gHacks technology news » youtube

YouScrobble A Last.FM And Youtube Mashup Service

Martin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:11:12 +0000

Services that make use of the vast video and audio archive that is Youtube are springing out of the ground more recently in this year. YouScrobble is the latest service that is combining Youtubes video archive with the information provided by the music service Last.fm. This combination alone proves to be very effective. Users who visit Youtube can perform searches for music that they would like to listen to but the music (in form of videos) is usually unsorted and often unrelated to the artist (think cover versions for example). Last.fm on the other hand provides extensive information about artists, their albums and songs but playback is limited on the website.

YouScrobble brings the best of these two worlds together. Users who visit the music service can perform a search for an artist to be presented with the complete discography of that artist. The mashup now brings Youtube into the picture by allowing playback and downloads of the music found on Youtube.

The service makes use of three different user roles: Guests can search for and listen to music on the website. They are also allowed to download five songs every 24 hours. Registered users (still free) get ten additional downloads per day, a better download priority, playlist support and scrobble functionality to let Last.fm know about the music. Paid users finally get unlimited downloads and the highest priority in the download queue.

YouScrobble offers means to discover music in a different way. Users can also take a look at the categories or popular artists instead of searching for artists, albums, bands or songs.

Is the service legal? That’s a question that is better left to the lawyers in this case. The pay for downloads model that YouScrobble uses is certainly the most controversial aspect of the service. As Martin Bryant over at Read Write Web points out it is one thing to embed videos on a website that playback music and another to offer that music for download. But that’s something that the developer’s have to dell with eventually, not the users who are using the service.

Tags: last.fm, music, music-download, youscrobble, youtube

Online Music Player TubeRadio

Martin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:25:25 +0000

If you are looking for music chance is that you find it at Youtube. It really does not matter if you are looking for something new, old, rare or popular as Youtube provides access to millions of different songs from artists from all over the world. Several online services have already used that vast repertoire of music by adding it to their music library.

TubeRadio is another service that makes use of that principle. It offers an interface that resembles that of Apple’s iTunes software. Here is how it works. It begins by entering a song or artist into the form on the homepage of the service. It is alternatively possible to pick one of the artists or genres that are prominently displayed on the homepage.

TubeRadio will search its database for albums that match the song or artist. All of the albums that are found will be displayed with their album cover and name.

Albums are selected with a left mouse click. It is possible to select multiple albums. TubeRadio will then perform a search on Youtube for those songs in the selected albums which are then added to playlists from where they can be played. Registered users have options to save playlists so that they can reopen them whenever they re-visit the website. Another option is to go back to the search and add additional albums by performing new searches. It is furthermore possible to search directly on Youtube instead of the discography search option.

The music is played on the TubeRadio website with a small video being displayed. Basic controls like switching songs, changing the playback volume, repeating, muting or shuffling songs are available. Users can also look at lyrics, biographies or similar songs (if available) while listening to the music.

There is also an option to display albums and artists that are currently in the charts to listen to these songs instead. The only aspect that users might criticize is something that all of these services have to cope with: the quality of the Youtube videos. It can happen that the service does not retrieve the song by the artist but a cover that is performed by another artist.

Just visit the TubeRadio website if you are interested in trying out the service. (via Make Use Of)

Tags: music, music videos, tuberadio, youtube

Youtube Downloader HD

Martin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:04:00 +0000

Users who want to download Youtube videos have a lot of choice these days; From web browser add-ons to userscripts and desktop software programs. These programs differ highly in their functionality. Some add download links directly to the Youtube video pages while other do not require Youtube at all as they offer their own search, preview and download modules.

Youtube Downloader HD is a desktop application for the Windows operating system. The software program is basically one of those Youtube downloaders that require the user to copy and paste a Youtube video url into the application so that it can be processed. Every aspect other than copying the Youtube video url is handled in the main application window.

The download process is divided into four different steps of which two configure download settings. These two define the download directory and the maximum video quality that should be downloaded if it is available.

