How to download and save streaming videos

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	TOP STORY How to download and save streaming videos
	By Woody Leonhard How many times have you wanted to download and store an online streaming video so you could play it back at a different time or on a different machine? While the basics of downloading YouTube and other videos have been around for a long time, there are tricks to getting the video you want into a format you can use.

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The full text of this column is posted at WindowsSecrets.com/top-story/how-to-download-and-save-streaming-videos/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Another tip for downloading media files is to use URLsnooper2 to resolve the URL of any media files loaded from a website, which can then be copied to any download manager for downloading. Works for the majority of streaming media.

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/urlsnooper/

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I found this freeware a nice one too:
http://www.freemake.com/

It is very simple and non-technical. :rolleyes:

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I use the Youtube downloader in Freestudio (dvdvideosoft.com) – also available as a standalone download.

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Not mentioned in the article is the most obvious way of ‘downloading’ videos. You will find it in your browser cache! The file name in cache may not be obvious but you can usually quickly identify it and copy it elsewhere, changing its extension to .flv. No need for any fancy software to do a pretty trivial task.

Irfanview will also play .flv files – needs the appropriate Irfanview plugin.

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Not mentioned in the article is the most obvious way of ‘downloading’ videos. You will find it in your browser cache! The file name in cache may not be obvious but you can usually quickly identify it and copy it elsewhere, changing its extension to .flv. No need for any fancy software to do a pretty trivial task.

Irfanview will also play .flv files – needs the appropriate Irfanview plugin.

Indeed! To view or buffer any video online it must actually download to your computer. Most of the time, this is to your browser cache (although some apps will download to their own special folder, such as the DivX Web Player for example). The downside, is that it means scrabbling through your browser cache to find it and the cache may be quite large if not emptied recently and the video may not have an easily recognisable name. The solution, is a nice free small portable app (so requires no installing) by Nirsoft called Video Cache View. It will examine your cache and list all videos present, allowing you to copy the one you want elsewhere to watch later or to play it straight from the cache. The other good thing is it works with any video (if it’s in the cache), not only those from Youtube: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html

Enjoy!

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Indeed! To view or buffer any video online it must actually download to your computer. Most of the time, this is to your browser cache (although some apps will download to their own special folder, such as the DivX Web Player for example). The downside, is that it means scrabbling through your browser cache to find it and the cache may be quite large if not emptied recently and the video may not have an easily recognisable name. The solution, is a nice free small portable app (so requires no installing) by Nirsoft called Video Cache View. It will examine your cache and list all videos present, allowing you to copy the one you want elsewhere to watch later or to play it straight from the cache. The other good thing is it works with any video (if it’s in the cache), not only those from Youtube: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/video_cache_view.html

If you’re going to link to NirSoft, the really invaluable tool is WebVideoCap – it actually looks at the TCP/IP packets to reconstruct videos that can’t even normally be salvaged from the browser cache. It makes the screen-recording method redundant!

BB Flashback Express is my [FREE!] screen recorder of choice, btw.

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Nothing in the Woody Leonard column worked for Windows Ultimate 7 (64-bit). KEEPVID did nothing and the Firefox add-on ‘Video DownloadHelper’ installed but never showed up as advertised. I am not a Leonard fan anyway but this was the worst.

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I’ve tried most of the products/solutions in the article and thread with varying degrees of success, often with problems. The best program for this has not been mentioned – StreamTransport. Here is a link to the site, where a description is provided of how to use the program:
http://www.streamtransport.com/howto/
StreamTransport seems to work better than the Firefox plugins, at least in part because it acts as its own browser. Highly recommended.

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Nothing in the Woody Leonard column worked for Windows Ultimate 7 (64-bit). KEEPVID did nothing and the Firefox add-on ‘Video DownloadHelper’ installed but never showed up as advertised. I am not a Leonard fan anyway but this was the worst.

Are you sure you are using the 32-bit version of your browser? These programs and plug-ins only work with 32-bit browsers.

-- rc primak

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Hi Woody
Helpful programs I have found.
To copy streaming video and lots of other things I love AMCMediaSuit. Especialy RadioGet.
http://www.all-music-converter.com/

Also a website with an unbelievable range of programs for changing videos and music:
http://www.xilisoft.com/
Regards
Peter

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Hi folks,

I recomend AVS4YOU free video capture software, for WIN XP and above! very good

bye4now

Paul

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Thanks for sharing this useful tutorial. I always spend much time in watching videos online and like finding good downloading utilities. The tool I’m using now is Video Download Capture, it can download streaming videos from most sites.

http://en.kioskea.net/download/download-15918-video-download-capture

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I found a YouTube video tutorial which introduces how to download and save streaming videos at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0srs4kJMahw&feature=youtu.be

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I am interested in VLC recording capability . Could you post or give a link to the material. Thanks
Shabi

I use the Youtube downloader in Freestudio (dvdvideosoft.com) – also available as a standalone download.

