Tools For Rare Video Fans

You may not be aware, but this blog lives on a knife's edge. If you've been back through the archives, a number of the videos in the posts have been removed from YouTube for copyright infringement. Let's not beat around the bush - YouTube is full of great material which unfortunately, shouldn't be there. How long YouTube lasts in the face of legal threats from the big music industries and spiraling costs is open to debate.

This is not the place to go into the narrow-minded big music industry and their ongoing campaigns against the very fans who keep them in business. Nor is it the place to go into how having this material available on the web for everyone to use as we already are, could in fact help their business model. At least it could, if they were clever enough to do something with it other than sue and try to legislate against people's wish to share music they love.

So, be warned, the video material on this blog could disappear without warning. Not that the blog would disappear, just the video embeds. But - don't fret. There are things you can do to protect against this loss of material.

KeepVid is a great site for people wanting to grab the files on YouTube. Simply add the URL of the video page you want and it will create a downloadable link for you. You need to rename the file and give it a .flv extension when you download it. With it safely on your hard-drive, you can watch it any media player that supports the .flv (flash video) format. We recommend the free VLC Player - it'll play them and lots of other exotic file formats that your standard players will balk at.

If you're like me and use Firefox for your browsing, you can skip KeepVid and simply install a neat FireFox plugin called Video Downloader. Every time you want to save the video, simply click on the icon in the status area of the bottom of the FireFox window and it opens up a pop-up that once again gives you a downloadable link.

So - there you have it. Tools to help you preserve the things we've featured here, before they get taken away by money-grubbing ludites. Don't lose that little gem you've waited years to see. Grab it before it's gone.

Posted by Dio Bach at 8:54 PM