The quality settings are (from high to low): Avi HD (High Definition), MP4 (High Quality) and Flv or Avi (Normal Quality). If the selected quality level is available the video will be downloaded in that quality. If not Youtube Downloader HD will check the next best quality and then the normal quality if that is the only one available.

Youtube Downloader HD is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft operating system including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: download youtube videos, windows software, youtube, youtube downloader hd

How To Loop Youtube Videos

Martin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:10:45 +0000

The video portal Youtube does not offer any means to loop or repeat videos automatically. There are however a few possible solutions for users who want to loop a video at Youtube.

The first option requires basic knowledge about Youtube’s url structure especially the unique video code that is part of every url. It is possible to change the url of the Youtube video so that it will loop and autoplay automatically. Here is how you can do that manually:

A normal Youtube url looks like the following

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgjMK2sWgsE

You can turn this into a replaying and autoplaying video url by appending the parameters loop=1 and autoplay=1 to the url and changing the url slightly so that it looks like this afterwards

http://www.youtube.com/v/sgjMK2sWgsE&loop=1&autoplay=1

This will open the youtube video in fullscreen in the web browser, play it automatically and loop it infinitely.

The manual solution to loop Youtube videos is fine if it is only used scarcely. Users who want to loop Youtube videos regularly might want to consider an automated option like the Youtube HD Ultimate userscript which comes with the functionality to automatically loop Youtube videos. Other userscripts are available that offer a similar functionality.

Tags: loop youtube videos, repeat youtube videos, youtube, youtube videos

Google Implements Cross-site Request Forgery Protection

Martin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:50:33 +0000

Cross-site Request Forgery are carried out from a computer system or user that is trusted by a website. Cookies that do not expire after a user closes the website or web browser are one of the most common forms of trust that can be exploited by cross-site request forgery attacks. The attacker needs to use the user’s web browser to send HTTP requests to the target website which is usually accomplished by posting these links in emails, forums, chats and other means of communication.

At risk are web applications that perform actions based on input from trusted and authenticated users without requiring the user to authorize the specific action. A user who is authenticated by a cookie saved in the user’s web browser could unknowingly send an HTTP request to a site that trusts the user and thereby causes an unwanted action. (source Wikipedia)

Google has (finally) started to implement cross-site request forgery protections to protect Google users and their online services according to an article posted at the Register.

Sometime in the last three days, Google’s login pages began setting a cookie with a unique token on each user’s browser, according to Mike Bailey, a senior researcher for Foreground Security. That same value is also embedded into the login form. If the two don’t match, the user will be unable to log in.

Security experts have criticized Google in the past for not implementing a cross-site request forgery protection. Google engineers were quick to close security vulnerabilities that were caused by this attack type but did not implement a generic protection against these types of attacks.

Tags: cross-site request forgery, gmail, Google, google accounts, google security, youtube

The Data Liberation Front

Martin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:12:10 +0000

The Date Liberation Front is Google’s attempt at make it easier for users to import and export data out of Google products. Here are a few scenarios where it might make sense to export data from a Google product. Google users who run a Blogger blog realizing that they need to switch to a superior blogging platform or content management system, Gmail users who want to switch from the Gmail website to a desktop email client or Picasa Web Albums users who want to switch to another photo hosting website like Flickr.

The project is run by a Google engineering team which is maintaining the information on the website. The website lists 24 different Google services currently for which information are provided on how to import and export data in and out of them.

The information provided usually concentrate on showcasing the import and export features of Google products without going into to much detail. Below is the informatin provided on the Google Docs page at the project’s website.

The following Google services are currently listed at the website: Google AdWords, Alerts, Analytics, App Engine, Apps for Business, Blogger, Bookmarks, Calendar, Chrome Bookmarks, Contacts, Google Docs, Finance, Gmail, Google Health, iGoogle, Google Maps, Notebook, Orkut, Picasa Web Albums, Reader, Google Voice, Web History, YouTube

The team is taking suggestions from users and seems to update the pages of the project fairly regular. Internet users can visit the Data Liberation Front website for additional information and the import and export guides.

