Re: Xy'd NB -- FLV Video Capture and Player

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

{Longer, OT post}

I've been away, or otherwise delayed from replying to
this earlier . . . .

--- Robert Holmgren  wrote:

> ** Reply to message from Carl Distefano
>  on Mon,
> 18 Feb 2008 21:27:05 -0500
>
> >> The only truly lightweight [Flash Video] player I
> know is
> >> the one that I wrote, called FLVMiniPlayer. Get
> it here:
> >>
> http://xywrite.org//XyWWWebHelp/FLVMiniPlayer.zip
>
> > Well, now, isn't THAT nifty as all getout!
> Fantastic, Robert! I
> > can't get over how small this program is... And
> -- of course -- it
> > works like a charm.
>
> Ah, well, if you like that, then try this out -- the
> full program:
>
>
http://xywrite.org//XyWWWebHelp/YouTubeSaveVideo.zip
> UnZIP in the same directory (overwrite All), and run
> Install.bat
> -- it will replace the subset MiniPlayer version.

Let me second what Carl had to say. Installed both
the full and mini versions with no problem at all, and
they work very well. I can now play that NB demo with
the compact player, or secure any other FLV content
that may turn up at that site via the full version.
Unless I am missing something (in the early going),
the "FLV grab" function of the full version seems to
be site specific. That is no big deal, because
Youtube is the 800 pound gorilla these days, and so
much of that content is naturally going to flow there.
 Thanks for creating these and sharing them with us,
Robert !

> YouTube has such an immense amount of amazing stuff
> -- but the content appears and disappears,
> unpredictably.

There are many reasons for this, including blatant
copyright violations, DMCA takedown notices (justified
or often not), and lawyers' cease and desist letters.
There are clips that were personally or politically
embarrassing to someone, or otherwise deemed too hot
to handle. (The recently leaked excerpt from that
strange Tom Cruise "interview" comes to mind. A
threatening letter from his lawyers, and -- very
quickly -- it's just gone.)

> Only problem: YouTube doesn't want you to
> capture (copy to hard disk) their videos!

Nor do many other sites, and they go to some lengths
to make it extremely difficult. As you pointed out,
one often would first need to hunt down the real
location of the video with a URL sniffer, then paste
that into something that is capable of grabbing it.
There are sites that claim to do this for you, and
some browser plugins that haven't impressed me, so
far. The effectiveness of all this varies, and some
variety of tools may need to be employed, depending on
the video format, of which there are many. I'm just
beginning to get into this, and have previously tried
a few things that either don't work, work in rather
limited cases, or don't work very well. But there are
quite a few others I have yet to try. It would likely
be unreasonable and unrealistic to expect any single
tool to cover it all.

Even with just FLV, there is content I would like to
acquire from Atom Films, and other places. With WMV,
they have this nice trick of splitting the clip into a
.DAT file and some other file, if one tries to get it.
 Some of the news sites do this. I think *you* might
be able to reassemble the pieces to where the clip was
reconstituted and watchable, but this is beyond the
reach of most. That may leave only attempting to
record it -- as it streams to you -- using one of the
desktop recorder programs, which I think amounts to a
lower quality "xerox."

> YouTubeSaveVideo.exe does all that and more. I've
> built up a huge library of rarities.

The knock on YT for a long time was a preponderance of
(technically) low grade video, but they seem to be
making some improvements lately.

> BTW, I've changed one of the MiniPlayer's
> attributes,
> "smoothness", from "false" to "true". I avoided
> this before,
> because it imposes additional burdens on the CPU.
> But the
> improvement in quality when you blow the size up is
> dramatic
> enough to tip the balance. So... refreshed version:
>  http://xywrite.org//XyWWWebHelp/FLVMiniPlayer.zip

I'm in the process of moving to much better CPU
horsepower, so that should become much less of an
issue.

 Jordan