How To Save Embeded (And Other) Videos, Without Fancy Software!

[Legmann]

How To Save Embeded (And Other) Videos
Without Fancy Software!

Note: I have tried to gear this to novices.

One of the fun things we come across here in the forum, is embeded videos.

They're fun! Click one, and it plays right there in the post!

But what if we want to save it on our computer?

Sure, we could find some fancy software, or if we have FF, some extension that might do it, but there actually is an easy way, that doesn't require anything you don't already have. And the reason is... it has already been downloaded to your computer!!!

Now, before I continue, you will probably want to play the videos offline. Most of the embeded videos will be FLV files. Many media players, like Windows Media Player, do not play FLV files. If you don't have an FLV player, here's the one I use. It's freeware.

http://www.tekool.net/flash/flv_player/index_en.html

Once it's installed, it's time to get those videos! You will find them in your Temporary Internet Files. I have XP with IE7, so depending on your system, you might get to them slightly different. Go to Start/Control Panel/Internet Options. Your Browser Settings should have an option to view the files.

The folder should say Temporary Internet Files. It has everything you have seen online, pictures, pages, videos, etc. It also has your cookies.

To make your videos easy to find, go to View/Arrange Icons By, and select Type. Now all your files are grouped by the type they are.

Cursor down till you find files that look like this.





The FLV videos (marked A) are pretty easy to spot, aren't they?

Now, there is another FLV video to watch for. It's marked B, and has "get_video" in the name. We'll talk about those in a second.

Okey dokey, copy all those videos like the one marked A, to a permanent folder, like your Video folder. Go to that Folder and rename them before you play them. Keep the ones you want, delete the ones you don't want. It's that easy!

Now, let's talk about the video marked B. Copy it to your permanent folder. Go to the permanent folder and rename it, but add an FLV extension. For example, you could rename it Vid.flv

When you do that, it should change to looking like the videos marked A. It's ready to go!

And that's it! That's all there is to it! It takes a while to say what to do, but once you get going, you'll find that it only takes a moment to actually do it!

Oh yes, one more thing. What if that video you saw isn't an FLV video, what if it's a WMV? You'll find any WMV videos towards the end of the Temporary Internet Files, after the cookies. You can't miss them! Just copy them to a permanent folder and rename them, like you did with the FLV files.

Have fun!

*edit*

For SWF (Shockwave Flash) files, see reply #8 in this thread.

[EEEman]

Good post!

Just to clarify, this method works only if you use IE (AFAIK). I don't know of any tool that lets someone look inside Firefox's cache, but Firefox's Fast Video Download extension (and possibly others) allows embedded videos to be downloaded.

[Legmann]

Originally Posted by EEEman

Good post!

Just to clarify, this method works only if you use IE (AFAIK). I don't know of any tool that lets someone look inside Firefox's cache, but Firefox's Fast Video Download extension (and possibly others) allows embedded videos to be downloaded.

Good point! Yes, as we both noted, there are FF extensions that help. Thanks for the link!

Of course, a lot of people use IE!

[defrabbit]

I'd also point out the website:

www.keepvid.com

you just drop the youtube, or whatever, link into their box
and it allows you to download the video like a normal download.

[Legmann]

Originally Posted by defrabbit

I'd also point out the website:

www.keepvid.com

you just drop the youtube, or whatever, link into their box
and it allows you to download the video like a normal download.

Which is one way, if you have the full link. As the instructions say, "Download videos DIRECT from most video sites Copy the link of the page with the video on it and paste it here."

But with embeded videos you don't have the page's full link, just the video ID surrounded by embed tags. So Keepvid won't help. I know, I just tried it.

BTW, if you want to turn something like the keepvid address you posted, into a clickable link, just click the blue ball button under the smiley, and paste it into the Explorer User Prompt. Return, or click OK, and it's inserted as a clickable link.

[Goofy™]

Nice work Legmann

[ryankenn]

Question, is there a way to do something similar with flash based media. I'm curious about getting some of the sound files from a particular site, and I had tried the method above to no avail.