Tags: data liberation front, gmail, Google, google export, google import, google services, youtube

Create Animated GIFs From YouTube Videos

Martin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:24:03 +0000

Animated gifs are largely a thing of the past. They do not play an important role anymore in today’s web design but are still popular in forums and other message boards. GifSoup is an online service that is offering to convert a Youtube video into an animated gif. All it takes is to paste a Youtube video url in the form at the website. The service will then automatically download the Youtube video.

A preview of the video with the option to select a starting and end time for the animated gif are presented to the user afterwards. The service currently offeres to create animated gifs that have a maximum size of 10 seconds. It is up to the user to select the starting and end time for the animated gif there.

A preview of the selected time frame is available after making the selection. This makes it easier to correct the start or end of the video if necessary. A click on the finish button will save the video on the Gif Soup website. The user then has the opportunity to download the animated gif in different sizes to the local computer system or use the code to embed it into websites directly. A watermark with the url of the service will always be displayed in the lower right corner of the video.

Users who prefer more configuration options and an animated gif without a watermark can use image editors like Gimp or Adobe Photoshop to do the same. They offer more options but are more complicated to use. GifSoup offers an easy way to create animated gifs from Youtube videos in no time.

Tags: animated gifs, gifsoup, youtube, youtube videos

Automatically Buffer Youtube Videos

Martin — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:29:49 +0000

Many Youtube users do not like the fact that Youtube videos start playing as soon as the video is opened. This objection has several reasons. The most prominent ones are that users with slow connections can experience pauses during playback as the video download speed is slower than the playback speed of the video. Another reason becomes apparent if users open multiple videos at once on Youtube. All of these videos start playing as soon as the page has loaded which is obviously not a good experience.

The Greasemonkey script Youtube Auto Buffer And Auto HD and Remove Ads offers a quick and unobtrusive solution to that problem and two additional ones.

Youtube videos will automatically buffer completely without playback. Users who want to do that manually need to press the pause button on each video so that the video is not played but the contents are buffered. The script automates that process.

The Greasemonkey script adds two additional features. The first will automatically load the HD version of the opened Youtube videos. That’s a feature that most Youtube scripts and add-ons provides. The second will remove those annoying ads that are displayed at the bottom of Youtube videos.

Some users reported that they got the script working not only in the Firefox web browser but also in Opera. Interested users can download it from the Userscripts website. Make sure to check out our download Youtube videos guide if you are interested in download videos from the video portal.

Tags: download youtube videos, greasemonkey, userscripts, youtube, youtube buffer, youtube videos, youtube-tips

Youtube Video Search Is A Barebone Youtube Downloader

Martin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:06:03 +0000

If you can live without fancy then Youtube Video Search might be the right software program to download Youtube videos for you. The portable application comes without installer and can be executed from any storage device that is connected to the computer system including external hard drives, USB sticks and optical drives.

The Youtube downloader concentrates on streamlining the download of videos from the popular video hosting website. It comes with a search form on top that populates the main area of the application with search results in seconds. Each video is listed with its title, type, duration, rating and date that it was added to the Youtube video hosting portal.

A double-click will open the selected video in the default web browser of the computer system. The right-click on the other hand will open a context menu with three options. These options are to open, preview or download the selected Youtube videos. The open command will perform the same operation as the double-click. Preview will generate a small thumbnail image of the video and display it in the Youtube video downloader.

Save as finally will open the file browser that can be used to pick a download directory for the selected videos. It is possible to select one, multiple or all of the videos that have been returned as results. It is possible to either download the videos in original flv format or high quality mpeg format.

And that’s it. No fancy options menu to change program settings. No video preview in the application itself. Just a barebone fast Youtube video downloader that does what it is supposed to do. Oh, there is an option to enter a Youtube username and password but there is no explanation why this option is offered and it is not needed to download the videos. Youtube Video Search is available at the developer’s website. Check out the download Youtube videos article for more tools and services that allow users of all operating systems and web browsers to download videos from the video portal.

