video capture methods

[Scott & Lai 12]

Does anyone know a way to capture a video, such as Flash or on You Tube, and save it to the hard drive?

[Jenn! 918]

There are video download add-ons for Firefox.

I have one called Download Helper. But it saves the file as an *.flv and you have to buy (or try) a conversion application.

Edited June 12, 2008 by Jenn!

[DeadPoolX 9]

If you have Firefox, then install an extension (or add-on, as Mozilla likes to call them now) called Video DownloadHelper.

The one downside to this program (and it's one that all similar software share) is that when you download videos off websites like YouTube, it comes in as a "Flash Video" or FLV file. That's great, since it's compressed, but that also means you'll need a program capable of playing it, since Windows Media Player can't do it.

In that situation, I'd recommend the Applian FLV Player which is completely free. It's a nice, simple piece of software, so even the most basic computer users could handle it, as opposed to more complex programs like WinAMP (which I tend to prefer for most uses).

If you're interested in converting your FLV file into a more reasily accessible form of media, then download this Free Video Converter, which works exceptionally well. I was surprised, considering it's a free program, it's very useful. The same company,KoyoteSoft, has other free programs as well -- I downloaded the audio convertor in addition to the video program.

[Marilyn. 340]

there is a site called vixy that converts flv files to avi files ...

http://vixy.net/

[Jenn! 918]

Thanks for the flv converter links! I had been using one, but my free trial expired. Good to know there is freeware available.

[Marilyn. 340]

DVD flick is a good program for converting avi files to DVD...

[Scott & Lai 12]

If you have Firefox, then install an extension (or add-on, as Mozilla likes to call them now) called Video DownloadHelper.

The one downside to this program (and it's one that all similar software share) is that when you download videos off websites like YouTube, it comes in as a "Flash Video" or FLV file. That's great, since it's compressed, but that also means you'll need a program capable of playing it, since Windows Media Player can't do it.

In that situation, I'd recommend the Applian FLV Player which is completely free. It's a nice, simple piece of software, so even the most basic computer users could handle it, as opposed to more complex programs like WinAMP (which I tend to prefer for most uses).

If you're interested in converting your FLV file into a more reasily accessible form of media, then download this Free Video Converter, which works exceptionally well. I was surprised, considering it's a free program, it's very useful. The same company,KoyoteSoft, has other free programs as well -- I downloaded the audio convertor in addition to the video program.

No luck....installed Firefox, installed Video DownloadHelper, captured an .FLV. Applian FLV Player wouldn't play it. Free Video Converter "encountered a problem and needed to close" whenever I tried to convert it

[o0pink0o 3]

Does anyone know a way to capture a video, such as Flash or on You Tube, and save it to the hard drive?

whenever i watch videos on you tube, my real player always pops up and ask me if i want to download the vid. i haven't tried it though but try real player if you want.

Edited June 13, 2008 by o0pink0o

[Dan J 277]

there is a site called vixy that converts flv files to avi files ...

http://vixy.net/

Converting lossy compression to lossy compression is not a good idea. Most video compression codecs, in order to store a video in a reasonable amount of space, throw away alot of data, much of it you wont nessarily notice, but with a recompression it only gets worse.

[DeadPoolX 9]

If you have Firefox, then install an extension (or add-on, as Mozilla likes to call them now) called Video DownloadHelper.

The one downside to this program (and it's one that all similar software share) is that when you download videos off websites like YouTube, it comes in as a "Flash Video" or FLV file. That's great, since it's compressed, but that also means you'll need a program capable of playing it, since Windows Media Player can't do it.

In that situation, I'd recommend the Applian FLV Player which is completely free. It's a nice, simple piece of software, so even the most basic computer users could handle it, as opposed to more complex programs like WinAMP (which I tend to prefer for most uses).

If you're interested in converting your FLV file into a more reasily accessible form of media, then download this Free Video Converter, which works exceptionally well. I was surprised, considering it's a free program, it's very useful. The same company,KoyoteSoft, has other free programs as well -- I downloaded the audio convertor in addition to the video program.

No luck....installed Firefox, installed Video DownloadHelper, captured an .FLV. Applian FLV Player wouldn't play it. Free Video Converter "encountered a problem and needed to close" whenever I tried to convert it

Whoa.

I've never run into that. Are you attempting to run an unusually large video file? When you downloaded it, did you encounter any problems? Did your connection have issues? If the file itself was corrupted, then the programs won't play or convert it, since they won't recognize it.

