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Page 1 of 4: Introduction and Downloading the video using UnPlug
The popularity of YouTube, Google Video and other "Flash" based video sites now means there are literally millions of great video clips viewable on the net. However, downloading these videos or watching them offline either requires special players and codecs, that's if you manage to download them in the first place.
This guide will show you how to download the video from sites like YouTube and Google Video, how to playback these file and if you want to, convert them to the more universal AVI/DivX format - all using freeware tools!
Software you'll need:Step 1.1: Downloading the video using UnPlug
This step is mainly for YouTube videos, since Google video provides it's own downloader program (Google Video Player). If the Google Video does not offer downloads, then the following steps will work as well. For Google video that are available to download, please skip to step 1.2.
If Google Video offers the download to you, please skip to step 1.2
You need to first download and install the Mozilla FireFox browser. Once it is installed, start FireFox and within it, go to this address: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2254/. Scroll down the page and find the "Install Now" link and click on it.
You will need to restart FireFox now to enable the plugin.
Now go to the YouTube/Google Video page that contains the video (in FireFox, of course). From the FireFox "Tools" menu, select "UnPlug" and you should be redirected to the UnPlug page where the download link for the video is.
The one where the type is "Flash Video Data" is the one you want (hence the "(this is probably the one you want)" text on the page). Click on the "Save" image and save the FLV file (usually titled "get_video.flv" - you can rename it to anything, as long as you keep the ".flv" at the end).
You have now downloaded the video (in FLV format) to your hard-drive. Skip step 1.2 and go straight to step 2: playing back the FLV file.
This guide will show you how to download the video from sites like YouTube and Google Video, how to playback these file and if you want to, convert them to the more universal AVI/DivX format - all using freeware tools!
Software you'll need:Step 1.1: Downloading the video using UnPlug
This step is mainly for YouTube videos, since Google video provides it's own downloader program (Google Video Player). If the Google Video does not offer downloads, then the following steps will work as well. For Google video that are available to download, please skip to step 1.2.
If Google Video offers the download to you, please skip to step 1.2
You need to first download and install the Mozilla FireFox browser. Once it is installed, start FireFox and within it, go to this address: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2254/. Scroll down the page and find the "Install Now" link and click on it.
You will need to restart FireFox now to enable the plugin.
Now go to the YouTube/Google Video page that contains the video (in FireFox, of course). From the FireFox "Tools" menu, select "UnPlug" and you should be redirected to the UnPlug page where the download link for the video is.
The one where the type is "Flash Video Data" is the one you want (hence the "(this is probably the one you want)" text on the page). Click on the "Save" image and save the FLV file (usually titled "get_video.flv" - you can rename it to anything, as long as you keep the ".flv" at the end).
You have now downloaded the video (in FLV format) to your hard-drive. Skip step 1.2 and go straight to step 2: playing back the FLV file.