Tags: download youtube videos, portable software, windows software, youtube, youtube video search, youtube videos, youtube-downloader

Free Youtube Utility

Martin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:12:21 +0000

The Free Youtube Utility combines several different modules to search, download, convert and manage Youtube videos in one interface. The software program is compatible with all latest versions of Microsoft Windows including the soon to be released Windows 7.

The Youtube search works independtly from installed web browsers. It will process the first five Youtube results pages by default. This setting can be changed to a maximum of ten processed results pages.

Videos are then displayed with their title, description, playing time, view count, url and date they have been added. A double-click on individual videos will send them to the download manager of the Youtube software program. Multiple videos can be send to the download manager together.

The download manager will start Youtube video downloads immediately. Already downloaded videos can be played in the interface or send over to the video converter to convert them into a different video format.

The file manager will list all downloaded Youtube videos giving the user the opportunity to play them at any time from within the interface.

Videos that have been downloaded can be converted into 16 different output formats including iPod, PSP, 3GP, iPhone, DVD, AVI, VCD or Mp3.

There is no option to change the quality settings of the video conversion. It is however possible to automatically convert videos that have been downloaded into a selected video format.

The Free Youtube Utility integrates itself in the Internet Explorer web browser offering one-click downloads of Youtube videos from within the browser.

The software program works pretty well and combines all the tools needed to work with Youtube videos. Users who are interested in alternatives can check out our download Youtube videos article to do so.

Tags: convert-youtube-videos, download youtube videos, free youtube utility, youtube, youtube video download

Search Multiple Video Search Engines With Videosurf

Martin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:32:01 +0000

Videosurf is a video search website that can search multiple video portals at once. Support video websites are among others Youtube, Hulu, Google Videos, Dailymotion, CNN Video, Reuters and dozens more. Video search results are mixed from all video portals and displayed on the website. One interesting feature of Videosurf are the categories that are automatically displayed in a small menu on the left side. These categories sort videos by content type (clips, slideshows, full episodes), TV shows, broad categories like tech, music or how and sources. A click on any of the available filters will filter the video search results list to display only videos matching the selected filters.

It is possible to combine filters as well using the checkboxes. Videos are displayed with their name, size, source and several thumbnail screenshots which usually gives a good indication of the video’s contents. Video search results can be sorted in several ways including relevance, popularity, duration or date they have been added.

It is furthermore possible to save a video search and to embed it in a website. Videosurf comes with two Firefox add-ons that make it more comfortable to search for videos. Videos at a Glance will display visual video thumbnails while the Videosurf Search Plugin adds the video search engine to the list of Firefox search engines.

Tags: firefox, firefox add-ons, hulu, search videos, video, video search, videos at a glance, youtube

Youtube Insight: Find Out Who Is Embedding Your Youtube Videos

Martin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:34:44 +0000

Youtube Insight is a function of Youtube that displays video statistics to video uploaders on the Youtube website. It is practically a basic traffic analyzer that is displaying views, demographics and community responses to the uploaded videos. It is furthermore possible to access in depth stats of individual videos by clicking on one of the videos by clicking on an uploaded video in the main interface of Youtube Insight.

This will open up a submenu with statistics about the selected video including demographics, views and community responses of that video. A discovery option is also available that contains some very interesting options. Discovery will display the traffic sources of the video. In other words, it will display how and where users are finding and accessing the selected video.

Each traffic source category that is listed on that page is accessible so that detailed statistics can be viewed. It is for example possible to see a list of the search phrases that Youtube users use to find the video on the Youtube website. Other options include Google search phrases, external links and embedded players.

Embedded players lists the websites and services that have embedded the video on their website. This can be an excellent opportunity to discover new communities and create relationships for future productions.

Each traffic source that is displayed in this category can be visited by clicking on the link that is provided. This link (unfortunately) does not lead to the page the video is embedded on but to the homepage of the website. The links can be downloaded in a csv file for further processing. Date and country filters are available on the top to filter results based on these two parameters.

