Sandy Site Admin
Joined: 19 Dec 2002 Posts: 421
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 10:57 pm Post subject: How to download video/audio files from internet |
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Free YouTube Downloader
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http://download.cnet.com/free-youtube-downloader/3000-2071_4-75219434.html
A free download tool for youtube, or any other video hosted (other than youtube) you wish to download. The key is to get the 'proper' URL. It can be tricky! For non-techies, URL - uniform resource locator, it's just an address, like http://.......
This nifty tool is good for conversion. If you have file formats of other kind, you can use it to convert to MP3, etc. Realplayer does that too, but it's more steps involved.
Video Files are large files (depending on the length, it can range from 5MB to 100+MB). Always remember to save it to a computer you have access to later.
Realplayer
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http://www.real.com/
or
http://download.cnet.com/RealPlayer/3000-13632_4-10073040.html
There are several versions of Realplayer. If you are like me, you just get the free one and be done. This is what I have and it does all the downloading/playing. But if you want the higher quality or more functional things, there is the realplayer plus(which I don't have). I am not a big fan of realplayer, but it seems to be quite consistent and it does a good job of compressing the files. If the Free YouTube Downloader doesn't work, try to open the url from realplayer.
Steps to follow:
1. FILE>OPEN>ENTER 'youtube or other URL you wish to download'>Press 'OK'
2. When the file starts to play, you will see the realplayer logo shows up on the top right corner of the clip, click on it to download the file.
3. These are large files (depending on the length, it can range from 5MB to 100+MB). Always remember to save it to a computer you have access to later.
4. If you intend to keep these files, the most popular format for videos are AVI, MPEG, WMA, FLV. Stick with a format that your desktop media player will always open. Read more in:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_media.asp
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Usually after I download these files, I will try to compress it further to save disk space (from high definition video to low definition video, or from video to audio only MP3) . I have a lots of rants on today's multimedia tools. The files are just getting way out of control... I reminiscence the good old days of kb not mb. ;-(
This is just my experience. By no means the tools will always work. |
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