Three ways to capture video from the Internet
Submitted by: Troy Dreier
Tip 2: Using a Firefox extension
There are many reasons why Mozilla Firefox is our favourite Web browser, and one is because it makes grabbing online videos so easy. This tip for Firefox works with both the Windows and Mac versions.
Adding new features and customising Firefox is simple to do with extensions. Extensions are typically created by other users and are simple to search for and add. To see your browser's list of extensions, select Extensions from the Tools pull-down menu or hit the Ctrl+Shift+E key combination. You can then click 'Install' to add extensions you've downloaded locally.
A fantastic extension called Video Downloader makes it easy to download and store video from more than 60 streaming-video sites. After installing Video Downloader, you'll see a new icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser interface -- click it when you have a video page open to save that video. The resulting pop-up window directs you to right-click a download link, then change the suffix to FLV. That works, but in our testing so did left-clicking the link. Plus, if we left-clicked, we didn't have to change the suffix.
Once you've saved your file, you'll need a way to view it. Mac users are in luck, because there's a great donation-ware video-conversion program called iSquint all ready for you. It's not time-limited, so you can use it indefinitely without paying, but if you like it, you should throw the programmer a bit of cash.
To use iSquint, open it and drag your downloaded file into the work area. You can choose the quality of your final video, the format (standard MPEG-4 or the H.264 codec), and optimise it to play on a video iPod. We love the program's opinionated progress messages. Don't miss the Help menu, which is clever, although not actually helpful.
We haven't found a similar free video-conversion application for Windows (if you know of one, tell us), but CinemaForge is a good, inexpensive tool (free to try; $24.95 (£13) to buy). Windows users also can download a FLV viewer, such as the aforementioned FLV Player, a donation-supported free program.
Submitted by: Troy Dreier
Troy Dreier is a freelance writer and a former PC Magazine staff editor. He regularly contributes to CNET, PC Magazine, Laptop, PDAStreet.com and Intranet Journal, covering such diverse topics as desktop computers, Apple software, handheld gadgets, audio and video hardware and software, and enterprise applications.
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