Interested users can access Youtube Insight by following this link. Make sure you check out our Download Youtube Videos article for a list of great programs and plugins that allow you to download Youtube videos.

source 10e20

Tags: download youtube videos, Google, youtube, youtube embedded links, youtube embedded player, youtube insight, youtube traffic, youtube traffic analyzer

YouDown Batch Youtube Video Downloader

Martin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:12:03 +0000

Many Internet users like to download videos from Google’s Youtube video portal. Download Youtube Videos was a popular article about a week ago and YouDown would have made it if it would have been released back then. YouDown is a software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to download videos that are hosted at Youtube.

The program is a little bit less comfortable than Youtube downloaders that come with their own search or browser. Users can either copy and paste single urls into the interface of the program or import text files that contain multiple Youtube links. The import only works if the text document contains one Youtube link per line.

A click on the Go button will initiate the download right away. The videos will be downloaded one after the other until the end of the queue is reached. By default high quality defintion versions of the video are downloaded from Youtube. It is however possible to change the quality setting to high quality or low quality instead. This will speed up the downloads a lot but reduce the quality of the downloaded Youtube videos.

YouDown requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and a Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the Codeplex [via Addictive Tips] website.

Tags: download youtube videos, video download, youdown, youtube, youtube video downloader, youtube-download

Youtube Playlist Converter

Martin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:36:33 +0000

Download Youtube Videos was the name of an article that we published a few days ago that proved to be very popular. The software program Youtube Playlist Converter would have been a great fit for the selection of programs, web browser plugins and web services that allow users to download videos from Youtube. The program on the other hand is a little bit different than most programs that we reviewed back then.

The standalone software can download and convert videos from Youtube playlists into mp3 format which makes it an excellent program to increase a music collection. Other programs that we mentioned could do that too but none were as easy to use as Youtube Playlist Converter.

The user needs to enter a username in the application’s interface. A click on the refresh button will download all playlists from the user and display them in the interface. It is then up to the user to pick one of the playlists for download. A download directory has to be specified before the Youtube videos can be downloaded and converted. A click on the convert button will initiate the process.

The software program will then download the Youtube playlist information to display them in a new window. It is then possible to deselect some of the videos in the interface to prevent them from being converted to mp3.

A click on the ok button will then download the Youtube videos and convert them into mp3 format. The original flv files will be deleted afterwards so that only the mp3 files remain on the computer’s hard drive. Youtube Playlist Converter is compatible with Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework (not sure which version).

Tags: download youtube videos, windows software, youtube, youtube playlist converter, youtube video download, youtube videos

Online Video Converter

Martin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:59:02 +0000

You have basically two options if you want to convert a video from one format into another. You can either use software programs that run on the computer system to convert the videos or use online converters to do the same. Both methods have their limitations and uses. The desktop video converter can for example handle files of any size (limited usually by the file system) while online converters limit the file size due to their nature. This usually means that it is not possible to upload files that are several hundred Megabytes to an online video converter. The online video converters on the other hand can sometimes access videos that are posted on other websites directly. They also have the advantage that they do not have to be installed but can be used from any modern web browser.

The free video converter Movavi Online Convert is an excellent tool to convert videos on the Internet. It can convert files that are uploaded from the local computer system but also videos that are already stored on the Internet. Online video portals that are currently supported are for example Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Videos, MySpace or Break.com.

Up to five videos that do not exceed a total size of 100 Megabytes and an individual playtime of 10 minutes can either be uploaded or entered with their url in the online video converter. A multitude of different output formats is available including avi and mpeg but also specific formats for devices such as iPods, iPhones or mobile phones.

The advanced options provide the means to customize the conversion further. It is for example possible to change the output width and height of the video or to change the video and audio quality.

A click on the start button will initiate the upload of the videos if they have been selected from the local system. Users can check the merge checkbox if they want to merge all the selected videos in one larger video.

The videos will be added to the program queue. At the time of writing the queue number was at 932. That’s a long time to wait. It is fortunately possible to add an email address to be informed when the video conversion has been finished. The queue window can be closed if an email address is supplied.

Movavi’s online video converter is a comfortable online tool that makes it dead easy to convert videos on the Internet.

