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Grabbing streaming video from the Internet on Safari
by Dean Mortlock
14.12.06 |
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Because we’re big fans of YouTube, that’s the site we’re heading to for the purpose of this tutorial. Of course, it’s not alone in offering streaming video content, but it is arguably the best. For an alternative, we recommend trying Google Video – and you can even download some video files directly through Google Video’s site. |
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The popularity of YouTube (and others) has ensured that there’s a massive range of videos to choose from. Whether you’re looking for one of Steve Jobs’ Keynote speeches or an old iPod advert, it’s sure to be here. Try putting a few obscure names into the search bar and see what it comes back with. |
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| step 3 |
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Finding the video file |
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Now comes the tricky part. When your chosen video is playing go to Window > Activity and a window appears with a breakdown of the elements of the page – from the smallest graphic to the video itself. To spot the video file, look for a file that’s considerably larger than any other (the file size should be on the far right of the window) and can end with ‘.flv’. |
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| step 4 |
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Downloading automatically |
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If you double-click on the video file in the Activity window then it should automatically download to your computer’s desktop, but that’s not the end of the story though, as we haven’t finished with that file yet. If it doesn’t automatically save as a FLV file, then add it as an extension to the file name. |
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QuickTime won’t recognise the FLV file format, but a superior video playback program certainly will. If you want to, you can check that the file is okay by playing it back through a program such as VLC. Now it’s time to convert it to MP4 and iSquint is perfect for this job as it’ll happily accept the FLV format. |
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| step 6 |
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Syncing to your iPod |
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When the file’s converted, add it to iTunes and then sync it across to your iPod when you next connect it. There are thousands of excellent video files on YouTube and, with a bit of time and patience, you’re guaranteed to find some classics videos to fill your video iPod up with. |
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1. iSquint allows you to ‘batch convert’ a group of videos at once, which means that you can drag and drop a selection of videos in one go and leave iSquint to do them all, while you’re able to go off and do something more interesting. |
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2. The videos in YouTube tend to be quite low resolution, so while they’re okay when they’re converted to the iPod, they can look pixellated and blocky when they’re played through iTunes. |
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