Its the Transformers movie site ( yeah, I'm a nerd ) and they now have 10 phrases being read in the upcoming movies Optimus voice. I thought it would be cool to have one or two for certain things, but can't come up with a way to get them out of that site.

Just curious, thanks for the above!

Ryan

[Legmann]

Originally Posted by ryankenn

Question, is there a way to do something similar with flash based media. I'm curious about getting some of the sound files from a particular site, and I had tried the method above to no avail.

Its the Transformers movie site ( yeah, I'm a nerd ) and they now have 10 phrases being read in the upcoming movies Optimus voice. I thought it would be cool to have one or two for certain things, but can't come up with a way to get them out of that site.

Just curious, thanks for the above!

Ryan

Oh yes! You will love this!

I assume you mean:

http://www.transformersmovie.com/main.html

The files you want are SWF (Shockwave Flash) files. They are just above the cookies.


You will need a Flash viewer. Here's the one I use.

http://www.irfanview.net/


You can't miss SWF files, they look like red paint blotches!

I looked over the Transformer site, and then checked out my Temporary Internet Files. I suggest you copy Cybertron and Prime_speaks to your permanent folder, and rename, as I've described previously. I think you'll be very happy!

Also, once you have Ifranview installed, you can save and play any Flash games you come across!

Enjoy!

[ryankenn]

Thanks Legmann that worked great. Can't wait to start using this tool everywhere.

Ryan

[sqwerty]

Thanks Legmann..

this really helps me...

[NegativeN]

Does the firefox option really work?

[inspector gadget]

you could always use replay convertor to change the file extension from .flv to different file formats!

http://rapidshare.com/files/11947115...r.v2.20-TE.rar

comes with the crack aswell

[EEEman]

Originally Posted by NegativeN

Does the firefox option really work?

Yes, mostly!

From the homepage:

Fast Video Download designed to save a video file from total of 28 video-hosting servers:
Angry Alien, Anime Episodes, Anime Forever, Bad Jojo, Blip.TV, Bo-Funk, Bolt, Break.com, Bubblare.DK, College Humor, Current.TV, Daily Motion, Danerd, eVideo Share, Google Video, Grinvi, HI5 (VideoEgg), iFilm, Libero.IT Video, MetaCafe, My Space, HTB(NTV) News, PornoTube, Put File, Streetfire, Totally Crap (no full-support (only /video/ dir)), You Tube, V-Social, Vidiac

Processing of embedded YouTube video objects: Special download link will appear above every embedded YouTube Flash-Player posted on common pages such as blogs and web-boards with HTML input support.

Notice that it doesn't say anything about embedded videos from places other than YouTube (i.e. metacafe, etc.)

This works (video from the video site):

Originally Posted by Velvet

http://www.uniquepeek.com/viewpage.php?page_id=455

Click on above link, click on the Fast Video Download icon in Firefox's status bar, the following window pops up, right-click and download the flv file. (Click on the images below to expand them.)



This works (embedded video from YouTube):

Originally Posted by Spyker

This is what you see in Firefox:



You can also have the Fast Video Download Extension plug the results directly into the FlashGot extension - that way it's easy to use a download manager.

This doesn't work for me (embedded video from metacafe):

Originally Posted by Legmann

This is hilarious!!!

Click on the Fast Video Download icon in Firefox's status bar, this pops up:


The problem is that it's trying to download the file for the video player, not the video itself. (Basically there is a video inside a video.) I guess I have to wait for an update to the extension. I can get the actual video from http://www.metacafe.com/watch/227383/pooh_bear/, though.

Hilarious video, btw!


Hey, Mods! Does this thread rate a sticky?

[Legmann]

Originally Posted by NegativeN

Does the firefox option really work?

As EEEman points out, the FF downloader is limited to certain sites.

The FF cache is a bear to get into.

If you come across a site not on their list, I might suggest opening up IE, and running it from there.

Then you can get it easily, from the easy access IE Temporary Internet Files.

[EEEman]

Oh, yeah! Two more extensions (I forgot)! IE View adds "View this page in IE" to Firefox's right-click menu and FirefoxView (adds "View in Firefox" to IE's menus). If one doesn't work, you can always use the other!