download - How flv downloader browser extentions work?

07
2014-07
  • ybaylav

    I am wondering how these kind of applications produce an obfuscated url to make you able to download the video in mp4 ? And these produced urls can be directly streamed.

    • Answers
  • Jet

    Short answer:

    Almost all video services have alternative hidden URL for each video where you can download it directly. That extensions know how to "build" that URL from your video link.

    Long answer:

    Usually it's not so hard to find that URLs and Chrome's F12, Ctrl+U or Maxthon's built-in downloader do the work. And usually such URLs have ID-like parameter, so if you change it with another video ID, you can download that video too.
    The work is harder if they have hash-like parameters, then you must find out how that hashes are added. But most services (especially little ones) use easy algorithms like Base64, add there some date-time-timeout and some ID. In this case your work is easy.

    (P.S. I've just tried and it took me about 5 minutes with Chrome F12 to find direct URL for DailyMotion.)


    • Related Question

    firefox - How to download a URL as a file?
  • Questioner

    A website URL has "hidden" some MP3 files by embedding them as Shockwave files, as follows.

    <span class="caption"><!-- Odeo player --><embed src="http://odeo.com/flash/audio_player_tiny_gray.swf"quality="high" name="audio_player_tiny_gray" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="valid_sample_rate=true external_url=http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/sundayeditionstream_20081125_9524.mp3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></span>

    How can I download the files for off-line listening?

    I've found two methods:

    1. The Stack Overflow Method

    Create a new local HTML file with just the links, for example:

    <a href="http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/sundayeditionstream_20081125_9524.mp3" rel="nofollow">Sunday Edition 25Nov2008</a>

    Open the file in the browser, right click the link and File > Save Link As.

    2. The Super User Method

    Install the Firefox addin Iget. (Be sure to use the right version for your Firefox version.)

    Tools > Downloads > Enter URL in the field.

    Are there any other ways?


    • Related Answers
  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    On Linux, use 'wget' on the command line:

    wget http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/sundayeditionstream_20081125_9524.mp3

    If you want a similar tool on Windows, you could install wget via Cygwin or use one of the GNU Win32 ports.

    On Mac OS X, there's cURL, which appears to have a Windows build.