FreezeWarp
05-01-2009, 03:30 PM
Now, as many of us know, Youtube and many other popular video sites will often take down the best videos in a matter of weeks after posting because of copyright infringement. However, it is possible to download them to your computer without many troubles to have them infinitely.
Disclaimer
The legal status of this progress is often debated, as many times downloading copyrighted content is illegal, however generally companies do not prosecute unless you upload it back to the Internet. After all, they really can't legally know you have it on your computer.
Perquisites
1. Broadband (or faster) Internet Connection
2. Fairly Large Harddrive
Process
1. Download and install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) (if you haven't already).
2. Download the Video Download Helper (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006), a plugin for Firefox. Now restart Firefox.
3. At this point, you should be able to download videos on most flash sites. For instance, go to Youtube where on most videos you can find an icon to the left of video title. Also, on search results, by right clicking the title of a video, you will see a "Download Youtube Video(s)" menu.
4. Now we have the video, but we can't always view it. It is possible to set up an automatic conversion the video in the plugin's settings, though by default a format unrecognized by Windows will be used. Because of this, we need a player to view it. There are several out there, so you can look for your own, but I use Video LAN (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/). It is a bit rough around the edges, but overall works very well.
Disclaimer
The legal status of this progress is often debated, as many times downloading copyrighted content is illegal, however generally companies do not prosecute unless you upload it back to the Internet. After all, they really can't legally know you have it on your computer.
Perquisites
1. Broadband (or faster) Internet Connection
2. Fairly Large Harddrive
Process
1. Download and install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) (if you haven't already).
2. Download the Video Download Helper (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006), a plugin for Firefox. Now restart Firefox.
3. At this point, you should be able to download videos on most flash sites. For instance, go to Youtube where on most videos you can find an icon to the left of video title. Also, on search results, by right clicking the title of a video, you will see a "Download Youtube Video(s)" menu.
4. Now we have the video, but we can't always view it. It is possible to set up an automatic conversion the video in the plugin's settings, though by default a format unrecognized by Windows will be used. Because of this, we need a player to view it. There are several out there, so you can look for your own, but I use Video LAN (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/). It is a bit rough around the edges, but overall works very well.