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DESCRIPTION

Flash Video Downloader is an application which allows you to easily batch download and save streaming flash videos from just about any website with streaming flash videos as long as the videos are set to autoplay (that is, they start playing when the page loads). Examples of sites are youtube.com, video.google.com, and dailymotion.com, but just about any website will work. Instead of sifting through the html code of the webpage to find the flash video, Flash Video Downloader 2 actually checks where the video is coming from and download it, which will ensure that it will still work even if the page has changed. It can even download videos that require you to login to the website and videos from websites that first play an advertisement. Flash Video Downloader 2 can also download up to 5 videos at a time in order to significantly improve the overall download time.

Features:

  • Automatically checks for the newest version
  • Downloads the video files (.flv) for you so you don't have to deal with complicated "flash video downloading websites" or firefox extensions anymore
  • Will continue working even if a flash video site changes its coding because it actually checks where the videos is instead of relying on sifting through html code
  • Downloads up to 5 videos simultaneously to significantly speed up the overall process
  • Can download videos that require you to login to the website first
  • Able to download videos that first play an advertisement before the actual video
  • Allows many videos to be downloaded in a batch process, leaving you free to go do something else while Flash Video Downloader takes care of your videos for you
  • Shows the progress of each video as well as the overall process
  • Has optional Growl Support to easily notify you of the current progress
  • Can shut down the computer and/or beep when its finished
  • It's Free!
Download Now
WHAT'S NEW
Version 2.1.2:
  • Added option that lets you import a list of Filenames and URLs to download instead of having to enter them all in one at a time. You can either import from a txt file or by copying and pasting
  • Clicking the "Begin Downloading" button while still editing a cell no longer counts that cell as empty (which would give you an error that confused many people). It now will finish editing that cell for you and begin downloading
  • Now makes sure that the Filename column has no empty cells before downloading
  • Updated Help Book to include information about Importing and other small changes
Version 2.1.1:
  • Fixed a bug that would cause FVD2 to download the same video multiple times (instead of another video) when downloading more than one video simultaneously. This would leave you with one or more copies of the same video and without some or all of the other videos that you were trying to download. This will no longer happen.
  • Dock Icon now shows the overall progress while downloading
  • Added preference to enable/disable the progress bar on the Dock Icon
  • Fixed a bug where if you ignored an automated "Update is Available" message that it would wait another week before auto-notifying you again
  • Updated About Window information
  • Removed experimental option that allowed you to download other types of files (it mostly did not work properly)
  • Clarified an error message
  • Removed "?" buttons from the GUI; use the Help menu instead
  • Updated the Help Book
  • The Login Window now shows the Login page from the Help Book by default
  • Updated the Help Book
  • Removed donation link with Amazon (they discontinued their donation service)
  • Fixed a bug that caused the program to crash when the About window was opened, closed, and then opened again
Version 2.1:
  • Added ability to download up to 5 videos simultaneously
  • Added support for sites that require a password: Simply click the "Login..." button, navigate to a website, and login (before downloading the video)
  • Added ability to download videos which first play an advertisement; Simply select the checkbox in the "Ad" column next to any videos that have an ad preceding them. (There is a known issue that you will hear the audio from the advertisement unless you mute your computer's speakers)
  • Significantly improved code for finding and downloading videos
  • Improved code to validate URLs in the URL Column in the table
  • Improved code for handling Growl messages
  • Fixed typo in one of the Growl messages
  • Increased Timeout maximum from 180 seconds to 300 seconds
  • Added additional timeout when skipping ads
  • Added experimental beta option that lets you change the file extension that Flash Video Downloader 2 will use so that you can download other types of files.
  • Updated the Help Book
  • Updated Growl Framework from version 1.1.2 to version 1.1.4
  • Minor tweaks and changes to the GUI
  • Changed auto-check update behavior to only check once a week instead of every time FVD2 was launched
  • Cleaned up extra code
  • Changed links and information to use the new website:
    http://sites.google.com/site/tesseractsoftware
Version 2.0.4
  • Updated code that determines "bad" urls on a webpage so that all videos should download more reliably, and I should not have to make updates to fix reliability issues anymore
  • Updated FAQ/Troubleshooting section of the Help File
Version 2.0.3
  • Fixed bug that caused the windows to ignore the cmd-w shortcut (the one that closes windows)
  • Fixed bug which caused the checkboxes for the Growl options to always re-check themselves on startup
  • Fixed bug which caused the checkboxes for the Growl options to not actually do anything
  • Added link for donating through Amazon (so now you can use either PayPal or Amazon) thanks!
Version 2.0.2
  • Fixed a bug which caused the cells in the table to be un-editable whenever the height of the window was increased (i.e. when you maximize or resize the window)
  • Fixed a bug where the auto-check for updates option was not set as a default option when FVD2 first runs
  • Fixed a small bug where the progress percentages did not revert back to 0% when starting a new download
  • Fixed an issue with some Google Videos not downloading correctly
Version 2.0.1
  • Substantially improved the successful download of videos from dailymotion.com, they should download much more reliably now (if not always)
  • Updated FAQ/Troubleshooting section of the Help File
  • Fixed a small bug in the Update window which could cause the release notes to be displayed multiple times
  • New icon thanks to Francisco Arenas (http://dospuntocero.cl)
Version 2.0.0
  • Released
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.


