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There’s no denying that Flash has changed the world of entertainment in some pretty profound ways. Sure, some might argue that we could have done without the flash-enabled advent of floating ads, gaudy movie websites and cheaply-animated stoner cartoons, but we think that the good outweighs the bad. After all, without Flash, we’d be missing out on a whole slew of rad flash games, clever web interfaces and cheaply-animated stoner cartoons. And let’s not forget YouTube and its ilk, which have truly revolutionized the way we waste time.
However, there’s a problem with streaming video: you don’t get to keep it on your computer when you’re done. So if you want to watch something again, or to show it to your friends, you have to go back and find it on the website again. But it’s pretty easy to rip streaming video to your hard drive, and in this article we’ll show you how, as well as how to convert that video to other formats so that you can play it on your device of choice.
Nobody can beat the sheer, monolithic number of videos hosted on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean there’s no reason to check out other video sharing sites. Most of YouTube's competitors offer a higher signal-to-noise ratio than the video giant, as well as better-quality streams. For instance, we recommend that you check out some of these excellent streaming video sites:
Blip.tv – A video site that only hosts user-submitted content, largely composed of TV show-style amateur programming, without Google’s 10 minute length cap. Blip.tv stands out as having some of the best video quality of any of the streaming video sites, featuring widescreen video at a high resolution.
Break.com – One of the more popular non-YouTube video sharing sites, Break.com hosts a large selection of mostly-entertaining clips, and is always good for a couple of time-wasting tidbits.
Vimeo – Offers a wide selection of user-created video in (relatively) high definition. It also integrates a more comprehensive social networking element than most other video sharing sites, allowing users to create and subscribe to channels, and to control who can and cannot view their uploads.
Metacafe – Yet another site with a self-purported focus on original content (though you wouldn’t know it to look at the front page) and a system of financial rewards for top “producers,” or uploaders of original videos.
Once you've found some clips you like, keep reading; we'll show you the easy way to save them to your hard drive with a free program called Moyea FLV Downloader.
Comments are closed on this article
dinadana
February 09, 2011 at 7:55am
This is useful but such a huge guide)
I just used Flash to Video Encoder PRO 4.7 to convert flv. I Liked it)
desertfish
October 22, 2009 at 1:46am
this is a useful tutorial and the software is easy-to-use,But i prefer leawo free youtube downloader http://www.leawo.com/youtube-download/
zer0110
July 10, 2009 at 7:09am
As I'm sure there is an advantage of some kind in using the FLV download/recording programs, its not necessary. As long as your running Linux anyways. I found an easier way, although I'm not sure it works for Windoze. When you watch a video, it has to be on your computer somewhere, waiting for processing. After you watch a video, keep the browser open on the same page, go to the Temp folder and you'll see a file named "FlashMVU7MX" or some kinda variant. Copy, Paste to your Video folder, and PRESTO! A nice, shiny copy of the video you just watched! After that, use your preference of format converter.
maccolar
May 27, 2009 at 9:10am
I'd like to recommend this <a href="http://video-converter.reviewstown.com/video-converter-wondershare.html">video converter</a>, it works pretty well for me.
ffilo
May 17, 2009 at 8:30pm
I use iwisoft swf to video converter to download and convert swf to wmv easily. It's the best swf to wmv converter i have tried. It can download online swf files from any web page and convert it to wmv with a few clicks! very useful!
Dummox
April 18, 2009 at 6:40am
Would our favorite magazine direct us to download infected software ? I don't see any comments from anyone at MaxPC about these issues, whats the real deal ??
nekollx
January 30, 2009 at 10:29am
i dunno what im doing wrong, when i use super to encode for ipod or PSP it gos through the motion but it never produces any output files.
lovewenc
April 02, 2009 at 11:54pm
For mac users, here are also many FLV video converter to convert videos to iPod on Mac.
johnnymegabyte
December 28, 2008 at 12:04pm
I found freeware VDOWNLOADER. Not only does it download from Youtube, etc ... it saves as AVI, MPEG2. No extra conversion required.
markallanson
December 15, 2008 at 4:16pm
will any of these tips and software help download full length TV shows, like from Hulu or the major networks?
johnnymegabyte
December 02, 2008 at 9:59pm
Dowloaded and installed MOYEA FLV Downloader ... should have done your homework. It's SPYWARE. Phone home ET
gothliciouz
December 17, 2008 at 7:48pm
anyone heard of VDownloader ?is also another great sofware. it can download videos from alot of sites, including youtube, myspace, metacafe.etc.
update: this program(moyea) is not as great as i thought, i can't get it to encode in stereo, only in mono, and also doesn,t detect the high definition on youtube, sadly i had to unistalled it, i'll stick with vdownloader.
