Many a times we wish to download the videos that we chance upon in certain sites. Unfortunately, these sites do not provide you an option to download the embedded videos. Examples of such sites include youtube, howstuffworks, vimeo and so on. Firefox web browser, along with its addons, is a software bundle in itself and its community has provided some solutions to the problem of downloading embedded videos, by providing some awesome addons like UnPlug, FlashVideoDownloader, Embedded Objects and so on.

These addons are real good ones and are simple to use. So those who are captivated by their simplicity and ready-availability can go ahead using them.

Firefox Add-Ons

Download and install UnPlug from here: http://goo.gl/deEQL

After installing it you can see unplug option listed in Firefox tools menu. So, while viewing any webpage containing any embedded videos, just invoke this option from tools menu to list all available embedded media in the webpage, along with the option to download them.

Easy as it sounds.

Similar procedures apply for FlashVideoDownloader and Embedded Objects addons.

After installation, you can see these as icons appearing in the bottom right side of Firefox.

You can download FlashVideoDownloader from here: http://goo.gl/elxlQ
and Embedded Objects from here: http://goo.gl/dTNwA

Firefox, being available for all platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac), these addons are a boon.

Internet Download Manager

We have a great download named Internet Download Manager or IDM for short. Unfortunately, it’s a commercial software,which means you have to pay for it. On the brighter side, after installing it, whenever viewing embedded videos, you can see a download option above the embedded videos like the one below:

You can download the videos in one click. What is annoying about IDM is that whenever you try to download from filehosting sites like Rapidshare, Megaupload and so on, a IDM dialog pops up to proceed download through it, which unfortunately is not allowed by many filehosting sites, especially when you are trying to download as a “free user”. However, there is an option available in IDM using which you can disintegrate IDM from specific browsers, so that certain downloads are unaffected.

Worried that IDM is not free? That won’t be for long. We got another such option in Windows: Real Player. Real Player basic could be downloaded for free from here: http://goo.gl/EwbkW

There is also a pro version available, which is not free. The free basic version, however, contains all what we need. So after installing the basic version, you can see an option for downloading the embedded videos right above the videos, similar to the IDM download option.

When you click the download option, a real player window pops up and the video is downloaded to C:\Users\[user name]\Videos

Given all the options, its upto you to choose your favourite.

See you next time with yet another interesting tech nugget :)