InformAction Forums

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.

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

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?)

therube wrote: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".

therube wrote:

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.

Any ideas?

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

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.

Giorgio Maone wrote: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?

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

Or you can try the VLC Player.