Walker News » Video

How To Copy YouTube Video or FLV File From Google Chrome Cache Folder?

Walker — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:59:14 +0000

If you’ve read my earlier post about the defensive Google Chrome cache folder (or from the splog/copycat), you should have known that Google Chrome doesn’t keeps all caches (temporarily Internet file) in the explicit cache folder.

I’ve been trying playback Flash videos hosted at YouTube and some less famous video hosting sites, and found that the FLV files are not kept in the Google Chrome master cache folder. Indeed, Google Chrome cache those large Flash video in the Windows temp folder of my user account.
And to be frank, I’m testing this with Google Chrome v0.2.149.30 on Windows Vista SP1. If you’re using other version than what I’ve tested, please be kind to share what you’ve found?

How to copy YouTube video or Flash video from Google Chrome cache folder?

Now, knowing that the large YouTube video or Flash video files are cached in Windows temp folder, do you able to directly copy them to other places for “safe-keeping” – either for offline playback or share with your mom and dad who only know how to operate their classic video player and TV set?

Answer: You can copy them BUT NOT with a direct method or the Windows default copy function/command!

Google Chrome cache files technique is defensive!

Why it’s defensive? Let me explain in points form:

You can’t close page (Tab window or Chrome browser) that contains the video you’ve playback completely. If you do, Google Chrome automatically delete the cached FLV video files in Windows temp folder, immediately.
While the page is open, the Windows default copy command or Windows Explorer function can’t copy the cached Flash videos – it’ll failed with a “File In Use” error message, saying that “The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program. Close the file and try again!”

But, you can’t close the Google Chrome or have the cached video deleted automatically, as soon as you close the browser!

So, you’ve to download an open source program called HoboCopy to copy the Google Chrome cache files that are opened (and thus disallow the default Windows copy function/command to function properly)!

For example, I’ve used HoboCopy to duplicate/copy that 72.27 MB flash video cached by Google Chrome in Window temp folder to E: drive:

C:\Users\Walker\AppData\Local>hobocopy Temp\ E:\FLV-Backup\ fla7049.tmp
HoboCopy (c) 2006 Wangdera Corporation. hobocopy@wangdera.com

Starting a full copy from C:\Users\Walker\AppData\Local\Temp\ to E:\FLV-Backup\
Copied directory
Backup successfully completed.
Backup started at 2008-09-18 00:10:43, completed at 2008-09-18 00:11:09.
1 files (72.27 MB, 1 directories) copied, 45 files skipped

If you’re using Windows Vista, make sure you’re using an elevated Command Prompt window (i.e. Command Prompt process with real Administrator privilege) to run the Hobocopy command.

If you find this troublesome or difficult, then just try to Google some freeware or the simple YouTube Downloader of my friend. But, what about other video files hosted on other video hosting sites?

YouTube Downloader: Download YouTube Video For My Mom!

Walker — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:45:45 +0000

UPDATE: This post is outdated. Please use this alternate trick for reference.

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley created the most wanted video clip hosting site for sharing video collection easier on the Net, that’s YouTube!

YouTuber, the users of YouTube (I call it), like it very much. The reasons are simple: it’s free; it’s really easy to share and really fun to interact with community about the posted video clip collections!

So, active commenter (I am) prefer watching YouTube video clips online than having the videos playback at local hard disk.

However, there is another camp of people (me too), who occasionally would like to download YouTube videos and save them to mobile hard disk or the latest 8GB USB thumb drive.

The reasons? Well, as for me, those are for my mom and dad who are too old and reluctant to learn something about computer! You might want to download them for safekeeping, backup, playback on media server at home, saving the metered broadband usage at home, etc.

OK. For whatever reasons, how could you direct download YouTube video clips (or from any other video hosting sites)?

1) Native way – retrieve video clips from a Web browser cache folder

This native method works for most video hosting sites, as long as you know where is the web browser cache folder that used to temporarily keeping web page contents (including picture, MIDI, MP3, FLV, SWF, etc).

Firefox cache folder:

Type the following Firefox URI in the Address bar, press ENTER, and look for the Cache Directory: path of Disk Cache Device:

about:cache

Vista-IE7 cache folder:

By default installation, you could find the IE7 super-hidden cache folder in Windows Vista at this folder path:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.ie5

Note: You might need to enable “view hidden files/folders” option in Windows to locate all sub-folders or the browser cache folder itself.

For example, you could find YouTube video clips that finish playback in web browser leaving the cached video files with file name similar to get_video, get_video[1], get_video[2], etc.

Save all these cached file to another folder and rename them with a flash video file extension (i.e. FLV, e.g. get_video to be renamed as video1.flv) and you’re ready to play the YouTube video offline or convert them to other video format as you like.

For more detail, you may refer to Where Is IE7 Cache Folder, Retrieve Flash Movie In IE7 Cache Folder Of Windows Vista, How to save flash video from Firefox cache folder.

2) Techie way – retrieve the hidden YouTube video direct download link

This method is only applicable to YouTube video and it’s working at this time of writing.

