

RTMPDumpHelper will walk you through the process of establishing a proxy server that will intercept any RTMP streams (including those for Hulu and several smaller video-streaming sites) and save them as an MP4 file. Your experience may differ on Linux, but on Windows you can simply download RTMPDumpHelper and the RTMPDump Toolkit, unzip both into one folder, and then open the RTMPDumpHelper program. Viewers who want to record streaming movies and TV for later enjoyment should try RTMPDumpHelper, a free utility designed to download media that you’re streaming via RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol, which Hulu uses). Hulu doesn’t provide an official download option. Fortunately, as I’ll discuss later, some unsanctioned third-party alternatives can give you considerably more control over your streamed media. Amazon’s official solution to the offline-viewing problem is a bit of a wash. The user experience was unpleasant, and offered no added convenience compared with watching video in my browser or through iTunes. A half hour and several rounds of quitting out of the program and refreshing my recent purchases later, the film finally showed up in Unbox for offline viewing. I rented a movie on Amazon to test whether Unbox could indeed download files for later.

If you want to do that, you’ll have to turn to some unorthodox third-party alternatives. Amazon’s Unbox player is great for downloading digital copies of movies and TV shows you’ve purchased on Amazon, but you can’t use it to save streaming Instant Video for later.
