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Help Needed: How To Save Videos From Websites?

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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 5, 2016
517
69
Hey guys,

I'm not going to be downloading anything illegal or breaking any laws so there's no need to be concerned.

The longer I wait to figure this problem out the more videos are deleted from websites and that means I'm unable to see them ever again... ? ? ?

Thank you so much for any advice!
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 5, 2016
517
69
BlankStar said:
browser plugins are the key
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply BlankStar!

Which browser plugins are you referring to?

casperes1996 said:
What website? Despite the name being focused on YT, YouTube-dl can download from a few different sites.
Click to expand...

It's a bunch of different websites not just one. Is there something you can recommend that I can trust as being safe/genuine software that doesn't contain malicious software like trojans or backdoors to the Internet?
 
Shirasaki

Shirasaki

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May 16, 2015
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Video downloader in and out of itself isn’t something that is “malicious” by any means, but a clean one is kinda hard to find.

For screen recording, OBS is a nice reputable choice. You just need to spend some time recording those videos one by one.

If the site is popular, online downloader website can help, though they often have “fair use” policies and can’t be used too frequently.
 
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laptech

laptech

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Internet Download Manager, the best website video downloader I have ever used. It is well worth paying for because it is THAT good.
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 5, 2016
517
69
Thank you for your replies Shirasaki and Laptech!

Shirasaki said:
Video downloader in and out of itself isn’t something that is “malicious” by any means, but a clean one is kinda hard to find.

For screen recording, OBS is a nice reputable choice. You just need to spend some time recording those videos one by one.

If the site is popular, online downloader website can help, though they often have “fair use” policies and can’t be used too frequently.
Click to expand...
Can you please link me to the App you're referring to?
laptech said:
Internet Download Manager, the best website video downloader I have ever used. It is well worth paying for because it is THAT good.
Click to expand...
Can you please link me to Internet Download Manager?
 
Shirasaki

Shirasaki

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BeautifulWoman_1984 said:
Thank you for your replies Shirasaki and Laptech!


Can you please link me to the App you're referring to?

Can you please link me to Internet Download Manager?
Click to expand...

Open Broadcaster Software | OBS

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Stream to Twitch, YouTube and many other providers or record your own videos with high quality H264 / AAC encoding.
obsproject.com obsproject.com
This one is OBS.

Internet Download Manager is a powerful download accelerator

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 10 times, resume or schedule downloads and download streaming videos
www.internetdownloadmanager.com
This one is Internet Download Manager.

I will throw another downloader I sometimes use as well: Jdownloader.

JDownloader.org - Official Homepage

jdownloader.org jdownloader.org
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 5, 2016
517
69

Internet Download Manager is a powerful download accelerator

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 10 times, resume or schedule downloads and download streaming videos
www.internetdownloadmanager.com
This one is Internet Download Manager.

I will throw another downloader I sometimes use as well: Jdownloader.

JDownloader.org - Official Homepage

jdownloader.org jdownloader.org
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your replies Shirasaki! I'm looking at the links now.

What about "Video Downloader" you mentioned earlier?
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

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Feb 20, 2009
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Post one or two URLs as examples of videos you're trying to download.
That will help us "point you towards the solution".
 
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Shirasaki

Shirasaki

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BeautifulWoman_1984 said:
Thank you very much for your replies Shirasaki! I'm looking at the links now.

What about "Video Downloader" you mentioned earlier?
Click to expand...
It’s just software that provides video downloading feature. Not specific for one particular. Jdownloader is one of those software.
There are also paid video downloader.
 
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BeautifulWoman_1984

Contributor
Original poster
Sep 5, 2016
517
69
Shirasaki said:
It’s just software that provides video downloading feature. Not specific for one particular. Jdownloader is one of those software.
There are also paid video downloader.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply Shirasaki!

What do you mean by "there are also paid video downloader"?
 
Madonepro

Madonepro

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Mar 16, 2011
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Safari does have an inbuilt way too.
1. In preferences/advanced - enable show develop menu
2. Option + Command + A and you'll see an area pop up at the bottom that has a whole lot of html.
On the left, you'll seen an option for 'by type' or 'by path', select 'by type' and if the page has videos, there will be a videos folder, open it, and then double click on the name, it will open a window, then simply right click and select 'download as'.
 
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Shirasaki

Shirasaki

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BeautifulWoman_1984 said:
Thank you for your reply Shirasaki!

What do you mean by "there are also paid video downloader"?
Click to expand...
Just like the one mentioned below ur post, there are video downloaders that you need to pay a fee to use their full features. Sometimes they have some “proprietary” system built in that can improve video downloading success rate (such as some obscure links), or provide extra features such as converting the video you downloaded to another format, extract audio etc.
 
Wowfunhappy

Wowfunhappy

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Mar 12, 2019
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Sadly, every video downloading GUI app I've ever used feels scummy. The gold standard is youtube-dl, but it's a command line app.

