How to Download Videos with Mozilla Firefox

The best way to download flash files from self-uploaded video sites like this one, or YouTube, Google, Multiply, etc... is to use a browser plugin. It's not a perfect science, but often yields great results in archiving your favorite clips you see on a site like this. So here are the basics.

1. These instructions are for use with Firefox 2.0 browser. If you don't have it, you should! It's multi-platform and is more secure with many more free goodies than IE. You can download it here - Jaq's Shaq is optimized for Firefox.
2. Once you've downloaded and installed the browser, next you need an extension called Video DownloadHelper
Install it then restart the browser.
3. Go to Tools menu, then Add-ons menu. Now you should see the DownloadHelper extension installed. Click the 'Enable' button, then click the red X in the upper right corner to exit the dialog box. Close and restart the browser once more. You should now see a new 3D balls icon to the right of the address bar.
4. When on a page containing flash media (or mp3, jpg, etc... in the options), Right click that icon and find the appropriate file in the list. It's not always named what you might think and may require some user input on your part, but you can see the extenstions .flv, .mp3, .wmv, .mpg, etc...



5. Choose a location on your hard drive to save and presto! This works about 95% of the time in my experience. Some stubborn files require refreshing the page, starting the video or other file playing, then grabbing the download at just the right time before it all caches... tricky sometimes but it usually works!...