I'd suggest downloading it again. Aside from having a strong and steady broadband connection, it's generally best to download video during "off-peak" hours, since there's less traffic. That means early in the morning or late at night; the afternoon can vary, especially if school's been let out. Avoid evenings like the plague, since everyone -- adults and kids -- are on doing who-knows-what and chewing up the bandwidth on whatever website you wish to visit. That alone could slow your download to a crawl.

[Scott & Lai 12]

If you have Firefox, then install an extension (or add-on, as Mozilla likes to call them now) called Video DownloadHelper.

The one downside to this program (and it's one that all similar software share) is that when you download videos off websites like YouTube, it comes in as a "Flash Video" or FLV file. That's great, since it's compressed, but that also means you'll need a program capable of playing it, since Windows Media Player can't do it.

In that situation, I'd recommend the Applian FLV Player which is completely free. It's a nice, simple piece of software, so even the most basic computer users could handle it, as opposed to more complex programs like WinAMP (which I tend to prefer for most uses).

If you're interested in converting your FLV file into a more reasily accessible form of media, then download this Free Video Converter, which works exceptionally well. I was surprised, considering it's a free program, it's very useful. The same company,KoyoteSoft, has other free programs as well -- I downloaded the audio convertor in addition to the video program.

No luck....installed Firefox, installed Video DownloadHelper, captured an .FLV. Applian FLV Player wouldn't play it. Free Video Converter "encountered a problem and needed to close" whenever I tried to convert it

Whoa.

I've never run into that. Are you attempting to run an unusually large video file? When you downloaded it, did you encounter any problems? Did your connection have issues? If the file itself was corrupted, then the programs won't play or convert it, since they won't recognize it.

I'd suggest downloading it again. Aside from having a strong and steady broadband connection, it's generally best to download video during "off-peak" hours, since there's less traffic. That means early in the morning or late at night; the afternoon can vary, especially if school's been let out. Avoid evenings like the plague, since everyone -- adults and kids -- are on doing who-knows-what and chewing up the bandwidth on whatever website you wish to visit. That alone could slow your download to a crawl.

I don't think it is unusually large. Had no troubles downloading; I have cable, and it's pretty fast. Tried downloading it again, and got exactly the same results. I did try another video, though (the Omaha storm video), and that worked fine.

This is the one that failed: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525m.html

[DeadPoolX 9]

If you have Firefox, then install an extension (or add-on, as Mozilla likes to call them now) called Video DownloadHelper.

The one downside to this program (and it's one that all similar software share) is that when you download videos off websites like YouTube, it comes in as a "Flash Video" or FLV file. That's great, since it's compressed, but that also means you'll need a program capable of playing it, since Windows Media Player can't do it.

In that situation, I'd recommend the Applian FLV Player which is completely free. It's a nice, simple piece of software, so even the most basic computer users could handle it, as opposed to more complex programs like WinAMP (which I tend to prefer for most uses).

If you're interested in converting your FLV file into a more reasily accessible form of media, then download this Free Video Converter, which works exceptionally well. I was surprised, considering it's a free program, it's very useful. The same company,KoyoteSoft, has other free programs as well -- I downloaded the audio convertor in addition to the video program.

No luck....installed Firefox, installed Video DownloadHelper, captured an .FLV. Applian FLV Player wouldn't play it. Free Video Converter "encountered a problem and needed to close" whenever I tried to convert it

Whoa.

I've never run into that. Are you attempting to run an unusually large video file? When you downloaded it, did you encounter any problems? Did your connection have issues? If the file itself was corrupted, then the programs won't play or convert it, since they won't recognize it.

I'd suggest downloading it again. Aside from having a strong and steady broadband connection, it's generally best to download video during "off-peak" hours, since there's less traffic. That means early in the morning or late at night; the afternoon can vary, especially if school's been let out. Avoid evenings like the plague, since everyone -- adults and kids -- are on doing who-knows-what and chewing up the bandwidth on whatever website you wish to visit. That alone could slow your download to a crawl.

I don't think it is unusually large. Had no troubles downloading; I have cable, and it's pretty fast. Tried downloading it again, and got exactly the same results. I did try another video, though (the Omaha storm video), and that worked fine.

This is the one that failed: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525m.html

Not that I didn't believe you, but I tried it myself and sure enough, I had the same issues -- it wouldn't play as an FLV nor would it convert. I tried converting the file from FLV to AVI, WMV, ASF and even DVD (NTSC) video. None of that worked; in fact, it booted me out of the program.

The only help I can perhaps offer now is to use VLC Media Player instead. It won't convert the file for you, but it can (supposedly) play FLV files as easily as it can any other more common format. It's also cross-platform, so it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, and some handheld devices too.

If that doesn't work, then I don't know what to say or do.