How to Download A Flash Video from YouTube, DailyMotion

As YouTube grew, so did the phenomenon called streaming media. While there were websites before that offered streaming video content, it was YouTube that changed the game altogether, making videos easily accessible to all users. While streaming content grew, so did the users’ desire to download it, and hence many methods sprouted to cater to this need.

In this article, I’ll walk through a few methods to teach you how to download a flash video from media websites like YouTube, DailyMotion, etc.

Before we begin to download a flash video

Consider the legal aspects and the terms of service of whatever website you decide to download a flash video from. Generally, streaming media websites will not allow users to download their content, whether explicitly or through implicit conditions in their ToS (terms of service). My advice is to read through any documentations before proceeding, and generally play it safe.

Point to make, this article is for educational purposes, and the author or TheDailyBuggle cannot be held responsible for any reader’s actions.

Why would you download a flash video?

This is the second logical question, at least in my opinion. There can be multiple reasons for which we might want to download a flash video and store it for later watching, and these can be good ones. For instance, last month, I went on a 3-day camping trip, where we were short on even electricity, let alone internet. A few ‘just for laughs’ videos on my tablet proved to be a fun way to kill time at night; something that would’ve been otherwise impossible had we relied on streaming. Then there are people who may have high-speed internet at work but not at home. For them, downloading videos for watching later makes quite a lot of sense.

There is another quite popular scenario where people are all for downloading flash videos, and those involve iOS-device owners. As you may already know, Apple has a thing or two against Flash, and hence you cannot play Flash content on iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (but we’ll show you how in this article). YouTube has a workaround for that, by serving MP4 content where they discover a non-supportive device, but this does not apply to all videos on YouTube, and it doesn’t apply to other Flash-streaming websites. Hence, you’d be better off if you were to download flash videos.

Download a flash video – Method #1. Video download websites

Of all the methods used to download a flash video from sites like DailyMotion and YouTube, this is probably the oldest. All you need to do is visit a certain website, provide the link to the target video and a Java applet will generate download links for you, all in one page.

The best-known player here is KeepVid, which allows you to download YouTube clips in any format that YouTube supports, and also supports ripping the MP3 track out of the video. However, it does not support conversion of any kind.

KeepVid also offers a desktop application, but for a charge, something which doesn’t make any viable sense considering that there are loads of free alternatives available.

Among the popular services, KeepVid supports YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook, Vimeo and a few others.

Two more similar services to download flash videos are SaveVid.com and SaveVideos.net, but I wouldn’t recommend them due to adult content in the first case and annoying popups for the latter. Only consider them a last resort.

Download a flash video – Method #2. Dedicated applications

There are several standalone applications available that can work the same way – some with even the added facility of converting videos from one format to other. Two applications that I’d consider in this category: Orbit Free Downloader and Freemake Video Downloader.

Orbit Free Downloader is a fully-capable file downloader and social-media grabber with its Grab++ technology. While Grab++ is available as an independent executable when installing Orbit Free Downloader, the best part about it is its integration with Internet Explorer, where a toolbar will tell you if a playing video is downloadable or not. Furthermore, content is downloaded as it streams, so it’s a time saver over others, too.

Orbit Free Downloader is a true leecher, so it supports by far the most websites as compared to other similar offerings. The only downside is the toolbar which was optimised to best support Internet Explorer, a browser most power users are not a fan of (check out which are the top 10 browsers of all time). Nevertheless, it makes up for it with the Grab++ application.

Freemake Video Downloader is also a free app that will help you download a flash video, which offers something that Orbit doesn’t; the ability to convert downloaded videos from one format to another. It is also aesthetically more polished.

Freemake Video Downloader is a good choice for iPhone/iPad owners since it has a preset iPhone/iPod and iPad conversion profile. All available video resolutions are offered for download, and it supports a decent number of sites, including adult ones (they are filtered out by default, but you can turn it off). Freemake Video Downloader also supports Megavideo, something that Orbit doesn’t currently cater to.

Download a flash video – Method #3. Browser Plugins

These are my personal favorites for downloading flash videos from the internet, primarily for the reason that they’re really easy to manage and generally very light on resources. Also, since they’re browser dependent and not on the operating system; they work cross platform unlike standalone programs.

I’ll discuss two capable plugins for Chrome and Firefox here. For Chrome, Chrome YouTube Downloader is a fairly capable extension with one problem – it is limited to downloading flash videos from YouTube only. It offers a Download button underneath the playing video and is configurable in download resolution and format.

In comparison, the Firefox add-on is far more capable and robust. Going by the name of Video DownloadHelper, this add-on extends your browser’s address bar with a dedicated download button which can be used on a lot of video streaming websites. It offers choice of several available resolutions, and sports a quick converter as well. Furthermore, Video DownloadHelper can leech audio and video galleries, too.

Download a flash video – Method #4. If all else fails…

There can be videos that would still resist all your download attempts, and that would fail all these tools mentioned above. If you absolutely need to download a flash video and don’t see any other way, a final measure would be to record it using a screen capture tool. Granted, you may not get exactly the format or quality that you wished for, but it will still get the job done. Two free programs in this regard would be BB FlashBack Express and Cute Screen Recorder Free Version. Both are free, although BB FlashBack is more sophisticated (requires free registration).

Try these out, see what combination serves your needs best when it comes to downloading flash videos. There can be even better programs out there, so if you know some and want to share, hit us in the comments section. How do you download flash videos online? Tell us your experiences, tricks and tips!