Tags: convert videos, movavi, online tools, online video converter, video converter, videos, youtube

Youtube Videos Downloader TubeQueue

Martin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:46:15 +0000

You have many different programs and services at your disposal if you want to download videos from the popular video portal Youtube. There are web browser add-ons, bookmarklets and desktop applications that can all download Youtube videos. Some can only download one video at a time while others provide a more sophisticated solution to queue and download multiple videos from Youtube.

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.

Tags: download-videos, tubequeue, windows software, youtube, youtube video, youtube videos, youtube videos download

Automatically Download Youtube Videos (And More)

Martin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:36:11 +0000

With the popularity of video portals like Youtube came the desire to download the videos to the local computer system to be able to watch them (again) offline or to convert them to burn them to DVD and watch them on TV. Hundreds of applications and software programs have been designed to fill that gap and we already reviewed many of them in the past including popular download manager like Orbit Downloader or the Firefox add-on Download Helper.

Yahoo Downloader is another Firefox extension that has been designed to download videos from portals like Youtube, Yahoo or CNN but also music from sites like Pandora, Last.fm or Imeem. Probably the most interesting feature for many users is the ability to automatically download videos from these websites.

The Firefox add-on places an icon in the Firefox address bar. Some users might not like the location of the icon as it is placed on the left side of the address bar. This can however be easily changed by right-clicking blank space on that toolbar and selecting the customize option. The Yahoo Downloader icon can then be dragged and dropped to another location, toolbar or even removed completely as it is not needed for most of the functionality.

A left-click on the icon will display the window of the download that will list all the videos that have been discovered in open tabs in the Firefox web browser.A click on the download it button will start the download. This can be automated if automatic downloads have been enabled in the options of the Firefox add-on. This setting makes it very comfortable to download youtube videos or videos and music from the other supported audio and video portals.

All videos will be downloaded to a location on the local computer system which can also be changed in the options of the add-on. Yahoo Downloader is a great add-on for users who download many videos or music and want to automate the process as much as possible.

Tags: audio, download youtube videos, download-manager, firefox-add on, firefox-extension, last.fm, pandora, video, yahoo downloader, youtube

In Plain English

Martin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:37:17 +0000

If you have to explain a concept to someone you better make sure to match their proficiency level so that they actually understand what you are talking about. If you work in tech support you usually talk to users all the time who have little to no knowledge at all about technology. They might get confused if you throw words like web browser, email client or operating system at them.

In Plain English is a video series on Youtube and the common craft website that explains concepts in plain terms so that everyone, even someone who has little to no knowledge about the concept can understand it.

Their latest video is for example explaining RSS Feeds. How would you explain RSS feeds to someone who never heard about the concept before. The videos do an excellent job of explaining these concepts in plain terms. There are basically four topics (Green, Money, Society and Technology) to chose from. The technology category contains explanations of Twitter, social media or wikis among others.

All videos are made without computers and do not show a single computer screen or hardware. You can watch all videos either on the Common Craft website or at Youtube directly.

Tags: common craft, in plain english, tech videos, training videos, videos, youtube

Automatic Video Capture Software WebVideoCap

Martin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:37:47 +0000

There is definitely no shortage when it comes to finding software programs and add-ons that allow a user to download videos that are shown on websites. The popularity of video portals like Youtube was probably the main reason why many software developers have created video capture software programs. Some of the most convenient ones are available as add-ons for the Firefox web browser.

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.

Tags: download-videos, nirsoft, portable software, video capture, video capture software, windows software, youtube, youtube videos

Automatic Media Downloads With Tubemaster++

Martin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:53:38 +0000

There are many media portals and other websites that offer free videos and music that users can watch and listen to. It ranges from Internet radio stations to music services such as Last.fm or Pandora to video websites which have become an excellent way of listening to music and watching videos. The music and mvoie industry have also realized that these websites can be used to promote their products. It’s a win-win for all parties.

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).

Tags: download-music, download-videos, imeem, last.fm, media downloads, pandora, tubemaster, youtube

gHacks technology news » youtube

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