# What flash video downloader do you recommend? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640 "2010-04-01T20:23:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/1 "2010-04-01T20:23:54Z")
Can someone recommend a good flash video downloader? I’ve been using Flash Video Downloader from [http://www.flashvideodownloader.org/](http://www.flashvideodownloader.org/) but it quit working a week or two back and tries to get you to install FVD Suite. They say there are problems with youtube, but I tried it at metacafe and got the same message saying there are problems with youtube, which leads me to think they have deliberately disabled FVD so you will use FVD Suite instead. I d/l’d the suite but when I saw that a requirement is that the browser start page has to be their site I quit the install. Does anyone use it and ignore the start-page requirement or will it reset and goto their site every time a browser opens? I’ve checked a couple other downloaders but haven’t found another I like. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/2 "2010-04-01T20:29:01Z")
I use [keepvid.com](http://keepvid.com). It seems to work fine. Note that it’s a website, so you don’t need to install anything. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/3 "2010-04-02T00:15:09Z")
I use the FireFox plugin FlashGot. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/4 "2010-04-02T00:21:24Z")
I use DownloadHelper. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/5 "2010-04-02T00:24:08Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I use DownloadHelper. [Seconded](http://www.downloadhelper.net/). ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/6 "2010-04-02T00:36:57Z")
If you’re just looking to save YouTube videos, you can paste this text in your address bar while the YouTube page is open: javascript:window.location.href = ‘[http://youtube.com/get\_video?video\_id=](http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=)’ + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘video\_id’] + “&fmt=37&l=” + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘l’] + “&sk=” + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘sk’] + ‘&t=’ + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘t’]; The familiar “Save As” dialog box will open, prompting you to select where to save the .flv (or, in the case of HD 1080p, the mp4). Note that this will save it in 1080p resolution (if the video supports it). You’ll have to play around with the “fmt=” part to save in other resolutions. [Wiki has a list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Quality_and_codecs) of various format codes for YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/7 "2010-04-02T00:45:43Z")
Missed the edit window before I could verify that the method I posted still works… looks like it doesn’t anymore. In which case, I third DownloadHelper. ---
**Author:** ![srzss05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@srzss05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/srzss05)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/8 "2010-04-02T00:50:05Z")
> [@atomicbadgerrace](#): > > Missed the edit window before I could verify that the method I posted still works… looks like it doesn’t anymore. > > In which case, I third DownloadHelper. You can also just copy it from your Temporary Internet folder to a different folder before the cache is cleared. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/9 "2010-04-02T00:57:55Z")
> [@atomicbadgerrace](#): > > javascript:window.location.href = ‘[http://youtube.com/get\_video?video\_id=](http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=)’ + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘video\_id’] + “&fmt=37&l=” + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘l’] + “&sk=” + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘sk’] + ‘&t=’ + yt.getConfig(‘SWF\_ARGS’)[‘t’]; Well, that trips off the tongue. I used **DownloadHelper** too. Works well, and takes the effort out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/10 "2010-04-02T22:18:51Z")
Since DownloadHelper seems to be popular I went with it. I like it better than what I was using and am downloading a vid as I type this. Thank you all for your suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-flash-video-downloader-do-you-recommend/534640/11 "2010-04-04T05:39:40Z")
I tried several and settled on “Download Youtube Videos +” because it has a context menu item and doesn’t have a save dialogue. Just left click on the page, go to it and select “download video” and it does it. You can set up the save location in preferences so it doesn’t ask when you’re using it. Haven’t found a site it doesn’t work with so far. Maybe DownloadHelper does that too. Dunno.