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VLC Media Player has a vast array of capabilities that may be unknown to many. I use it routinely to capture streaming videos, to convert and/or save streams on-the-fly while listening/viewing, and to monitor network cameras. Practically everything mentioned in the column is possible with VLC alone. Its command-line driven options and capabilities are a powerful toolset. I have written various batch files that assist in the use of VLC, for instance to direct a stream’s output to files with the current date/time in the filenames. If anyone is interested in seeing those batch scripts, I’m happy to send or post them.

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About Downloadhelper:
it puts hundreds of porn sites in very easy reach of youngsters – hundreds. it has an option right in the main page to allow adult content, it is just a tick box. If you ‘allow’ it puts up all of the porn sites, with links, and then highlights them to bake them standout from normal sites like youtube – porn gets priority!

Screen recording:
I use Camstudio – it supports sound, you can add annotations, there are many options, you can record full screen, a fixed portion of a screen (like a web video) or ‘follow the mouse’ mode. No ads, Free to use! check it out: http://www.camstudio.org/

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I purchased Applian Replay Capture Suite, and have been pretty happy with it. The only site I wanted that I haven’t been able to pull video from is BBC. It’ll also do basic video editing, and convert from almost any to almost any other format.

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I too use Applian Replay Capture. It is excellent. Downloads fast and converts relatively fast to many formats.
shabi

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Maxthon 3 is a great browser for saving streaming video as well. there is a little drop-down menu right in the address bar that shows you what all media is available on the page you are on for downloading. works as well with streaming and downloading mp3s.

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I purchased Applian Replay Capture Suite, and have been pretty happy with it. The only site I wanted that I haven’t been able to pull video from is BBC. It’ll also do basic video editing, and convert from almost any to almost any other format.

I’ve been using Applian Replay Capture too and have generally been pretty happy with it. It does download from most sites, but doesn’t work with Hulu or Comedy Central. Someone above recommended http://www.freemake.com, and they claim to be able to download from Comedy Central so I’ll be checking them out.

One downside to Applian is that whenever they do a major upgrade, they make you pay for the upgrade. Very irritating, but at least they don’t make you pay full price, usually just $10 for the upgraded version. They do have a lot of products that are pretty good, so it might be worth it to buy the entire suite. Assuming you can’t find all you need from all the suggestions posted here.

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What kind of an ignorant, or deliberately misleading comment was that in the article?!

“Try to play them on your iPad or iPhone, and you might get an obscure, bogus error message about a server malfunction. Server malfunction, my foot. YouTube just hasn’t taken the time or care to convert formats. So I have to do it myself.”

Jobs and co have gone out of their way to disable the use of Flash which has become the de facto web video standard. Sure, HTML 5 is on the way, but that is a migration path. For Apple to systematically dis-allow the use of flash on the iPad in the meantime is quite outrageous and it is incredible that no-one has held them to account.

There is no way that Google nor anyone else should be expected to convert all their vids so that Apple appliances can view them under such outrageous circumstances – that is, it is not a technical issue but a commercial one where Apple are trying to seize the ground from Adobe and myopic people like Woody have taken Apple’s tactics as hook, line and sinker. As a consequence my opinion of Windows Secrets has seriously taken a big hit.

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Another one not mentioned and I use quite regularly is PwnYouTube
http://deturl.com/

Works for DailyMotion, Facebook, Break, MetaCafe, FunnyOrDie, Vimeo and some more sites.

I use the BookmarkYou, YOu simply go to the website then go into favorites and select PwnYouTube favorite, you are then given choice of quality/ resolution version of the video you wish to download..
Very handy!..

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Real Player free version works for any video I want to save. I tried some others that were recommended elsewhere including the Firefox add on, but FF and I do not ‘gee and haw’ very well. Then I went back to what I already had, Real Player, and no-problem-o.

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Another one not mentioned and I use quite regularly is PwnYouTube
http://deturl.com/

I used to use Video DownloadHelper (VDH), but it includes (at least it did last year) a watermark on the video that spoils the quality IMO. Also, I wasn’t happy with the resolution, and (at the time) couldn’t suss out a way to download high resolution streams.

I’ve switched to PwnYouTube (like Savagess), and have had great success using the PwnYouTube bookmarklet–look for it in the “Download Tools” section of the page link provided by Savagess (above). When clicked (I keep it in my bookmarks toolbar in Firefox), it pops up an interface that shows all the possible resolutions and file formats (among the ones that it supports). I’ve found that its highest-resolution mp4 conversions are far superior to anything I ever got using VDH, such that I’ve gone back to the original sources for videos that I’d originally captured with VDH and re-ripped them with PYT. Oh, and there are no watermarks!

