Youtube video downloaded as a text file?

[Person]

Hello, I tried using FlashGot in conjuction with DTM to download a Youtube video, but it was downloaded as a text file. Is there a tutorial to make a file download as a video, or if I am doing something wrong, a tutorial to download the video itself? Thank you.

[Person]

Also, I am using Firefox 3.0.9 on OS X 10.5.7.

[therube]

URL of this Youtube video?

Is it actually a "text" file, or is it that the saved download happens to have a ".txt" extension?
If it is a text file, what does it say?

What is DTM?
If instead of using DTM, you use Browser Built In, do you have the same problem?

[Person]

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSuQDu3-Y5Y

Well, it says that it is a "document" file.
It gives me a bunch of useless text.


DTM = DownThemAll
Same thing happens with the built in browser.

[Person]

All I want to know is how to save it as a movie file.

I tried saving it in the .flv format, is there one I should be trying instead?

[Tom T.]

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/b ... swer=56100

I had always been under the impression that you can't d/l YT videos, because if you could, then you could distribute them yourself or open your own competing site, and in any case, YT loses the page hits. See the link.

[therube]

The first part was OUCH. The latter parts ware after lots of ouch & much practice .


dTa, DownThemAll?


Anyhow, what is the size of this "document" that you downloaded?
In my case, it was called "video1.flv" & was 26,816,323 bytes in size.

(If I had selected "HQ" on the player, it would have been an .mp4 file.)

Drag your "document" into QuickTime (or whatever player you use) & see if it plays.


Are you using FlashGot Media button to capture the download URL & sending that to dTa? (Can that be done? Wouldn't dTa find the link itself & do its own downloading?)

you can't d/l YT videos

Of course you can. Maybe you are not supposed to, but the facilities exist to do it. And at the least you pull the video from your /Cache/ directory. (They may have some that are protected making it more difficult to download?)

[Person]

The first part was OUCH. The latter parts ware after lots of ouch & much practice .


dTa, DownThemAll?


Anyhow, what is the size of this "document" that you downloaded?
In my case, it was called "video1.flv" & was 26,816,323 bytes in size.

(If I had selected "HQ" on the player, it would have been an .mp4 file.)

Drag your "document" into QuickTime (or whatever player you use) & see if it plays.


Are you using FlashGot Media button to capture the download URL & sending that to dTa? (Can that be done? Wouldn't dTa find the link itself & do its own downloading?)

you can't d/l YT videos

Of course you can. Maybe you are not supposed to, but the facilities exist to do it. And at the least you pull the video from your /Cache/ directory. (They may have some that are protected making it more difficult to download?)

The size is the same as you mentioned.

When I drag it to the player, it says: "The movie could not be opened. This file is not a movie file"

I am using the FlashGot Media button, as dTa does not recognize a movie file, it only shows this: http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/watch-vlf102521.swf

Side note: I unistalled and reistalled both dTa and FlashGot, and this time it downloaded it as a mpeg file. Now instead of "Document", it is "Quicktime Player Document".

[Tom T.]

you can't d/l YT videos

Of course you can. Maybe you are not supposed to, but the facilities exist to do it. And at the least you pull the video from your /Cache/ directory. (They may have some that are protected making it more difficult to download?)

I quoted the page's policy statement. I thought this was a support forum. I wasn't aware that it was a h4xor forum. I don't expect that YT or Google would look favorably on Giorgio's forum giving advice on how to circumvent their content ownership policies. I think it would reflect very poorly on FlashGot and this forum, and, by extension, on Giorgio. Please re-consider, or re-direct your conversation with this user to a forum that is devoted to such topics. Thank you.

[Person]

Any ideas?

[Giorgio Maone]

Did you just try to rename the file as "something.flv" and play it?

[therube]

Can QuickTime play FLVs?
If not, do you have a player that does? MPlayer will if you have that.
(You would want a more recent build then available from mplayerhq.hu itself as it likely does not have the most up to date decoders.)

Open your file in a text editor (or better a file viewer if you have such a utility).
Are the first 3 bytes in the file "FLV"?

If so, almost certainly the file is intact & you just need a player to play it.

[Person]

Did you just try to rename the file as "something.flv" and play it?

Yes, that is what I did.

therube, where would I find the most recent version of mplayer for the mac?

[therube]

I'm totally unfamiliar with mac, though try this, MPlayer OSX Extended?

[Giorgio Maone]

Or you can try the VLC Player.