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Wanna' know how to download Youtube videos without 5 different plugins that keep getting outdated??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.​

1. (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.
   
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. 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.
   
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
   
5. 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.
   
   
   

 

[ferofax]

There's a way to do this using only Google Chrome, under the Inspect Element feature, Network tab. Just open that before loading a video (helps if you have flashblock, so you have a comfortable time frame in which to intercept streams). As soon as a video starts loading, it'll show up in the list. You just have to sort it by size (largest first) and scroll up -- as the video downloads, it should quickly top the list. It'll be either FLV (vast majority, especially if low-res) or MP4 (if downloading high res). There's a File Type column that tells you which is which. You'll know exactly what it is without having to wait for it to finish.

Right-click the file name and copy the link, and paste said link to a new tab or a downloader. Using downloaders can be iffy sometimes, as some websites will "void" a current video link -- just keep the tab open for a bit, make sure the downloader is picking up speed just fine before closing any active tabs (to divert all speed to the downloader).

Very high effectivity. Only problem encountered is that some YT clips are actually divided into multiple, smaller segments WHICH WILL NOT WORK unless they're whole (the player changes video URL after it finishes a segment, which is why some vids re-download if you play them again -- your buffer only has the last chunk and will redownload the previous chunks). Good thing only YT seems to do this, so there's KeepVid.com for that.

 

[Rydian]

I got tired of recommending per-browser solutions, so I went with one that bypassed all of them.

 

[Joe88]

if you have ff just install this
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/?src=search

much easier

 

[Rydian]

Unless you're not after video, in which case HTTPFox is recommended as it's a header logger in Firefox. And also if you're on X browser use this for this, and if it's this instead use this other plugin, and if you're trying to log something that's for non-web stuff you'll want a specific program for that?

Or you could use one program that gets everything HTTP in every browser and even non-browser things that use HTTP for transfers (like some game patchers and such.

I used to use and recommend specific programs for specific browsers, but if you have to install anything it might as well be one program that does it all.

 

[alexei_gp]

i recommend to use nuclear coffe videoget to download videos.You can download all the videos you want also includes every porn sites xD.That guide is good Rydian but i prefer videoget much easier to use only copy paste the url video and you download the with no restrictions.

 

[pasc]

To complete this Thread I also recommend:

StreamTransport

and

Orbit Downloader

(while the first seems to be working on more complicated sites)

 

[Sefi]

http://savemedia.com/

I've only used it for youtube (video and music), but it works great. Copy and paste the url of the video in the box and wait a second or two. They even give you an assortment of quality choices.

 

[totalnoob617]

so what does the chrome flashblock do exactly?i already have adblockplus ,i want something that will stop all yt and other video /audio from playing automatically in every tab after i restore after a crash i assume it does that,but what else? it dont block anything just stops it playing automatically ?

 

[The Minecrafter]

A better one that I use. They have really good downloading/conversion software.
http://www.freemake.com/
Get freemake video downloader.
Copy video URL, click paste URL button, choose quality and location, and you are done.

 

[Rydian]

And y'all's video-download plugins will grab flash files too, like this?
http://forum.cheatengine.org/viewtopic.php?t=561162
An all-in-one logger is better.
I mean that's partially why I switched to Chrome for a bit (not needing a plugin for it's header logging), but one that does it for all-browsers (and even non-browsers) is better.

Also for video conversion I recommend something that lets you tweak out the values, does the freemake one actually allow that, or is it just a bunch of presets?

so what does the chrome flashblock do exactly?i already have adblockplus ,i want something that will stop all yt and other video /audio from playing automatically in every tab after i restore after a crash i assume it does that,but what else? it dont block anything just stops it playing automatically ?

Yes, it stops flash from automatically playing when the page loads, youtube included.

 

[ferofax]

so what does the chrome flashblock do exactly?i already have adblockplus ,i want something that will stop all yt and other video /audio from playing automatically in every tab after i restore after a crash i assume it does that,but what else? it dont block anything just stops it playing automatically ?

It turns every Flash-based element on the page into a "Play" button image -- it will only load the full Flash object if you click it. This includes Flash-based ads, games, videos, everything. Very efficient for those with slow internet who frequent Flash-heavy webpages.

 

[Rydian]

I consider it a must-have for anybody. Even people on an i7+ssd combo with 10Mb/s 'net will notice a difference when loading pages that normally have 3/4 flash ads... not to mention it stops auto-playing audio ads in their tracks.

 

[pasc]

Does such plugin exist for Opera and Firefox aswell ?

That'd be nice.

 

[Rydian]

Firefox has a few, Opera doesn't have one directly, but has workarounds from what I read, might want to google it as I'm not familiar with it.

 

[pasc]

So... those for firefox... you don't happen to know their names ? Google is picky these days.

 

[Rydian]

Oh, was in the first post.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock/

 

[alex_0706]

you forgot a browser: maxthon. it can download flash, html, images, other scripts
by using resourcesiffer

http://www.maxthon.com/
"Source Sniffer:Extract all photos, embedded videos and audio files from a web page and download them with one click."