Download (Almost) Any Video Online
Download (Almost) Any Video Online
Wanna' know how to download Youtube videos without 5 different plugins that keep getting outdated??
Want to download from various other (porn) sites that don't have a download plugin at all?
Simply interested in how to find which resources pages are calling in so you can nick them for yourself?
This guide should help.
Wanna' know how to download Youtube videos without 5 different plugins that keep getting outdated??
Want to download from various other (porn) sites that don't have a download plugin at all?
Simply interested in how to find which resources pages are calling in so you can nick them for yourself?
This guide should help.
- (Optional) Flash Blocking
While it's entirely possible to download video files and such without this step, it makes the process of picking out the correct file much easier as it results in a much shorter list. In addition stopping flash from loading automatically makes pages load faster and run smoother without all the video ads and such. Once you have the proper plugin for your browser installed, Flash objects (or more depending on the plugin) will be replaced with a placeholder box/icon that you can click to start loading them.
Firefox: Flashblock
Chrome: FlashBlock
Safari: ClickToPlugin/ClickToFlash
Unlike specific video site plugins, these plugins are pretty generic, and you will rarely, if ever, need to update them.
- Install/Setup Fiddler2
In order to log the HTTP(S) requests, you'll want to install Fiddler2. Once it's installed and run, you'll see something like this.
The big main area is where the list of HTTP(S) headers/requests will show up while the program is logging. To start/stop logging (it's on by default), you can use the Capture Traffic toggle in the File menu, or use the F12 key. While Fiddler has tons of tools for looking into headers and debugging HTTP(S) traffic, we won't be using most of them.
Of note, HTTPS logging is off by default, if the site you want to grab files from is using HTTPS you'll want to go enable it like the page shows.
If for some reason you've ended up with a lot of crap in the window that you want to clear, just use this function.
- Logging (Videos) With Fiddler2
Once Fiddler2 is running, it will log all the HTTP headers/requests that happen on your system in it's main window (via an invisible local proxy). This is quite a large amount of data, for example this is what you might see simply from loading up GBAtemp's home page.
For this reason, it's best to only start logging right before the video (or whatever you're after) starts to load so you don't have five mountains of crap to sort through.
- If you don't have any Flash blocking plugin installed then you'll want to start logging before you load up the page that contains the video to make sure it's captured.
- If you do have a Flash blocking plugin then you can wait for the page to load, then start logging and click the Flash placeholder to start the video/plugin.
In either case, once the video file has started playing (or whatever resource you're after has loaded), you're done. At this point you should close the tab/window/browser that has the file playing, because some sites will prevent duplicate requests and require the first stream to be stopped before you can start a second.
- If you don't have any Flash blocking plugin installed then you'll want to start logging before you load up the page that contains the video to make sure it's captured.
- Downloading (Video) Files
The first thing to do is to pick out the right header/line. The easiest way to find out which line is the right one is to let the file finish loading/streaming. When it's done, the file's entry should change to the video icon (or whichever other icon), and it's Content-type box should fill in as well.
However if you don't want to wait for it to finish streaming (or the process would take entire too long), you can try to deduce which line is the request that pulls in the video file. This varies from site to site, but the URLs used tend to have "video" or related keywords in them, or will have the filename (or flv/mp4 extension) visible.
In either case once you've decided which line to use, right-click it, go down to the "Copy" section, and choose "Just URL". Paste it in the browser's URL box and press enter. If your browser offers you the download window right away, you're good, save it and you're done.
However if your browser starts viewing/playing the file within itself, you'll want to tell the browser to save it manually. If your browser doesn't have any sort of "Save As" option in the main/File menu, then generally CTRL+S is the shortcut to save the current document. You may need to navigate to another tab and back before shortcut keys work, depending on the type of content.
Once your browser is giving you the option to save the file, be sure to name it properly. Video files meant to stream often have no proper filename, and sometimes lack extensions too.
If your browser doesn't give you the option of renaming it during the download, you'll just need to rename it (and/or add the extension) yourself once it's done downloading.
- Alternative Measures.
If the standard method does not work, then it's most likely one of these two cases.
- The site is using some alternative method of transferring the files to you, such as encrypted RSTP. This is quite rare when dealing with online video streaming sites, but some places might use it, so if you run into this you should pick another site to get your files from.
- The resources are embedded right in the loaded files. This is sometimes used with flash videos and almost all the time with flash games, it'll be flash with a video file embedded into it (or sound files, or other things you might want). In this case you should download the actual SWF file (or whatever it is) and find some tool to rip the resources out of it such as SoThink or Trillix.
- The site is using some alternative method of transferring the files to you, such as encrypted RSTP. This is quite rare when dealing with online video streaming sites, but some places might use it, so if you run into this you should pick another site to get your files from.