Each add-on is tested if it can be used to download videos from the following sample video portals: Youtube, Dailymotion and Gametrailers. The main goal is to see if the add-ons can download Youtube videos, dailymotion videos and gametrailer videos including the way these downloads are offered. We will take a look at the video portals that are supported by the add-ons and possible usability issues.

The following Firefox add-ons have been selected for the test:

• Bbmao Video Downloader
• Flash Video Downloader
• Flash Video Resources Downloader
• NetVideoHunter Video Downloader
• Video DownloadHelper

All of these add-ons are highly rated and compatible with all versions of Firefox 3 even though some of them have to be forced to be compatible with the latest beta of Firefox 3.6.

Bbmao Video Downloader

This add-on was the only add-on in the test that was not compatible with Firefox 3.6. It was still possible to install and work with it after forcing compatibility with the Nightly Tester Tools.

The add-on places an icon in the Firefox toolbar at the top that will spin if a video has been discovered on a website. A click on that icon will open a popup window with links to all videos that have been discovered by the add-on. Links that are selected can be played right in the window or downloaded to the local computer system.

Bbmao Video Downloader worked well with both Youtube and Dailymotion but failed to recognize videos at Gametrailers. No information available on the amount of supported video websites.

Flash Video Downloader

Flash Video Downloader is the only experimental add-on in this test. It did install fine and display a download icon in the status bar. This download icon displays a license agreement after the first left-click which needs to be accepted. A left-click on the icon (which can also be placed in one of the toolbars of the web browser) will open a popup window with a download link and other information including add-on updates (somewhat confusing for users who are running the latest version) and an ad for a (free) video converter software.

Each new download will spawn its own popup window which can become somewhat messy for heavy downloaders. The add-on worked well with all tested video portals. The developers state that it is currently compatible with more than 200 different video sites and even some game hosting websites.

Flash Video Resources Downloader

The icon in the status bar that was supposed to be there after installation of the add-on did not appear. There was no option available to display the icon in another way or to use the add-on. Flash Video Resources Downloader is supposed to work with a few dozen websites including Youtube and Dailymotion but not Gametrailers. No rating for this add-on since it failed to install properly even though it was reported to be compatible with Firefox 3.6.

NetVideoHunter Video Downloader

Net Video Hunter is compatible with all versions of Firefox 3. It places an icon in the firefox status bar after installation that can be used to download videos from video hosting websites. The status bar icon will display a number that indicates the amount of videos that have been identified by the add-on.

Net Video Hunter makes use of a popup window to display all the videos that it has discovered in this browsing session. This is a very comfortable way of displaying those download links especially for users with enough screen estate to place both the web browser window and the Net Video Hunter video download window next to each other.

The add-on displays options to play or download each video that has been recognized. Another interesting detail is the display of the direct url to the video in the same interface.

The video download add-on was compatible with all three test video portals. The developers have not published a list of all compatible video websites but it is fair to assume that the add-on works with most “Youtube-like” video sites.

Video DownloadHelper

Video Download Helper supports all versions of Firefox 3 out of the box. It adds a single icon into the Firefox status bar which serves to purposes. It will for one indicate if videos have been detected on a website with options to download these. The other option is to display the list of supported sites which are opened in a small popup window. A right-click lastly will display a context menu with options to configure the add-on.

Youtube videos can be downloaded in various quality versions. This can be somewhat confusing to the user as it might not always be possible to identify the quality by looking at the download options of the Firefox add-on. It was also no problem to download videos from Dailymotion or Gametrailers using Video Download Helper.

Video Download Helper offers a very comfortable way of downloading videos from video portals. The amount of video portals supported goes even beyond the few hundreds that are listed in the add-on as it is able to detect videos on many (officially) unsupported websites. The download links are sometimes a bit confusing and the links in the supported list of video portals does not lead directly to those portals but to the homepage of the developer’s first.

The Verdict:

Out of the five add-ons that have been tested one failed completely, two were only compatible with two of the three test sites and two were compatible with all test sites. Video Download Helper and Net Video Hunter were the only add-ons that were able to download videos from these websites. Both add-ons have their uses. Net Video Hunter makes it easier to manage video downloads while Video Download Helper offers a list of supported websites which is interesting for exploration purposes.

