[HOWTO] Convert Google Videos to iPod

[pacohope]

I hadn't done much with Google Video until someone sent me a link. I watched it in Firefox and said "hmmm, I want to save this." Given that I had already waited 10 minutes for it to download, I didn't want to download it again. It turns out it was 40Mb. I figured "this file is in cache on my hard drive already somewhere, all I have to do is find it."

I ran

lsof | grep -i flash | less

. That showed me that the flash plugin was opening a file named /private/var/tmp/folders.5059/TemporaryItemsFlashTmp0000.

I renamed that file to 'foo.flv' and I had my file. I didn't have to download it a second time. I suppose you might have a bunch of files in your cache, but this was the only one I had.

[Mikuro]

Thanks for the tip, pacohope. That's something I never would have thought of on my own, and I'm I'll find it very useful in many situations.

I just checked out Google Video again, and now they actually have a download link on most (if not all) videos now. And best of all, it downloads the source file (usually an avi) rather than the re-encoded flv. Much easier to manage that way. Of course, that doesn't get around the problem of double-downloading, but I think it makes the special downloader page that was linked to earlier obsolete.

[deliciousMammal]

"why is google being evil and not using quicktime?"

Yeah, their motto is, "don't be evil", but they're messing it up a lot lately. First with the censorship in China, now their supporting flash!

[bibica]

Isquint doesn't convert flash 8 videos. Any alternatives?

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

You can just download the fils for iPod / PSP.
Lol

[fryke]

how is that helpful, CJ?

[zo219]

oh joy oh joy, the Perian component goes in the Quicktime Folder and .... makes Quicktime play.... FLVs !!!

[Ferdinand]

The link to the Google Video Downloader doesnt work. So how should I do it now?