If you open up a Terminal and type:
Code: 
sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Code: 
sudo curl -JL http://evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/getrelease/zip | tar --directory /usr/local/bin/ -xvf- -o ffmpeg && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg

Now, whenever you want to download a video, open a Terminal again and enter youtube-dl followed by a space and then the url of the video you want to download. Press enter, and it will appear in your home folder (or whatever your working directory is).

I actually set up a service in Automator to automatically get a video from my web browser and download it to my Movies folder. It's great; it feels as if it's just built into my browser. The Applescript code I use for this is below; it should work with either Safari or Firefox if you change the first line. If you know how to use Automator, just set up a service/quick action and add the code as a Run Applescript action. (I can provide more details upon request!)

AppleScript: 
try
    set theURL to getURLFromSafari()
    --set theURL to getURLFromFirefox()
   
    checkForYoutubeDL()
    checkForFFmpeg()
    do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl --update"
    set theName to ""
   
    try
        set theName to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl " & theURL & " --ignore-errors --no-check-certificate --no-playlist --get-title"
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl " & theURL & " -f bestvideo[vcodec^=avc1]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best --ignore-errors --no-check-certificate --no-playlist --ffmpeg-location /usr/local/bin/ -o '~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s'"
        display notification theName with title "Download Complete!" sound name "Hero"
    on error errorMessage
        if errorMessage contains "Unsupported URL" or errorMessage contains "Could not send HEAD request" then
            display dialog "No downloadable videos found on web page." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
            error
        else if errorMessage contains "geolocation" then
            display dialog "This video contains geolocation restrictions." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
            error
        else if errorMessage contains "too many requests" then
            display dialog "Youtube has banned your IP address. Try again later." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
            error
        else if errorMessage contains "SSL" then
            display dialog "There was an SSL error. If you're running an old version of Mac OS, consider using an HTTPS proxy server like Squid to fix this problem." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
            error
        end if
        display dialog errorMessage with title "Unable to download video!"
        error
    end try
on error
    display notification theName with title "Download Failed" sound name "Basso"
    return
end try

on getURLFromFirefox()
    try
        tell application "Firefox"
            activate
            delay 0.2
            tell application "System Events"
                keystroke "l" using command down
                delay 0.3
                keystroke "c" using command down
                delay 0.3
                key code 53 --escape key
                delay 0.3
                keystroke "[" using command down
            end tell
        end tell
        return (the clipboard) as text
    on error
        display dialog "Please open \"System Preferences\" → \"Security & Privacy\" → \"Privacy\" → \"Accessibility\" and add \"Firefox.app\" to the list of apps allowed to control your computer."
        error
    end try
end getURLFromFirefox

on getURLFromSafari()
    try
        tell application "Safari"
            set theURL to URL of front document
            set pageName to name of front document

            --If it's possible to go back, then go back. Otherwise, close the tab instead.
            if (do JavaScript "history.length" in front document) > 1 then
                do JavaScript "history.back()" in front document
            else
                close current tab of front window
            end if
        end tell
    on error
        do shell script "defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDevelopMenu -bool true"
        display dialog "In Safari, please enable Developer → Allow Javascript from Apple Events" buttons {"OK"}
        error
    end try
end getURLFromSafari()

on checkForYoutubeDL()
    try
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -h"
    on error
        display dialog "Please place a copy of youtube-dl in /usr/local/bin before using this script." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
        error
    end try
end checkForYoutubeDL

on checkForFFmpeg()
    try
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -h"
    on error
        display dialog "Please place a copy of ffmpeg in /usr/local/bin before using this script." with icon stop buttons {"OK"}
        error
    end try
end checkForFFmpeg
 
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casperes1996

casperes1996

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Wowfunhappy said:
Now, whenever you want to download a video, open a Terminal again and enter youtube-dl followed by a space and then the url of the video you want to download. Press enter, and it will appear in your home folder or whatever your working directory is).
Click to expand...

I've never seen anyone recommend installation through just downloading with curl and placing in bin. I mean it works, but yeah - I would just advice Home-brew - That way it handles updates for you as well :)
 
Wowfunhappy

Wowfunhappy

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Youtube-dl actually has its own, built-in --update function, and the command I suggested is actually the first one listed on youtube-dl's download page. I'm also weird and don't like homebrew, particularly if you're only going to install a handful of utilities.

But, yes, if you're a homebrew user that will also do the trick. Pretty sure it's also in MacPorts.
 
Last edited:
casperes1996

casperes1996

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Jan 26, 2014
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Horsens, Denmark
Wowfunhappy said:
Youtube-dl has its own, built-in --update command. I'm also weird and don't like homebrew, particularly if you're only going to install a handful of utilities.

But yes, if you're a homebrew user that will also do the trick. Pretty sure it's also in MacPorts.
Click to expand...

I mean that's completely fair. I have a few gripes with home-brew as well and have considered using MacPorts or Fink instead, but at the same time I just find home-brew convenient and familiar - Anyway sidetracked rant.
Just popped out at me, and didn't even know yt-dl had --update as an option. Even read through the man page a few times but that man page is huge as well, and I likely wouldn't pay attention to --update since I just get it updated through brew
 
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