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Tubequeue – as the name suggests – is of the latter sort. It is a standalone software program for the Windows operating system that can not only download multiple videos from Youtube but also convert them into different formats so that the videos can be transferred to other devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players or gaming consoles.

The program works the following way: The user begins by entering a search phrase in the search box at the top left corner of the program. This will display 100 Youtube videos related to that search query. It is possible to sort the results by relevancy, data added, popularity or view count just like on the Youtube website. The Youtube videos are displayed with a small image thumbnail, names, ratings and playing time. A click on the right arrow key will open the selected Youtube video in a preview window where it can be watched. The second possibility to find Youtube videos is to use the Youtube website search instead which will basically display the Youtube website in the program window.

A right-click on one or multiple videos in the list makes it possible to add the selected videos to the processing queue. This will move these videos to the conversion settings pane where the user can select an output format. Formats offered included avi, mp4, mov, mp3 or mpeg with the option to keep the original flv format.

A click on the Add To Processing Queue button will move the videos once again. This time to the processing queue where all information and settings that have been selected so far are shown again. A click on Download / Convert will start the Youtube video download and conversion process.

It is possible to add Youtube urls and video formats that already reside on the local computer system to the queue as well. TubeQueue is an interesting software program to download and convert multiple Youtube videos in short time. It has some performance problems during video playback and does not cope well with videos that are not available in the user’s country. It is a rock solid program otherwise though. TubeQueue requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5.

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Download Helper for example will automatically identify videos that are played on websites offering the user a download link of that video. Most of the solutions that have been created require at least some manual interaction with the program.

Not so with WebVideoCap. The portable video capture software has been created by Nirsoft, one of our all-time favorite software developers. The software will automatically save videos that are played on websites to a folder on the local computer system. All the user needs to do to start the capturing is to click on the Start Capture button in the application’s interface.

A few parameters and options are available; It is for example possible to select the network adapter, save folder, scan method (between raw sockets and WinPCap) or file types that should be saved automatically. WebVideoCap supports the following web video stream formats:

• Flash video files (with .flv extension)
• Microsoft Windows media files (with .wmv extension)
• RTSP streams. (RTSP protocol is used by many news and live TV/radio Web sites)
• MMS streams. (MMS protocol is used by many news and live TV/radio Web sites)

All videos that match the supported video stream formats are saved automatically once the capturing process has been started. This can be very helpful for users who regularly download videos from video portals. One slight problem was encountered during tests. If the videos contain an age verification (like the 18+ video games over at Gametrailers) then they cannot be saved as the capturing process is interrupted by this). Videos that do not contain this interference are saved without problems.

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There are several options when it comes to downloading music and videos from the Internet. Some websites use weak or no encryption at all which means it is possible to download the media directly from within the web browser. Other websites and services protect the media by encrypting it which makes it harder to actually download the files to the local computer system.

There are several software programs available that can download from most music and video portals and services. A very versatile one that is automating the process as much as possible is Tubemaster++. Tubemaster++ is a Java application that is using the packet capturing network monitor WinPcap.

The software program will automatically capture music and videos once the application is up and running. All the user needs to do is to visit a media site, service or software and start playing the media from there. Tubemaster recognizes the media and will display it in its interface. The software works with many services including Youtube, Last.fm, Pandora, Imeem and many more. The only restriction is that the service needs to stream the music to the computer system.

The music and videos can be saved in their original format or converted in the software program to common formats like avi or mp3. There are presets for some popular devices like Apple’s iPod, Blackberries, the Playstation 3 and dozens of other devices.

A video and mp3 search is provided in the program itself which makes it very comfortable to find specific music or videos. The search results are displayed in the program but open in the default web browser where they can be played.

Tubemaster++ (via Freeware Genius) is a very comfortable program to download videos and music from the Internet. The program is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7. It requires Java and WinPcap to run (which are provided if they are not installed).

