Saturday, May 30, 2009

Free Surf 31

How to download Youtube videos without any software

The first thing to know is that you are allowed to copy or download only the Youtube videos for which you see a “download” link displayed on their Youtube webpage. So this should be your first choice. But what can you do if you are able to play it but not able to get it through the provided link due to certain reasons such as connection interruptions? Do not even think to pay for some downloader software to make the job.
I can do this trick but I'm not a witch. For this reason I decided today to share it with you. To be clear: no software, no plug-ins needed just the web browser (Opera). And, obviously, free. So, no money from your mammy… to save your friend’s video onto your computer. He made it in the last summer vacation, uploaded it with the download link option enabled, then emailed you to take it, and now you are so frustrated because you can see it but can’t have it easily to play locally. Now that’s history. I do not pretend to be considered a history maker, but, if you are under 6, you can include me in your tales.

Steps:

0. Mandatory!!!: Keep the magic stick in your hands. If you do not have a magic stick or don’t have a third hand to use the mouse you still can try without but I never tried so it’s not guaranteed.
1. Get a web browser e.g. Opera. (I’m sure you already have it)
2. Go to Youtube, search for the video, open, play it and go directly at step 3.
3. Open Opera>Tools>Advanced>Cache and identify the direct link to the video. It should appear somewhere in the top of the list. It usually contains some of the words video, play, playback, get, youtube, googlevideo or the ID included in the link of the webpage opened to play it. Once you identify how it looks like this won’t be a hard thing in the future.
If you cannot identify it then it is useful to clear the webbrowser’s cache before restarting from step 2: Tools>Delete Private Data>Detailed options - check the Delete entire cache option and uncheck the others and press Delete.
4. Right-click on it and select Save Linked Content as…
5. Give a suggestive name to the file. Do not forget to put its .flv or .mp4 extension. Press Save button.

Once saved you can play it with a Flv Player or VLC or with any other mighty player.


And two more things: the first one - make sure that they allow you to save the desired file and the second one - this should work similarly with any web browser and with any Youtube-like website such as Google Video, DailyMotion as long as they allow you to grab a video hosted on their servers.

More about software, videos and movies will come in the SoftSpecialist next articles. Until next time Keep Safe! Safe software and safe computers.

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