Downloading YouTube Videos with Firefox & Live HTTP Headers
In this tutorial, we’ll be downloading YouTube videos using Mozilla Firefox and Live HTTP Headers. Note, however, that this is not the easiest way to save a YouTube video, and that downloading videos are against YouTube’s Terms of Service. With that said, we’ll be downloading a Firefox advertisement. Download the Live HTTP Headers extension here (We’re assuming you already have Firefox).
Overview
To download a YouTube video, we’ll be:
- Opening Live HTTP Headers, switching to the Generator tab, and unchecking Images and CSS, but checking Request
- Opening the YouTube video page.
- Unchecking Capture, and searching for the following pattern in the URL:
#request# GET http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=random letters/numbers&t=random letters/numbers - Copying that entry, pasting it the Location Bar, and removing the #request# GET portion.
- Saving the YouTube video with a .flv extension. Open your result with an FLV player or convert it to another format.
Need more help? A tutorial with images follows (you can click the images for a larger view).
Open Up Live HTTP Headers
On the Firefox menu bar, click Tools → Live HTTP Headers.
The Live HTTP Headers window should pop up. Switch to the Generator tab, and uncheck Images & CSS, and check Request.
Open the YouTube Video Page
Open up the YouTube video page. A bunch of entries should popup into the Live HTTP Headers window. Look for the following pattern:
#request# GET http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=random letters/numbers&t=random letters/numbers
Find it? Right click and select Copy.
Save the Video
Get into a new tab (Ctrl+T). Right click the Location Bar and select Paste.
![Deleting \](http://thirderror.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/del_request_get.png "Deleting \")
Go to the beginning of the URL, and get rid of the #request# GET portion.
Hit Enter. A window much like the above picture should appear. Select Save File, and click OK.
Now you should be prompted where to save the YouTube video. For the sake of simplicity, I chose My Documents. The file name should say get_video. Rename it or whatever, but make sure to add .flv at the end, so that if you named it get_video, it should now be get_video.flv. Click Save, wait a bit, and the YouTube video should have downloaded. To play the file, you’ll need an FLV player (we recommend VLC, although apparently RealPlayer plays FLV files) or convert the video file into another format.
I'm Jason, the main author of Third Error, and many of the topics I'll focus on concern Windows (and applicable software), web applications, web design, and a bit of *nix (Ubuntu mainly). My computer runs Windows XP, with virtualized Ubuntu and OS X handy.