I use IDM for capturing streaming video.

I’m having some trouble with the playback. My usual video player software is VLC but it doesn’t like the .flv file of the captured stream. I might get it to play sometimes, but I can’t jump around the sequence (eg, to skip the adverts). I’ve tried just about every video player I could legally get hold of, and the most suitable so far is smplayer (smplayer.sourceforge.net). It usually allows me to skip backwards and forward. If there was a lag in the capture the playback ends and the player goes black. If I fish around a bit I may be able to commence watching a little bit past where the playback crashed, but after a few times it can be a very boring.

My guess about the poor playback performance is that it may have something to do with lack of keyframes in the capture file. My knowledge of the workings of video software isn’t much, so that’s best I can do at this point. If anyone else out there is watching playbacks of captured streams, what player and capturing utility are you using? Video files downloaded with IDM have never been a problem, only the streams.

I am not sure based on your post if you are capturing streaming video for later watching (sort of like a PVR) while not at your computer, or if you are trying to capture something while it is streaming and you are at your computer. If it is the latter, try SnagIt. It works quite well for this application.

Have you tried using VLC to Convert/Save... the captured file into another file format. like mp4?

Hi just download Gom player. It's free and has played everything I have asked it to over the years and certainly flv files

Just untick any boxes during installation for any bundled software