SCREENSHOT

Developer:Tesseract Software
Downloads:305,077
  - Version d/l:37,682
Internet:Internet Utilities
License:Free
Date:08 Mar 2009
Platform:PPC/Intel
RATING
***½.
OTHER PEOPLE SUGGEST
Suggest something else:
Flash Video Downloader User Reviews (44 posts)Write A Review
sort: smiles | time
Feb 4 2009

RPSX  how to you capture any streaming flv files? there are solutions on the pc, but not on mac, it seems?  
(Version 2.1.1)

praisebury
-3
[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
Replies:
Mar 8 2009

ANONYMOUS  This comment does not seem to make sense. Flash Video Downloader allows you to download streaming flash videos; that's the whole point.   
(Version 2.1.2)

praisebury
+3

Oct 3 2008

SPRINGHEELMAC  I love this program, but I'm not able to use it on 'hulu.com'. This isn't any fault of the program; I've tried numerous others with the same result. Has anyone else had any luck with this or any other program at 'hulu.com'?  
(Version 2.1)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Apr 15 2008
*****

MARIO MAC  I've tried many other flash video downloading programs, but this one is the best. It always works for me.

I just queue up a bunch of videos that I want to download,come back later, and its done.

The Growl support is a nice touch.

The only "bad" thing is that the name is very generic sounding (but it does make it easy to find).   
(Version 2.0.4)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Apr 11 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  If you are having a problem with a specific video or website, please email me at tesseractsoftware[at]gmail.com instead of posting here - I will be able to help you a lot better if you email me and you will recieve a faster response.   
(Version 2.0.4)

praisebury
+1
[ Reply ]
Apr 9 2008

DRZOOM  it is not working here:

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000478.html  
(Version 2.0.4)

praisebury
0
[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
Replies:
Apr 11 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  The reason that website is not working is because its actually not using flash videos.

That site is using a "fancy" portal written in mostly flash and the videos are actually in flash (which is, confusingly, not the same thing as flash videos). Flash videos have a .flv extension and the videos on that site are actually videos embedded in a flash file, which is .swf

Unfortunatly, there is nothing that I can do to change that.   
(Version 2.0.4)

praisebury
0

Feb 1 2008

LYNDHURST25  Works great for me (OS 10.4.11).

Now all we need is for them to make it work with the BBC's iPlayer streaming flash videos (DRM issues?). Please....  
(Version 2.0.1)

praisebury
0
[ 2 Replies - Reply ]
Replies:
Feb 29 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  I looked at BBC's iPlayer site. They only allow users from the UK to view their videos, so I can't even test if FVD2 works on their site or not. (It is against their licensing agreement and Terms of Usage stuff for users outside of the UK to view their videos so using a work-around would be a violation)

And, if they have DRM, as you suggest they might, FVD2 is not able to decrypt DRM and I'm certain that doing so would also be a violation of their Terms of Usage.

I'd rather not get into any "grey areas" of the law.  
(Version 2.0.4)

praisebury
0
Dec 24 2008

LAWRENCEDUDLEY  Try BBC iPlayer Downloader (search on Macupdate).  
(Version 2.1)

praisebury
0

Jan 24 2008

PETRSC  Whenever launched Flash Video Downloader 2.0 causes immediate shut down of my computer. MackBook Pro, OS 10.5.1.

Any ideas how to deal with this?  
(Version 2.0)

praisebury
0
[ 6 Replies - Reply ]
Replies:
Jan 24 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  I have a MacBook Pro with OS 10.5.1 and I can't duplicate your issue. When it immediately shuts down, do you mean the computer all of a sudden is off, or do you mean that the OS does the shutdown procedure?

