Video downloader Firefox add-on:
Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion... and other 60+ video sites! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc)! Directly!

VideoDownloader add a small icon on the status bar at the bottom of your firefox window, and a toolbar button. Just click that and download the video you are watching!
Very nice. Of course it's always possible to download the movies yourself, without this add-on, but sometimes it takes some real detective work viewing the page source to figure out what the "real" URL of some embedded media is. And if you can't decipher HTML you really probably can't do it without this. Might get me to switch. I'll certainly just jump to Firefox for those situations.
- jim 4-30-2006 8:53 pm

I added the Firefox extension to my browser window. I opened a YouTube file I wanted to save, and clicked the video downloader.
It said right-click and "save target as"

Strange--"save target as..." is what IE calls it. Firefox is "save link as..."

Anyway, it tells you to add .flv to the filename and open the .flv in an open-source player you have to download.

It says if you want to convert the .flv to an .avi, .mov, etc you have to consult the help page (?)

Anyway, adding .flv didn't work, Firefox added .htm after the .flv.

So now I have a 9.5 MB file on my hard drive called "get_video.flv.htm"

This ain't easy, but I really would like to save some of these YouTube vids before The Man shuts the whole thing down...

I haven't tried the .flv player, etc--I have to go to w*rk now.
- tom moody 4-30-2006 10:17 pm


Well, if it's 9.5 MB you obviously have it saved (it's not just an .html page.) What if you just hack off the .htm in Windows? I'll bet you'll have the playable .flv file then. But you may not have anything that can play it.

I'll report back more after I experiment with it.
- jim 4-30-2006 10:58 pm


keepvid might be of some help in terms of saving movies from youtube, google video, etc...

Still haven't had a chance to play with the firefox plug in.
- jim 5-08-2006 6:28 pm


I haven't either. Thanks. I read that YouTube now limits uploads to videos 10 minutes and under "for copyright reasons"--legally that's BS but could be the beginning of a new fair use definition.
I think this rush of interesting video that people are finding and sharing is analogous to the early days of Napster and the pigs won't tolerate it long. "What, people are having fun and we're not profiting from it? They're supposed to buy the weak shit we sell them!"
- tom moody 5-08-2006 7:10 pm


I agree with you, but it doesn't seem like that big of a problem to me. They don't tolerate music sharing, but outside of a few successful law suits (which, admittedly, *really* suck for the handful who get caught,) they haven't been able to do anything about it. They are just shooting themselves in the foot. Good riddance I say. Now everyone is building private sites and encrypted P2P networks ("dark nets") which are probably good things to have around anyway.

In a sense their (RIAA, MPAA, etc...) lameness is pushing hackers to build a better, more secure, "free" layer on top of the internet. The only downside is that these new layers can't be completely open. The web will splinter into millions of closed (hidden, encrypted,) communities. But really that doesn't seem so bad to me. AOL, Geocities, MySpace, are open to anyone, but mostly filled with crap. If the litigious content industries didn't force us into our own private networks then the spammers and trolls would probably do it anyway. I think that's just the way things are going.
- jim 5-08-2006 7:36 pm


As an artist I dread the Balkanization. Having the web worldwide has given me a new community and the inspiration to change (and grow, I hope) in ways I never would have anticipated 10 years ago. I'm happy to see "the industry" die a much deserved death but I like that people can find--are finding--my stuff (music, video, the things that *can* be consumed online) all over the planet, and that I'm not back to being restricted to a private network for a potential audience. No offense to any (non-infringing!) networks I might (ever) be a part of.

As a consumer, too, I like the concept of private databases operating outside the knowledge of litigious thugs, but would still want the ability to cast a sieve all over the world to feed the databases.
- tom moody 5-08-2006 7:52 pm


Fair enough. Good points. I'm still trying to get my head around this whole thing, so I'm just thinking out loud here.

I think the Balkanization will happen, but that doesn't mean the larger "open" internet will go away. There are financial pressures on the big boys to keep the data flowing (in order to keep the pipes filled,) even as there is financial pressure on other big boys to lock everything down. I don't think either side is in a position to score a clear victory.

So I don't think we'll end up with an ideal internet world. But it won't be so bad either. It will be largely free and open, but with some regulations that one side will find onerous, along with lots of private "back rooms" where activities can take place out of the public eye that the other side will think of as infringing and illegal without being in any position to stop.
- jim 5-08-2006 8:08 pm





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