Q: How do I copy a YouTube video and watch it on my computer?
Save YouTube Videos To Your Hard Drive
YouTube and other video sharing sites provide endless hours of wholesome, time-wasting entertainment. But what if you want to watch movies without the browser? There's no direct or easy way to download YouTube videos from the site, but thankfully there are ways to make a local copy for personal use. A number of tools exist to save a video for playback on your computer, iPod, iPhone, PSP and even your boring old DVD player.
Using Firefox
The easiest solution if you're a Firefox user is to install the Download Helper add-on. Download Helper can handle much more than just YouTube -- in fact the add-on can grab just about any media file from nearly any source and download it to your machine. There are also a couple of other Firefox plugins, notably Video Downloader, though the latest YouTube site update seems to be interfering with Video Downloader's ability to grab video for some users.
Using Other Desktop Software
If you're not a Firefox user, don't worry, there's some other options. My Video Downloader is a Windows program that will download movies from YouTube, though it will set you back $30 (there's a free trial that allows for 10 downloads so you can test it).
Mac users looking to go from YouTube straight over to your video iPod or AppleTV have a couple options. There's Podtube 2 which will download and convert files from YouTube, Daily Motion and MySpace. PodTube 2 is $5. TubeSock 2.0 offers similar features, though it only handles YouTube videos, and costs $15.
The latest RealPlayer (version 11, a beta release, is $30 and supports Windows XP and Vista only) has the ability to download and burn videos clips from YouTube and other sites like Google Video and MySpace Video. The player will automatically add a "Download" link button to video pages in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once downloaded, you can use the player to watch the videos or burn them to a DVD.
Although it hasn't been released yet, there's also a lot of talk surrounding Tubular, which looks a bit like iTunes applied to YouTube. Look for Tubular to enter the public beta phase later this year.
And finally, the most primitive -- but definitely free and working -- method is to use SaveTube.com. Just paste in the YouTube URL and SaveTube will find the cached file and give you a download link.
What to Do With Your Downloaded Video
Unless you're using one of the all-in-one solutions listed above, once you've pulled down the Flash FLV file from YouTube or another video sharing site, you'll need to convert it to another format for viewing in QuickTime (which includes iTunes and AppleTV) or Windows Media Player.
Alternately you can just use an FLV capable media player like the excellent and free VLC (all platforms).
To convert your FLV file on a Mac you can use iSquint, which is free though limited to output in MP4, or through the aforementioned TubeSock. For Windows folks there's Super, which is free, or Zillatube, which costs $30. Both support a wide range of output options.
Mac and Windows users can also try MPEG Streamclip, though Windows folks will need to download the Windows version of Apple QuickTime, which is also free.
Linux users can turn to ffmpeg (which also works on OS X and Windows). You'll need a little command line juice, but this conversion script should get you started:
ffmpeg -i myFile.flv -ab 56 -ar 22050 -b 500 -s 320×240 myFile.mpg
And there you have it, now you can watch your YouTube favorites anywhere you'd like in nearly any video format you can name.
09/06/07
Read
Firefox Add-ons: Download Helper 2.4.1
If you can’t play an flv and need a program to see the videos:
This video uses the DivX Codec , which is one of the most widespread codecs on the web. Go here
http://codecguide.com/download_mega.htm
and download the Codec Mega Pack. With that installed, you can watch EVERY movie everywhere.
To put a wmv on your web page that will open with the readers Windows Media Player program:
1. Grab flv video from YouTube with the free Firefox Add-on.
2. Check the flv and convert to an avi with free Media Classic Player.
3. Convert the avi to a wmv with the free Windows Media Encoder 9 Series.
Q: How do I put a video on my web site?
Putting a video onto your server is the same as putting a gif, html page, or anything else on your server. If the video is longer than 5 minutes, it might not load if your web page host times out on the upload. Read: How do I put a pdf online so I can link to it?
General - stream, vid, video and media
Windows Media Video - wmv, asf, asx, mms, avi
QuickTime Video : mov, mpeg, avi, 3gp
Real Video : rtsp, ram, rmQ: What is streaming audio/video?
Streaming audio/video allows you to see and hear multimedia in real time -- as it arrives at your computer -- without having to wait for an entire audio or video file to download first.
From webcastgroup:
The slides are not changing.
First, make sure that your system is configured properly to allow slide changes:
... For Windows users: Run Windows Media Player. Typically found in the menu Start->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment. Under the menu Tools->Options, go to the Security tab. Make sure that the option "Run script commands when present" IS checked. Make sure that the option "Do not run script commands and rich media streams if the Player is running inside a Web page" is NOT checked.
... For Mac users: Run Windows Media Player. Typically found in the Applications folder. Under the menu Windows Media Player->Preferences, go to the Security tab. Make sure that the option "Run script commands when present" IS checked. Make sure that the option "Do not run script commands and rich media streams if the Player is running inside a Web page" is NOT checked.
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