode when you save them, as the parts of different episodes re-use the same filenames. Episode One is made up of its parts, which are named broadone.swf, broadtwo.swf, broadthree.swf, and so on. Episode Two is made up of a different broadone.swf, broadtwo.swf, etc.. so if you save them into the same folder they'll save over the other ones.
When I do this, I end up archiving them in folders by episode, so I have a folder called shalka\ which has folders inside it called episode1\, episode2\, and so on. Then, my episode1 folder will have the files broadone.swf, broadtwo.swf, and so on in it, my episode2 folder will contain that episode's broadone.swf, broadtwo.swf... you get the idea.
Here are links to view and save the files. You may not be able to save the SWFs without going to the real BBC webpage first, as the BBC may protect against "hotlinking," which basically means they won't let a web browser that's not browsing their site save files off of it.
So what you must do with these links is:
1) Load the "site" link first, in a new browser window or tab so you don't lose this page. Wait for it to load completely and the cartoon to start.
2) Then you can use the accompanying "download" link from this list to save the Flash file directly. You can do this by right-clicking (or the equivalent on your system) and choosing "save link as" or "save linked document as," or you can do it by clicking the link normally and letting the file load full-screen, and then using your browser's "File" menu to save the file.
3) Once you've saved that SWF somewhere, you can close that extra browser window or tab, and repeat the process with the next part.
LINKS LIST:
EPISODE ONE
Go to:
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/broadone.sh tml
Then, right-click and save link as:
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/flash/broad one.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/broadtwo.sh tml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/flash/broad two.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/broadthree. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/flash/broad three.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/broadfour.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/one/flash/broad four.swf
EPISODE TWO
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/broadone.sh tml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/flash/broad one.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/broadtwo.sh tml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/flash/broad two.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/broadthree. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/two/flash/broad three.swf
EPISODE THREE
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/broadone. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/flash/bro adone.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/broadtwo. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/flash/bro adtwo.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/broadthre e.shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/flash/bro adthree.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/broadfour .shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/three/flash/bro adfour.swf
EPISODE FOUR
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/broadone.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/flash/broa done.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/broadtwo.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/flash/broa dtwo.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/broadthree .shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/flash/broa dthree.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/broadfour. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/four/flash/broa dfour.swf
EPISODE FIVE
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/broadone.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/flash/broa done.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/broadtwo.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/flash/broa dtwo.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/broadthree .shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/flash/broa dthree.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/broadfour. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/five/flash/broa dfour.swf
EPISODE SIX
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/broadone.sh tml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/flash/broad one.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/broadtwo.sh tml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/flash/broad two.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/broadthree. shtml
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/flash/broad three.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/broadfour.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/flash/broad four.swf
SITE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/broadfive.s html
DOWNLOAD: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/six/flash/broad five.swf
PLAYING THE FILES
Flash files normally play in your web browser, with the use of a Flash plugin, but these particular files are tricky. They are programmed to check where you're playing the file from, and if it's not from the BBC website the files will pause themselves on a blank screen. The BBC put this restriction on the files so someone else can't post these files on their own site, and thereby have a knockoff site where people can watch the content without the BBC's permission. That of course would be piracy, but the protection mechanism has the unfortunate side effect of preventing you from re-watching your own copy, which in most if not all places is perfectly fine and legal as an example of fair use. So, you need to load the file in a standalone player instead of your browser.
STANDALONE PLAYERS
What's a standalone player? It's the same sort of thing as Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or whatever else you use to play different types of multimedia files. They typically have a viewing window, and play controls.
The play controls are critical to our purposes. When the Flash files freeze up due to not being played back directly from the BBC site, they simply shift the playback to frame 0, a frozen frame which doesn't let playback get past it, instead of frame 1 which is the real beginning of the show. Your browser window doesn't have play controls, so there's no way to get past that frozen frame to the rest of the show. So, you need to find a standalone Flash player for your system. When you load the file into your player, it will freeze, but you can just click the little scroll-button to skip ahead a second or so, and the file will then play! Huzzah!
If you're using Windows, I highly recommend Media Player Classic. It's a completely free, highly versatile player that can handle just about any format, including Flash. You can dowload it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/, or the less-confusing http://www.download.com/Media-Player-Classic/3000-2139_4-10518777.html ?tag=lst-0-2
Unfortunately, I'm not able to test players for other systems at the moment. If you're not using Windows or just don't want to use Media Player Classic for some reason, I suggest you grab just one of the Flash files from the above section, and then search out an SWF-compatible player for your system. You can then try the one Flash file you have in whatever players you can until you find one that works, and then download the rest of the Flash files. Of course, if you do find one that works for you post about it here, so I can add it to this guide.
WHAT NEXT?
Now you can take these files, open them into Media Player Classic or whatever else you've found, and watch the cartoon in a real full-screen (no browser!) You can even burn them to a CD-ROM along with the wallpapers from the site and whatever else strikes your fancy, and shelve it alongside your other Dr Who goodies, as I have.
You can also apply these same instructions to the BBC's "Shada" webcast, as it was also done in Flash. These instructions shouldn't be too hard to modify for that webcast once you've got the hang of things.
Enjoy! And please reply to this post with any feedback or questions. I'll do my best but if I can't answer something for you, chances are someone else can.
-- Rob
http://robvincent.net http://spacemutiny.com share