Highly recommended.

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Seems very useful and I was glad to hear that it was possible to do by iPad, but do any of these programs work for those of us with an Android tablet. I’ve read reviews of some plug-ins that supposedly work with Firefox, regardless of the platform, but they still won’t install on the droid.

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Seems very useful and I was glad to hear that it was possible to do by iPad, but do any of these programs work for those of us with an Android tablet. I’ve read reviews of some plug-ins that supposedly work with Firefox, regardless of the platform, but they still won’t install on the droid.

I’ve found it easier with iPhone, iPad and Android to download the video streams on a Windows PC, save them, then copy them over to the phone or pad. It’s surprisingly easy once you have the file in MP4 format – the only downside is using iTunes (yech) to put the file on the pad.

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I’ve found it easier with iPhone, iPad and Android to download the video streams on a Windows PC, save them, then copy them over to the phone or pad. It’s surprisingly easy once you have the file in MP4 format – the only downside is using iTunes (yech) to put the file on the pad.

The problem with this is that the real value of the iPad is to stay in touch when you are away from home using a really small machine – and that goes away if you have to lug a laptop with you as well.

I am trying to watch a streamed windows media video (a live wildlife webcam), which has an alternative Silverlight format but no others. While VLC has apps for the iPad, it does not seem to have a Safari plug-in. I posted on the Apple site here https://discussions.apple.com/message/15439207#15439207 to look for a solution, but without luck.

Do any of the [smarter] contributors in this forum have any ideas?

Chris
Win 10 Pro x64 Group A

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Seems very useful and I was glad to hear that it was possible to do by iPad, but do any of these programs work for those of us with an Android tablet. I’ve read reviews of some plug-ins that supposedly work with Firefox, regardless of the platform, but they still won’t install on the droid.

I’ve been searching for a good YouTube downloader for the Android on and off for months. I think I’ve finally found a solution that works (for me).

I tried Savagess recommendation and used pwnYouTube and it worked great on my HTC Incredible! Don’t use the Java based downloaders, instead select one of the converters. I ended up using Online-Convert.com (pwnYouTube includes it as one of their links) and it converted and let me download the MP4 with no problems. A lot of hoops to jump through, but at least *finally* I can directly save YouTube videos on my Droid instead of trying to stream them.

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A possible argument that YouTube is not concerned about downloads of videos may be because it is not physically attempting to block downloads with the tools mentioned in the article and in the comments. Hulu changed its setup a couple of months ago to stop from downloads videos with the likes of Streamtransport. It seems that the developers of Streamtransport are not planning any upgrades.

Streamtransport works on downloading the Windows 8 demo video mentioned in the article and it’s a definite first choice when the other downloading solutions don’t work. Even for the videos on the TV networks’ (CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS etc) websites, downloading from which is probably far more controversial and questionable than YouTube.

Orbit Downloader is a great addition to one’s general download manager arsenal and also works well in Internet Explorer and Firefox. You can download YouTube like video with Orbit in Firefox, almost as seamlessly as DownloadHelper, with Flashgot but it seems that you have to manually (cut and paste) give the downloaded file a name.

If you’re using the Firefox addon, Video Downloadhelper, it works well together with another good addon, DownloadThemAll. The advantage of this type of combination is if you’re sharing internet access and you’re able to limit download speeds so as not to hog the bandwith, or you need some of the available bandwith for other internet access while you’re downloading video.

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scuttle613

I appreciate your analysis and suggestions, there is no authentic almighty software to deal with so many popular video sites and different programs are good at dowloading videos from different certains websites. Thank you again for the tips.

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AVS Video Editor 6.0 software is FREE and has a screen capture function.

I have a paid subscription (Unlimited Lifetime Subscription) for about $60 which gives you access to all of thier Audio/Video/Image/Miscellaneous Software as well as online support.

PaulS

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I prefer to use some Audials Tunebite piece of software whenever I need to download and save streaming videos.

It’s an internet video downloader but also has the advantage that it can be used as a screen capture program for hard to capture streaming videos or anything like this.
Sure is useful for me to download streaming videos from all sorts of websites for offline watching on pc or my mobile devices.

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I purchased WM Capture which is a subset of WM Recorder from http://www.wmrecorder.com. It does basically a screen capture, but will record in most native formats and can then be burned to DVD using Windows Movie Maker.

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I’d like use some screen recorder to help me copy streaming videos, for it can be applicable to any websites, so you can not use it to help you download streaming video from any websites. And it also can capture whatever is displayed on your computer screen with high quality.

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