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Amazon.com is offering a video streaming service for more than 40000 videos on their website. Users can watch the first two minutes of the videos without charge and have to pay to rent the movie 24 hours or to buy it. Both alternatives allow the user to watch the video right away on the Amazon website. Amazon uses Adobe Flash to transfer the movie to the user. The interesting aspect of the Amazon video streaming service according to Reuters is that they start streaming the entire movie even if the user is only watching previewing it.

The movie is stopped after playing for two minutes and a user who wants to watch the full movie would either have to rent or but it online. The streaming software on the other hand should be able to continue recording the movie because it does not receive the stop signal from the Adobe Flash server.

This would effectively mean that everyone would be able to download all movies that are offered for streaming on Amazon providing that they have access to the correct software. The software mentioned in the article is the commercial multimedia stream catcher Replay Media Catcher which can be tested before purchase.

Reuters mentioned that the trial version was able to download the movies from Amazon. A local test however did not have the same results. This could have several reasons. Reuters did only mention that the software was able to record the movie stream but they did not mention if any other applications or settings were necessary for it to succeed.

It could also mean that Amazon was able to close the security hole by adding another verification. Lastly it could also mean that the service is not available to customers from outside the United States. It would be interesting if any of you would be able to download an entire movie from Amazon just by using the Replay Media Catcher software or a similar product. Let me know if it works for you.

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This plugin for Internet Explorer adds itself to the right-click context menu. All the user needs to do is to right-click a link that points to a Youtube video and select the Download This Youtube Video that was added by the Youtube File Hack Tool.

A download dialog appears and CTRL V enters the filename of the video automatically in the dialog box, another comfort function of the plugin.

The creates have added several tutorials to their websites that detail possible scenarios like wanting to download a video after search, while playing or from user recommendations.

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I began to explore other options and sites using Download Helper and was pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness. Download Helper is able to list direct video downloads from hundreds of video portals currently. All the big portals are included of course but it does offer access to videos from several smaller video portals as well.

Once installed the Download Helper Icon can be moved to a toolbar where the options become accessible. You can do that by right-clicking a toolbar and selecting Customize from the menu. A new window should open with icons that are not in use already. Just located and drag and drop the Download Helper icon to one of your toolbars.

The icon displays links to videos that are found on websites that you visit. The videos have to be played to be recognized by Download Helper. I usually click on the play icon and stop them after they have played for a second. That’s enough for Download Helper to recognize the video link.

Videos can then be saved like normal files by clicking on them. A left-click opens the Save As window and you can save the video to your hard drive.

A left-click on the icon directly opens a new window that lists the supported video portals. All portals are rated and you see a comment count as well. A click on a video portal loads the Download Helper website. If the link has been to an adult video portal (they are not enabled by default) then you have to verify your age. A page with comments and a link to the video portal is then opened.

I like Download Helper because it is easy to use and works on several websites that Grab++ is not working on.

via Firefox Mastery

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They do have a huge problem with linking to the sites mentioned on their website because all links lead to not found when I tried them. That is because they have added their address in front of the address of the website that they recommend. Besides that they list Unbox and Walmart in the Legal Downloads category which provide downloads after you purchase them.

A better place for these two – and others – would probably have been the Buy or Rent Movies category. Actually, several other websites mentioned in their legal downloads section are pay before download websites who probably offer a freebie every now and then.

Enough of the criticism. The effort is worth noting. I’m not sure if this is the first time the MPAA did try to offer alternatives (some free) instead of just suing and lobbying against Pirates. If you are a regular Internet user you know those websites already but it could be nice for some who just begin to use the Internet.

If they could fix the Pay / Free distinction they could create a valuable resource.

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The website viddownloader converts the videos to avi before it displays a download link. This is probably not the most elegant solution if you want to download hundreds of videos but it works fine if you only want to download a few videos. You supply the url of the video that you want to download and viddownloader does the rest automatically and displays a download link afterwards. It supports the following sites at the moment: Youtube, Break, Dailymotion, Myspace and Pornotube.

The conversion took just a few minutes and depends on the length of the video mainly. Not sure if video conversions are queued or how viddownloader handles several requests at the same time. Download speeds were fine as well. I was able to download with about 100K which is ok for videos of that size. The flv video was about 7 megabytes in size while the converted avi was almost triple that size with 19 megabytes.

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