You could try downloading Flash Video Downloader 2 again and installing it again. Perhaps it somehow got corrupted.   
(Version 2.0)

praisebury
0
Jan 24 2008

PETRSC  Yes it shuts down all of a sudden. No warning just shut down. It does in both modes - battery and power. I will uninstall the current version, download it and install again. See what happens. :-)

Otherwise it's great app!  
(Version 2.0)

praisebury
0
Jan 25 2008

WOLFEATSWORLD  Exact same thing happend to me on my 24" iMac !!

Weirdest thing I ever saw! (I'm running 10.4.10)

I tried it 5 times in a row-and it did the same thing!  
(Version 2.0.1)

praisebury
0
Jan 25 2008

SCRIVENS  Go into Preferences and turn off "Shut Down When Finished" .  
(Version 2.0.1)

praisebury
+1
Jan 25 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  Scrivens tip from the previous reply is for if your computer is shutting down after you finish downloading video(s). From what I understand, its shutting down when you start the application?

For now, we can try a workaround (which will also help me to figure out what is happening).

1. Open a program such as TextEdit and create a new document

2. Write some text (anything) in the document but don't save it

3. Open Flash Video Downloader 2. If it tries to shut down the computer the proper way, TextEdit should ask you if you want to save the document before you quit.

4. Click the cancel button and OS X should tell you that the shutdown was interrupted.

Does that happen? Or does it shutdown anyways?

I'm not sure what could be causing Flash Video Downloader 2 to shutdown your computer on startup, it can only do it when finishing a download, and it uses an applescript command which can be interrupted as described above.

You can use the above as a workaround, if it works. If not, please do the following

1. Open Flash Video Downloader 2 (which will shutdown the computer if you're having this issue).

2. Turn the computer back on and open the Console application ( It's in the Applications/Utilities folder)

3. Click show Log List and a list of logs will be shown on the left side of the window (it may already be there)

4. Select All Messages

5. Then go to File->Save A Copy As...

6. Save a copy of your all messages log (its a .log file) somewhere (e.g. your desktop)

7. Please attach that .log file to an email and send it to tesseractsoftware[at]gmail.com (do NOT post it in this reply on macupdate)

This will hopefully allow me to see any messages that came up from Flash Video Downloader 2, your computer, or some other application before it shuts down. It will give me more insight into what is happening right before your computer shuts down.

I hope that we can figure this out.   
(Version 2.0.1)

praisebury
+1
Jan 25 2008

PETRSC  yes, open text edit document asks to save the document. if I click CANCEL the apple info dialog appears: "the application text edit canceled the shut down". if there are no open documents like this it shuts down without asking.

I haven't tried the FVD with the "quit after download is finished" check box off. I will try and tell you if it helped.  
(Version 2.0.1)

praisebury
0

Jan 21 2008

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  I just wanted to make this clear. Flash Video Downloader 2 (2.0.0) has been completly re-written so as to not have the same problems and vulnerabilities as the original.

Any problems or issues mentioned in previous posts or reviews do not apply to Flash Video Downloader 2.   
(Version 2.0)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Jul 15 2007

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  Google Video and Dailymotion must have recently made some changes to their websites and for the moment are not working correctly with Flash Video Downloader. As I have mentioned, FVD queries http://videodownloader.net to find the FLV file to download. As a result, if videodownloader.net cannot download a file, than neither can FVD.

I've double checked and videodownloader.net cannot download Google Video or Dailymotion. I just send videodownloader.net an email telling them that these two sites are not working anymore, and hopefully they will fix it soon.   
(Version 1.3.2)

praisebury
0
[ Reply ]
Jun 4 2007
**...

HOBY  This doesn't appear to make the process of downloading embedded flash files much easier. Essentially it seems to allow two things:

1. Naming the download file before it's completed.

2. Batch downloading.

I still have to go into Safari's activity window and hunt down the video url, copy, and paste before I can download it. And that's what I mainly want to avoid.

What I'm hoping for is one click downloading.. or at least an app that can find the video url by itself so I can copy/drag out of the location bar instead.  
(Version 1.3.2)

praisebury
0
[ 1 Reply - Reply ]
Replies:
Jun 4 2007

TESSERACT SOFTWARE  You don't have to hunt down the video url in safari's window. In fact, I'm pretty sure that doing so will not work (but I could be wrong).

The url that you are supposed to put into FVD is the one from the address bar. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfP90uJ12eQ  
(Version 1.3.2)

praisebury
0
View all 44 posts >>