الثلاثاء، 27 أبريل 2010

How to save streaming videos to computer

Do you frequently browse the internet? Then you must have come across streaming videos or audios at some point of time. Trailers of upcoming movies and most songs available for listening in websites are usually in streaming format. When you play the file, data is stored in buffer in the form of a temporary file as the video is played.

As soon as the video finishes playing, the buffer is purged, removing all traces of stored data from your PC. So, no matter how many times you play one particular streaming file, each time the file will play the same way. If it has stuttered the first time while playing, then it will probably stutter no matter how many times you play it. For this reason, it is usually impossible to play this type of files smoothly without high speed internet connections, such as broadband.

This kind of transmission method makes it impossible for users to download the file without the use of specialized software tools. These tools create a buffer space in the hard disk, and trick the website into storing the file in that space, while the video is being played. As soon as the file has been stored completely, the software transfers a copy of it to a folder (you can decide which folder will be used) in your hard disk. That’s it. You have a copy of the video (or the song) that you were playing.

There are several good software utilities available that can record streaming videos or music. The most popular ones include Replay Video Capture, Youtube Video Downloader, and Orbit Downloader. If you use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser, then you will also have another option for downloading streaming videos, in the form of Sothink Web Video Downloader.

However, no matter what tool or software you use, the process is usually similar. When you visit a web page that has a streaming video player embedded into it somewhere, the downloader will give you a warning of some kind. The warning may come in the form of a pop up window, a notification message, or something like that. When you open the window of the tool or software, you will see a list of the streaming videos linked with that page. You have to click on the name of the video, which you wish to download. Then all you have to do is to choose the folder where you want the video to be saved, and download it. It is that simple.

Software tools or utilities allow you to download most videos that are streamed at various websites. Beware, however, that these tools cannot discriminate between copyrighted and free videos. It is your responsibility to check the files before downloading, and to make sure you are not doing anything illegal.