How to Download an Embedded Video File

Embedded videos are an integral part of most websites. Whether it’s an entertaining ad or a brand promotion gimmick, you may want to be able to view it anytime you want. And for that, the best way is to download it on your local drive. Through this Techspirited article, we tell you how to download an embedded video in a few easy steps.

Quick Tip
Orbit Downloader, a download manager for Microsoft Windows, can be used to download embedded Flash video files from the Internet. It also helps increase the speed of downloads.

Watching videos is a favorite pastime of kids and adults alike. Videos speak more than pictures ever can, and make their point in very less time. Even though you may have bookmarked these videos for watching them later, it’s a good idea to have a copy of these on your hard drive.

Embedded videos are those placed on the server of a company’s website and hosted by it. They are usually made for marketing purposes and with the intent of increasing the time a visitor spends on the website. While you may watch them for educational or entertainment purposes, this article tells you how to download an embedded video.

Downloading an Embedded Video File

Internet Explorer
1. Play the entire video till it ends.
2. Open the Temp folder by going to the Tools menu. Under the General tab, click on View Files in the Browsing History section. Or just press the Windows and R key together to open the Run window. Now type %temp% to open the Temporary Files folder.
3. Choose the file you recently viewed. Select it and press Ctrl+C to copy the file.
5. Open the destination folder where you wish to paste the file. Press Ctrl+V to save it there.

Firefox

1. Download and install the Firefox extension greasemonkey.
2. For this, go to Add-ons menu. Now select the greasemonkey plug-in and install it.
3. Go to the site that hosts the embedded video. If the add-on has been successfully installed, there should be a link at the bottom that lets you download the video.

Chrome

1. Go to Developer Tools and select Resources to enable Resource Tracking.
2. Sort the resources by size.
3. Go to the Others tab and find videoplayback on your resources list.
4. Now double-click on it to start the download.
5. Rename your downloaded file and save it on your local drive.

Opera

1. First clear the cache by writing Settings:Delete Private Data in the address bar. It will be easier this way.
2. Type opera:cache to check if it’s empty.
3. Open a video website and start streaming the video.
4. Now refresh the cache and you’ll find the video in fragments if you have paused the video. The fragments have an N added in the video file name.
5. You can copy the video from here and save it to your destination folder.

Safari

1. First download the plug-in ClickToPlugin and install it.
2. Open Safari Preferences and go to the Extensions tab to see if your plug-in has been installed.
3. Click on the check box titled ‘Click the check box to access the settings’, and you’ll see a list of HTML 5 conversion scripts for popular video sharing websites.
4. Type website-name-slash-html5 and do not participate in the trial.
5. Right-click on the video and a popup menu will give you the option ‘Download the video’.

Facebook

1. Go to the timeline where the video is placed.
2. Share the video on your timeline.
3. Open Firefox and open your profile page.
4. Click ‘Save Link As’ to save your video.

How to Download Flash Files
Firefox

Method 1

Use a browser add-on that lets you download flash files. For example, ‘Download Flash and Video’ is a download helper tool that allows you to download Flash videos from the Internet. It is easy to use.

Method 2

1. Go to the website that has the videos that you wish to download and let the Flash video play till the end.
2. Right-click on the page and select Page Info option or go to Tools and find Page Info.
3. Select the Media tab to list all the Flash videos.
4. You can sort the elements by type.
5. Highlight the flash file that you wish to save and click ‘Save As’ to save it to the destination folder.

Internet Explorer

1. Open IE and load the video of your choice (let it load it completely).
2. Go to Folder Options from the Control Panel to tweak some visibility settings.
3. Enable ‘Show Hidden Files and Folders’, and also uncheck ‘Hide Protected Operating System Files’ and ‘Hide Extensions for Known Filetypes’.
4. Now type in the address field ‘Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5’.
5. You can sort these files by clicking on the Type column to get similar files together.
6. Now find the file and click ‘Save’ to copy it to your destination folder.

A caveat to all those who wish to attempt it, videos on websites may be protected by copyright. Embedded videos should be downloaded only if they are in the public domain or are free to use.