With the rage of video enabled MP3 and digital media players such as iPods, downloading videos for personal offline use has become increasingly popular. Some popular video sharing sites include Youtube, Blip.tv, DailyMotion, and Google Video.
Traditionally, it is simply a 2 step process: extract the file, then converting it.
Step 1 - Extracting the FLV File
The file format is FLV or Adobe Flash Video. There are several methods to extract this from the Internet.
Extract from your Temporary Internet files in your browser. The easiest way is after viewing a YouTube file, you can go to your Temporary Internet files in your browser settings options. In Internet Explorer, it is usually located in C:Documents and SettingsusernameLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files and search for the *.FLV file, then copy & paste to another directory. This can be a pain if you are trying to download a large file, as you have to wait until the download buffer is complete.
If you can’t wait, an alternate method is using www.YouTubeX.com (note the X after YouTube)
Go to the YouTube website and find the URL or permalink for the video you wish to download and copy the shortcut. Then, go to YouTubeX, paste the URL to the site, let it “load” and click download. Save the file with an appropriate meaningful name and a *.FLV extension
Step 2 - Converting FLV to MP4 for your iPod
The file format for iPods is MP4.
Before you convert the file, view the file on your computer to make sure it worked. Remember, the video is quite small at 320×240 resolution, but you can view it in 2X mode. You can download the free player from FLV player
To convert a FLV file to MP4 (for iPods), WMV, MPEG-2, AVI, etc., here are 2 easy & free programs:
WinFF is a frontend for FFmpeg that runs on Windows XP and Linux. It will convert most any video file that FFmpeg will convert.
SUPER, which stands for Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer. This is a GUI frontend to ffmpeg, mencoder, mplayer, ffmpeg2theora video converters.
Once converted, you simply copy this file to your device by synchronizing it with your firewire cable.
An Alternative One-Stop Method
A much easier 1-step wizard is to use the Internet Video Converter. Here is a quick summary of this free software:
free for private and professional usage
Download videos from over 50 websites like Youtube, Blip.tv, DailyMotion, Google Video etc.
Convert videos between major formats (Mpeg - VCD/SVCD/DVD compliant, DV, Quicktime, Windows Media, Xvid, H264, 3GP, PSP, iPod, Flash video (FLV or SWF) that you extracted from above
A video player is integrated for playing all videos
Rotate videos taken from digital camera
Extract soundtrack from video
Now, all you have to do is upgrade your iPod with a larger hard drive and larger video display!
For more information and links on saving video files, refer to the article on Speedendurance.com.by F. Jimson Lee
Article Source: http://www.articleset.com
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