How to download, view, and convert videos from YouTube, Google Video, etc
PART A: DOWNLOAD THE VIDEO
1) Go to a page that has a video from one of these services (YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, DailyMotion, etc) embedded on it. For example, try going to
a) A page with a Mythbusters episode (DailyMotion movie) embedded in it
b) A page with the "Best of Borat" compilation (Google Video) embedded in it
c) A page with some funny in-cockpit video footage of the Thunderbirds practicing in their F-16s (YouTube video)
a) Page on DailyMotion.com that shows that Mythbusters episode
b) Page on Video.Google.com that shows that Borat com
3) See the URL (address) at the top of that page? If you went to the pages I linked to above, they should be
a) http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk0c5_mythbusters-1x10
b) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2317213640248588776
c) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfNrD0sBzUw
Highlight the address, or URL (click on one end of the URL and drag your mouse to the other end) that you see in your browser's Address Bar at the top of the page where the video is (the URL that starts with http://www.dailymotion.com, http://www.youtube.com/, or http://video.google.com/ - pick one), and press Ctrl+C (i.e. "Copy").
4) Go to KeepVid.com
5) Click once in the text field (long thin white rectangle) inside the green box near the top of the page)
6) Press Ctrl+V. That should make the URL of that page (the URL that starts with http://www.dailymotion.com, http://www.youtube.com/, or http://video.google.com/) appear in that text field.
7) Click the "Download" button (it's darker green, and to the right of that text field where you pasted the URL).
8) A box appears that says "Download" in a grey bar. Below that grey bar there wil be a bold grey ">>Download Link<<" link. Right click on that link, and choose "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer) or "Save Link As" (FireFox).
9) Specify where in your computer you want to put that video (the "My Videos" folder inside "My Documents" might be a good place, or just your desktop). Change the "File Name" to something.FLV, like for example
Best of Borat.flv
or
Thunderbirds - Pilot flips, stuff falls up.flv
and click on "Save".
10) That's it! The video will be downloaded to your hard drive.
PART B: WATCH THE VIDEO
0) If you already have an FLV player installed on your computer, skip to step 6
1) Go to www.martijndevisser.com/blog/article/flv-player-updated
2) Follow the links to download FLV player, which eventually lead here.
3) Click on Save File. Save it somewhere on your computer (like your desktop, your C drive, My Documents, wherever).
4) When the download is finished, use your windows to navigate your way until you can see the "download-flvplayer_setup" file's icon. Double-click on it.
5) Click on "Next", "Install", wait for it to install, and click on "Close"
6) If you now double-click on one of the .FLV files you downloaded from YouTube or Google Video or wherever, this should cause FLV Player to start up and play your file, automatically! If it does not:
7) Right-click on one of the .FLV files. Hover your mouse cursor over "Open With..." and click on "Choose Program". On the window that pops up, check the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file", click on "flvplayer", and click on "OK". That should be it.
PART C: CONVERT TO iPOD / PSP
0) If you already have PSP Video 9 installed on your computer, skip to step 5.
1) Go to pspvideo9.com/Download - A window will pop up asking if you want to save a file.
2) Click on "Save File". Save it somewhere on your computer (like your desktop, your C drive, My Documents, wherever).
3) When the download is finished, use your windows to navigate your way until you can see the "pspVideo9_Install" file's icon. Double-click on it.
4) Click "OK", "Next", "I agree", un-check "Launch on Startup", click "Next", and "Install". It will install. Click "Finish" when it's done.
5) Start PSP Video 9. (A PSP icon is probably on your desktop. Double-click on it.)
6) A large window will pop up. If a small window pops up as well: Click "Manually Specify PSP Directory", choose "C:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01", click Done.
7) On the top left of the larger window, click "Setup".
8) Change the "One-Click Profile" to "SP/320x240/29.97fps/768kbps Stereo/128kbps" which will allow about one minute of video per six megs of memory stick (a little under three hours per gigabyte of memory stick), or, for slightly higher quality, "SP/320x240/29.97fps/768kbps Stereo/128kbps", which will take up twice the space (about an hour and a half of video per gigabyte of memory stick). Click "Save", on the lower right.
9) On the top left of the larger window, click "Convert".
8) Click "One-Click Transcode"
9) In the window that pops up, find a video to convert, be it an .FLV file, a Divx video, whatever. When you find it, double-click on it, and it will start being converted. PSP Video 9 will create an MP4 version of that video in C:\MP_ROOT\100MNV01
10) If you want to add more videos to the queue, click on "Transcode New Video" and repeat step 9. This new video will start being converted as soon as the previous video is done. During your first time, though, let's just convert one single video. When it's done, close PSP Video 9.
11) To put the video into your iTunes Library so it can go in an iPod: Go to C:\Program Files\pspvideo9MP_ROOT\100MNV01 and click once on the video file (the video file will be called something like M4V12345.MP4). Press Ctrl+C to copy the file. Now go to My Documents, My Music, iTunes, iTunes Music. You should be looking at a bunch of folders with musicians' names on them - your iTunes library. Now press Ctrl+V to paste a copy of the video file that PSP Video 9 made. Rename it something more useful. Now right-click on it, hover your mouse cursor over "Open With" and click on "Choose Program...". Double-click on iTunes. iTunes will open and play the video. Now that video is in your iTunes library. Deal with it like you would any file in iTunes: Put it in playlists, drag it into your iPod, etc.
12) To put the video into a Memory Stick so that you can watch it on your PSP: Plug your memory stick into your computer (via a card reader, special slot, or by plugging the PSP via its USB cable). In your memory stick, create a folder called MP_ROOT (make it in the root directory, i.e. not inside another folder). Inside this MP_ROOT folder, make a 100MNV01 folder. Now, go to C:\Program Files\pspvideo9MP_ROOT\100MNV01 which is where PSP Video 9 has created two files for each converted video. One is the video file - say, M4V12345.MP4 - and the other is M4V12345.THM (same thing but ends in THM). Copy those two files into the 100MNV01 folder in your memory stick. Now if you turn yout PSP on and go to Video and to Memory Stick, it should see the video. The name of the video (as shown on the PSP, not the weird M4V12345 filename) will be the name of the file that you converted (e.g. the name of the .FLV file or Divx that PSP Video 9 used to make this Mpeg4 video file).
