It’s actually pretty easy to download streaming video and audio files from sites like YouTube and save them on your computer. And there are quite a few free software tools to help you.
In this tutorial, we’ll look at the first step, capturing the streaming audio or video file and saving it on your computer. In part two, we will look at how to convert the files so you can transfer them to your portable MP3 player for listening or viewing.
Step 1: Get Firefox
I’ve been spending the last week or so experimenting with free software that works in tandem with the Firefox web browser. If you’re not a Firefox user yet, do yourself a favor and click on over to the Firefox website and get yourself a free copy. Lots of folks find it faster, easier and safer than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and some Mac experts think it’s even better than Safari.
Step2: Get DownloadHelper
Next, download a copy of a Firefox add-on called DownloadHelper.
Step 3: Test DownloadHelper
To test it out, start to play the first Hans Bethe lecture by clicking here. On the Firefox menu, select Tools>Download helper. You will see something like this:
Click on the file name “lecture__1__small.mov”, choose a file name and directory, and the download will begin.
Click here for the next tutorial which explains how to convert these files so you can view or listen on your portable MP3 player.
Filed under: Tools | Tagged: DownloadHelper, downloading, downloading tutorial, Firefox add-on