It’s not really user-friendly but it’s good enough for those who wonder how YouTube Downloader extracts the YouTube video direct download link.

For the detail of this method, please refer to YouTube Video Direct Download Link

3) Easier way – retrieve the YouTube video download link with YouTube Downloader

There are many YouTube downloader freeware that you could easily find one or two from Google search.

If you’re not serious about downloading YouTube video (to be frank, watching YouTube video online is more fun because of the interactive features), I’ve my friend developed this simple one-click YouTube downloader.

Enter YouTube video URL here and click Submit button
And click your YouTube Video direct download link at here

Strictly speaking, it’s not a perfect downloader. For example, sometime it’s not working without hard forcing web browser to refresh (i.e. pressing CTRL+F5 hotkey). And, it doesn’t download the video. Indeed, it merely presents the YouTube video direct download link that described in previous method.

Extract URL To Direct Download YouTube Video

Walker — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:27:07 +0000

UPDATE: This feature/article is no longer valid. Please check out this alternate trick for reference.

Almost one month ago, I posted a wonderful trick to extract the direct download links of (any) YouTube video. Have you found it useful?

The answer is yes and no. (There is always two end, where a solution couldn’t satisfy all people needs)! For sure, users who are only prefer mouse-click will not buy that idea – that’s why you will find YouTube downloader freeware or Firefox add-on.

Now, here is another choice to get the direct download link of your favorite YouTube video!

The YouTube Video Extractor, is a simple ‘web application’ created by one of my talented programmer friend, outputs a link to directly download the flash video that embedded in a YouTube page URL.

How to use YouTube Video Extractor

It’s very simple to use, just ‘copy-paste-click’! The detail could be in four steps, but I’m sure it’s as easy as one step! Here we go:

1. Copy the URL of any YouTube video pages that showing the flash video,
2. Paste the copied URL on the text box provided below,
3. Click the Submit button to generate the YouTube Video direct download link!

Enter YouTube video URL here and click Submit button
And click your YouTube Video direct download link at here

In some cases, the YouTube Video Extractor might not able to retrieve the direct download link. This could be a result of ‘bug’ or simply because you’ve gave it a wrong URLs (only YouTube video page URL and not any other URLs).

If you find a bug, please leave me comment via the comment form below. Enjoy watching and (downloading) your YouTube video!

YouTube Video Direct Download Link

Walker — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:15:19 +0000

You like YouTube? I do. You want to download some of the nice YouTube video clip for offline leisure. So am I.

Besides relying on freeware, you could also copy the YouTube video clips from browser’s cache folder. Now, there is another trick where you could find a hidden direct download link of each YouTube video clips.
Best of all, you don’t have to worry about installing too many freeware (that potentially slow down Windows performance) nor you’ve to watch the video and then locate it from cache folder.

How to extract the hidden direct download link of YouTube video?

With this trick means you could directly download the YouTube video clips to local hard disk!

1) For example, click these links to open the Jumper trailer or the Batman The Dark Knight trailer hosted at YouTube (you could just open any video clips hosted on YouTube) with your favorite web browser.

2) Right-click on the empty / blank place to bring up the web browser context-menu, then click the View Source (IE7) or View Page Source (Firefox 2.0.0.12)

3) Press CTRL+F hotkeys to bring up Find function dialog box and search for watch_fullscreen

4) On the same line, copy all the text from video_id up to title.

E.g. Copy the red-color highlighted text only:

YouTube page source of Batman The Dark Knight trailer:

var fullscreenUrl = '/watch_fullscreen?fs=1&q=batman&e=h&sourceid=ys&video_id=WaIR9dAZRR0&l=127&sk=VCaWxqmJZiKonU1nSiudlwC&t=OEgsToPDskIruDrrzg8rrmEurgby4CAq&hl=en&plid=AARG6hg5eMe3TU0HAAAAoARKYAA&tk=qFuW4Ccd3bcw0maq8nDIEhW4w-HlY7INZ_61k0CTk6utKedGb4Uveg%3D%3D&title=Batman - The Dark Knight Trailer HD';

YouTube page source of the Jumper trailer:

'/watch_fullscreen?fs=1&e=h&video_id=9rz5NekSUTM&l=149&sk=GJ-xz7O9MhF7a9YqeK9xQwC&t=OEgsToPDskJfBx_V8_vxpGb1nnFNj6Ky&hl=en&plid=AARG6j6Dw6RqOq7AAAAAoAAYYAE&title=Jumper Trailer - World Premiere';

5) Open another new browser window, type this URL

www.youtube.com/get_video?

and then press CTRL+C keyboard shortcut to APPEND the copied text in step 4.

