VideoDownloader

virago asked me recently if it would be possible to download videos from youtube. we've been spending a lot of time there, both watching videos and uploading them, so it's only natural we might be interested in downloading them from time to time.

the answer to the question "is this downloadable?" is almost always "yes, if you have the right software", and this is no exception. firefox users can download and install the videodownloader extension for firefox, which lets you

Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion... and other 60+ video sites ! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc) ! Directly !

i've tested it and it definitely works, though if you're not a flash developer, you might also need to download a new player, depending on what kind of videos you're downloading.

for example, youtube converts all videos to a flash format called FLV. programs like windows media player generally don't play FLV files, so you'll need to download an app like FLV player or a conversion tool to convert the FLV files to another format. also (at least on youtube), the downloaded file is named get_video.htm, and you'll need to rename it yourself after downloading, including manually changing the file extension to .flv. but that's a simple matter.

enjoy, and feel free to download any or all of my videos. and if you're still using IE for some ungodly reason, i'm sorry.¶