Downloading on-line video clips
 

There's a pretty good video clip doing the rounds it needs audio to enjoy that I would like to copy to my computer.

I know I can just grab the URL - but if it ever moves from the site, I'll lose it. Is there a way to grab the video and download it to the hard drive?

Hi there. In Opera, I use right click then 'Save Target as........' then save it to the hard drive or cd floppy etc.

Don't know what the similar request is if using IE. :)

Right click this link and choose 'save target as'. That should get a copy on your harddisk.

In Firefox I go to the 'tools' menu and look at 'page info' this gives me the details of all the media on a page, including movies and images. This then gives the address of the full file. In the link above 'save target as' will only save a copy of the HTML page, not the movie.

An alternative location is here - same instructions - but this URL has recently been amended following the recent and belated fame that has been accorded to the video, probably because too many people were downloading it.

The song, if anyone's interested, is Wizards in Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, on their album The Lost Christmas Eve. (Personally, I'd never heard of it, or them.)

Many thanks. 4.83Mb dowloaded to "My Documents" so now it's safe forever.

Anybody got the time and interest to explain, for future reference, how to do that (should I stumble across another video that I would like to preserve?).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra are on tour right now - best track of all from that album is "Christmas Eve in Sarajevp" and is on the radio quite often at this time of year. Phenomenal adaptation of the original and an awesome piece of music. Wife out, lights out, volume up. Stunning.

From a page of the type that you first posted, this is what I'd do:-

• Right click on the video when it's playing, left click on Properties.
• Select and copy the full URL that comes up in the Properties box.
• Open my Windows Media Player, then go to File -> Open URL.
• Paste the URL into the box and then press enter/click OK.
• Wait for the whole thing to play through, then go to File -> Save As, and save the file somewhere.

This won't always work for all video files, but it does most of them.

I sometimes have to resort to some slightly more complicated ways that involve creating a small HTML file with a hyperlink that I can right click on.

Writing a dummy post on a BB like PPRuNe incorporating a link like Jhieminga did in this thread (using the harvested URL), and then previewing the post but not posting it, is another way of getting a link that you can right click on.

Thank you, I'll go practice.