| Title: |
YouTube, Google Video Download and DivX Conversion Guide |
| Description: |
A guide on how to download and play YouTube/Google Video clips and then convert them to DivX/AVI files, all using free software. |
| Author/Publisher: |
DVDGuy |
| Ease of use: |
Beginners |
| Software Used: |
Dr. DivX, ffdshow, FLV Splitter, Google Video Player, Media Player Classic |
| Page Viewed: |
379020 times |
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Step 2: Playing back the FLV file
You can skip to "Step 3: Converting FLV files to DivX (AVI)" if you don't wish to playback the FLV file and only want to convert it to AVI/DivX.
We can use Media Player Classic and ffdshow to playback FLV files. Media Player Classic has built in FLV playback (FLV4 format), but some FLV files are in FLV1 format and you will need ffdshow to play these files back.
The following "Installing MPC" and "Installing ffdshow" sections assume you don't have ffdshow installed and you don't plan on using ffdshow + MPC for anything other than FLV playback.
Installing MPC:- Download the MPC version that is suitable for your operating system
- MPC is really just a single executable, so extract the .exe file to any directory you wish (eg. c:\Program Files\Media Player Classic\)
- Click on the .exe file to start MPC. Easy.
Installing ffdshow:- Download ffdshow and start the installation. Click "Next" until you get to the "Select Components" screen, and make sure you select the "VFW interface" option. Press "Next" to continue.
- When you reach the "Select Additional Tasks" screen, it will now allow you to select which codecs ffdshow will decode for you (if you already have ffdshow installed, the current selected decoders will be shown). Select the "FLV1", "VP5/VP6" settings for video and "MP3" for audio.
- Press "Next" and then "Install" to start the installation. Once it is done, the follow screen will appear. Select the options as shown below (run video and VFW decoder configuration) and press "Finish" to complete the install.
- The "ffdshow video decoder configuration" and "ffdshow video encoder configuration" windows should now have opened up (check the titles of the windows to tell which is which). In the "ffdshow video decoder configuration" program, select "Codecs" on the left hand side, make sure the "libavcodec" option is selected for both "VP6F" and "FLV1" as shown below and then press "Apply" (if clickable) and then "OK" to close this window. This should now allow you to playback the extracted AVI file in most multimedia/Directshow players.
- In the "ffdshow video encoder configuration" window, click on the "Decoder" tab and select "Codecs" on the left hand side.
- Again, make sure the "libavcodec" option is selected for both "VP6F" and "FLV1", press "Apply" and then "OK" to close this window. This is not actually needed for playback in Directshow players, but this will allow you to load AVI files with the FLV1/FLV4 codec in encoding tools like VirtualDub(Mod).
Associating .flv files with MPC:- Right click on the ".flv" you are using for this test. From the menu that opens, select the "Open With -> Choose Program" option, or if it isn't there, select "Open".
- Click on "Browse" and locate your MPC .exe file (eg. c:\Program Files\Media Player Classic\mplayerc.exe). Select the "Always use the selected program ..." option if you want to make the association permanent. Press "OK" to close the window.
Your ".flv" file should now be opened in MPC and hopefully, it should start playing with video and audio.
You can now use Media Player Classic to play FLV files.
Playing back .flv files in Windows Media Player
Media Player Classic has a built in FLV splitter (for separating the audio/video elements in the FLV file so the player can play it), but if you want to playback .flv files in Windows Media Player, you'll need to install a separate Directshow
FLV Splitter filter.
FLV Splitter Installation Instructions (Windows XP):- Extract the contents of FLV Splitter to a temporary directory. There should be 2 folders, one called "Release" and the other called "Release Unicode". Both folders contains the file FLVSplitter.ax. The "Release Unicode" folder contains a version of the filter that works in Windows XP only.
- Move the FLVSplitter.ax to your Windows\System32 folder (eg. C:\Windows\System32\FLVSplitter.ax).
- From the Start Menu, select "Run" and type in (assuming your Windows directory is on the C:\ drive):
regsvr32 "C:\windows\system32\FLVSplitter.ax"
- Press "OK" to run the command and a confirmation dialog should pop up telling you the registration succeeded.
You should now be able to playback FLV files in Windows Media Player and other Directshow based players.
If you want to convert the FLV file to a more common format like DivX (for use in video editing, DVD burning ...), then please continue.
