Saving internet videos- Firefox, Chrome and IE

Some folks use programs to download, such as atube or vdownload. The issue is it REDOWNLOADS, which is already in cache therefore not worth the time. Additionally, they are only for youtube, and not flash that are not on youtube or mp4 on other sites.

below are the instructions for firefox, chrome and IE browsers.

Firefox:

in the address bar type about:config

click on 'list cache entries', note there maybe 3 entries (directories), the one with the most files is probably the directory to look at first

search for the file either by flv or swf or by the site (but some sites store files to an outsourced server)

click on the link file next to key

copy the file path

open explorer to that path

right click on the file and do file copy(move is locked)

rename the file and make sure to use the proper extension eg flv for flash files

Chrome:

a) use 'chrome cache viewer' program, but first must close chrome, otherwise the files are 'locked'

sort by size look for swf extension for example

right click on file

select 'save selected item'

OR

b) using 'inspect element'
on page background in browser page, right click select 'inspect element'

select resources

select documents

sort by size column

double click (it will open in the browser)

however it is for only that page, so if you closed the page you need to use cache viewer

OR

c) using the cache page:

Open a new tab

In address bar, type about:cache then press enter

Search for the file by name or extension text. If youtube then search for flv or videoplayback.

The newest entry is on top and oldest is at the bottom.

Double click on the link, then an info page will open.

View the 'content-length' field and verify the size. Typically videos are 3min approx. 10 megabytes in size. Therefore look at a file 7digits at the least. 1000000 is 1mb.

Highlight the http address all the lines.

Right click then select 'go to....'

Popup to download will open if not defined in browser. For example jpg will open in browser but video file will not. When downloading video open with file browser and use your video player to view.

IE:

1) find out where the cache files are stored -

tools->general

in the browser history, click on 'settings' button

select 'view files' button

then BOOKMARK or create shortcut to this folder, for future reference

2) when viewing the directory

sort by size (videos are very large)

right click on file, select COPY(it will be locked for move)

use paste to the folder, such as to 'my documents' folder

These methods are also good to find photos and graphics that are stored in the cache. Most files will reside in cached until reboot or cleaning cache.

'free flv player' is a good flash video viewer . VLC player runs on both Windows and Mac operating systems