tzikeh

ETA: Or you could just go here and plug in the YouTube URL. (thanks,

nikitangel.)

Still, I'd keep these instructions around, because a lot of websites that used to work just like this one don't work anymore, as YouTube keeps finding out about them and coding to block them.

A Friend Of Mine has given me a simple way to download the embedded files. It *looks* confusing, but it's really very very simple. Just keep the following on a textpad page or something:

[0] Fire-up TextEdit for some quick cutting and pasting.

[1] Click on the YouTube video you want to view and let *the entire stream* load

[2] Right-click on the YouTube page and select View Page Source from the contextual menu. Page source will now open up in a new tab.

[3] Select Find from the Edit Menu and type in "player2.swf?video_id=" (do not use the quotes)

[4] After it finds "player2.swf?video_id=" on the page, you will see a long string of what appear to be random characters after it. This is the YouTube video ID. Select all of the characters after "player2.swf?video_id=" *until* the " symbol [do not select the quote symbol]. Copy to clipboard.

[5] Close source tab

[6] Combine this prefix: "http://youtube.com/get_video.php?video_id=" with the YouTube video ID copied to the clipboard from above *into the address bar*. Again, do not use the quotes and place the copied video ID from above right after the "=" sign in the said prefix.

[7] File should save to your Desktop. Rename with a .flv extension

Now, to convert the .flv file, you'll need ffmpeg (Windows) or ffmpegX (Mac). Just drag the .flv file into the "DROP FILE HERE" window, and choose your preferred output format.

And there you have it!

I just did this for the Life on Mars series 2 episode 8 trailer. Which I am now watching frame-by-frame.

Cheers!