E.g. these are how the hidden direct download links of YouTube videos look like:

The Jumper Trailer direct download link:

www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=9rz5NekSUTM&l=149&sk=GJ-xz7O9MhF7a9YqeK9xQwC&t=OEgsToPDskJfBx_V8_vxpGb1nnFNj6Ky&hl=en&plid=AARG6j6Dw6RqOq7AAAAAoAAYYAE&title

Batman The Dark Knight Trailer direct download link:

www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=WaIR9dAZRR0&l=127&sk=VCaWxqmJZiKonU1nSiudlwC&t=OEgsToPDskIruDrrzg8rrmEurgby4CAq&hl=en&plid=AARG6hg5eMe3TU0HAAAAoARKYAA&tk=qFuW4Ccd3bcw0maq8nDIEhW4w-HlY7INZ_61k0CTk6utKedGb4Uveg%3D%3D&title

Now, just press ENTER key and you’ll prompted to save the get_video file. Before saving the file, you may rename it with a meaningful filename and append the .flv as the flash video file extension.
With reference: Lawrence@NextMile

How To Save Flash Video From Firefox Cache Folder

Walker — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:22:16 +0000

Comparing to the previous Firefox guides, this could be an easier 3-minutes guide about how to save (YouTube) flash video, shockwave game, mp3, movie, music, picture, etc from Firefox cache folder.

UPDATE: Adobe Flash automatically caches a copy of Flash video in Windows temp folder of user account using a filename starts with fla and ends with .tmp file extension. You can use HoboCopy to copy these locked, cached video files.

Using YouTube video as example, let’s see how could we save a copy of “Gwen Stefani – What You Waiting For?” from the Firefox cache folder:

Wait for the flash video loading completely, i.e. able to play MTV to the end
Open a new tab / window of Firefox and enter about:cache as an URL
Take note of the Firefox cache folder path specified in Cache Directory: and browse to this folder with Windows Explorer

If the Storage In Use greater than or approaching Maximum Storage Size, the video might not be cached completely or you’ll have to increase Maximum Storage Size and reload the MTV again.

To set Firefox cache folder maximum storage size, click Tools | Option… | Network | Cache
Sort the cached files by file size and try to open the biggest file with Storm Codec-MPC or FlV Player. (The biggest file is likely to be the cached YouTube video)

OK. If you want to know what those files in the Firefox cache folder exactly are, here we go:

While in the about:cache page, click the List Cache Entries link of the Disk cache device section
Press CTRL + F to search for Key: (URL) with the get_video keyword and also with the biggest Data Size: (YouTube doesn’t cache the flash video in FLV extension. For other flash video hosting site, you may save time by trying to search for .FLV extension).
Right-click the URL and select the Open Link In New Tab and refer to the File on Disk:

P/S: There are many Firefox plugins available to save flash video. However, if you’re not regularly download flash video, then it’s worth to know how to do it manually. Running too many plugins might slow down the Firefox or overall PC performance too :-)

How To Embed Windows Streaming Video In HTML

Walker — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:55:19 +0000

You shouldn’t directly and explicitly embed the URL of a Windows streaming media file in HTML code.

An ASX file should always be used to reference Windows streaming media!
For example, the ASX link in HTML code that resemble this

 Windows streaming video sample

should be embedded or written in the web page HTML source code.

Except with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc, doesn’t understand the Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streaming protocol.

However, they can speak the helper applications standard.

So, when an ASX file downloaded into browser cache folder, the non-IE browser will launch helper application associated with the ASX MIME type (application/mplayer2 or video/x-ms-asf), which is the Microsoft Windows Media Player, to play the MMS streaming video.

An ASX file is the Windows file extension for Advanced Stream Redirector or Windows Media Metafile – a XML-based text file that contains the URL of a piece of Windows streaming content.

In brief, an ASX file is a shortcut to Windows streaming file!

How to create an ASX file?

The ASX file is a XML-based ASCII file. The sample content might resemble this format:


The title of this ASX
    
	The title of this ASF streaming video
	WalkerNews.net

To add more streaming video or audio inside the ASX file, simply duplicate the block of code will do.

How To Download Streaming Video From ASX File

Walker — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:04:29 +0000

If the Firefox web browser failed to open and play ASX streaming video hosted by Mojoflix.com, here are the extra steps to retrieve and download the streaming video that embedded inside the Advanced Stream Redirector file!

Advanced Stream Redirector (.asx) file, or Windows Media Metafile, is a XML-based text file which references a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for a piece of media content. Simply put, an ASX file is a shortcut to Media Content.
If you happen to see this similar alert in Firefox, IE7, Opera, etc, try to open and view the page source code.

With Firefox (screenshot), simply right-click the page and click the “View Page Source” command in the Context menu.

With IE7, try to locate the .asx or <'EMBED name=MediaPlayer keyword inside the page source code. For example, the page source might contain similar block of code:

Next, click the Media tab of Page Info dialog box (Firefox), locate the Address ended with ASX file extension and Type of “Embed”, right-click to copy that particular link and download the ASX file with your favourite download manager (Free Download Manager, Flashget, etc).

Now, open the downloaded ASX file with Wordpad. For pleasure experience, see how to add more program shortcut to the Windows Sendto menu – right-click the ASX file and open it with Wordpad shortcut in the SendTo context menu!

Locate the streaming video (AVI, WMV, ASF, MPG, etc) that appears as an URL inside the ASX file, i.e. the XML-based text file!

Copy that final URL to download manager program and save it to hard disk for local playback, backup or distribution. Enjoy!