Shalbatana
November 25, 2008 at 1:16pm
Download from the official site, and you're fine. I've used it on 8 machines, and no issues with any.
It's an established, well reviewed, well respected converter.... who's website is in major need of an overhaul.
RE: flash - there's a few plug-ins for firefox. I have one (forget the name) and it works perfectly. Pops up a dialog every time you play a flash video, and "records" it as it plays.
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"There's no time like the future."
fishandchips
January 21, 2010 at 4:52pm
Shalbatana wrote "RE: flash - there's a few plug-ins for firefox. I have one (forget the
name) and it works perfectly. Pops up a dialog every time you play a
flash video, and "records" it as it plays."wow Shalbatana, you wouldn't mind sharing that plug-ins name would ya?
fdwhacker
November 25, 2008 at 1:53pm
If you just want to download video off of YouTube or Google Video, you should find the video you want to download, copy the URL, go to www.keepvid.com, paste the url in the text box, and click download. It's that easy!
If you want to convert the flv file to a different format, go to www.media-convert.com and follow the simple insrtuctions to convert the file to one of many formats.
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Maximum PC is AWESOME!!
ScottProdigy
November 24, 2008 at 1:53pm
Firefox users can use any download utility to get .FLV files to their hard drive and then use one-click converting in Videora iPod Converter, which I believe was recommended a few issues ago in Maximum PC itself! (You can also d/l movies with Videora, but I find the software to be too much of a hassle.) That's my two cents!
bloodgain
November 24, 2008 at 12:22pm
The only real problem with SUPER is that the website looks a little... well, creepy. The whole site just gives you that "infect your PC now" vibe. I'd like to see them get better coverage with a better site, even though the app itself can be a little overwhelming at first. I just think most people pass them by due to the way their site looks, and the issues that can arise when trying to download the program (i.e. continuous loop).
It can also be tricky to use the app to create DivX DVD Player compatible DivX discs. I tried to convert an H.264 video in an MKV file to DivX, and was met with a "resolution not supported" error from my player. I gave up and just hooked my laptop up to the TV, but I was impressed with the number of presets SUPER presented. I might use it again to make some videos for my iPod the next time I'm taking a long flight.
Chocolate
November 24, 2008 at 3:58pm
Not 100% sure but I recently had to reformat my hdd because I downloaded the SUPER software. I went to that exact same site. It gave me all kinds of adware. It installed some random programs, one of which was Commander.
Info: http://www.pctools.com/mrc/infections/id/Adware.Commander/
I dont know. Im very reluctent to download that again.
I think that a safer alternative would be videora ipod converter. It says its for iPod but it works with my Zune 80 also.
fishandchips
December 16, 2008 at 8:35pm
I had super on my system for a short time and it was fine until I scanned my system with a online virsu scanner. started picking up grayware inside Super because it uses some of the same codecs that some known spyware use, I quickly uninstalled it. the problem is when you goto uninstall it, Super will not fully uninstall. it left behind stuff in the windows folder. scan this program with virustotal.com first and then tell me you want to run it. and see what it fines inside. Chocolate is right it's a very scary app because it even launchs a browser to goto it's website on start up.
I would stay away from super if I was you.
theqman
April 14, 2009 at 5:25pm
Ditto.
When the site asks me to clear my browser cache - ok, enable java script- ok, but to turn off ZoneAlarm etc? "creepy" is a good word for it. Guess this is one app I'll be avoiding.
Cause there's no friggin' way I'll be turning off any one of my anti malware programs just to get something that comes in many other different programs.
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"Never send a man to do a grenade's job"
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Azruelli
November 24, 2008 at 12:17pm
I personally prefer DownloadHelper, which is an addon for firefox, since it allows me to download multiple forms of media. And the flash player isn't all that great since there are some videos that I've downloaded using both Moyea FLV downloader and download helper and not all of them work that wonderfully (see, not at all) even after I'e downloaded the same video several times. The ideo player starts up, but when it's loading the video it just hangs at the loading screen for the player. Just some personal problems I ran into with the player, but I hope it works better for everone else
jws1272
August 16, 2009 at 11:39pm
I tried Moyea & couldn't get one vid to download. I also tried that Vdownload & zip....what am I doing wrong?
