NAME¶

get_flash_videos - Video downloader for various Flash-based video hosting sites

SYNOPSIS¶

get_flash_videos [OPTION]... URL... get_flash_videos [OPTION]... SEARCH

DESCRIPTION¶

Download the Flash video from the web pages given in "URL", choosing suitable filenames for each. Alternatively if "SEARCH" is specified (either quoted or unquoted), get_flash_videos will search Google Video for "SEARCH", and present a list of videos to download. get-flash-videos attempts to support many video sites, therefore there is no list of supported sites in this manual page as it frequently changes, see the website for a list.

OPTIONS¶

-d, --debug

Print extra debugging information.

-f, --filename

Save downloaded file to the specified filename. Usually this shouldn't be necessary, as "get_flash_videos" tries to use a meaningful name for the video.

-r, --quality

The quality of the video to attempt to download. Some sites offer videos in multiple qualities; this will let you specify which quality to prefer. "get_flash_videos" will aim to download a video at the specified quality or lower, if no video is available at that quality it will download the next highest quality video available.

 

You can specify a quality as either:

-p, --play

Begin playing the video once enough of the file has been downloaded.

--player="CMD"

Specify the player to use for the "--play" option. Any occurrence of %s in this string will be replaced with the filename of the video (appropriately shell escaped).

 

The default on *nix operating systems is to use mplayer:

 

  mplayer -really-quiet %s
    

 

You may wish to automatically delete the video after you have viewed it:

 

  mplayer -really-quiet %s; rm %s
    

 

On Windows, if "-p" or "--play" is specified but no player is specified, VLC (if installed) will be used to play the video. There is no need to specify where you have installed VLC - this will be automatically retrieved from the registry.

--proxy

Proxy to use, a SOCKS proxy or HTTP proxy can be specified.

 

To specify a SOCKS proxy, simply provide the host and port in host:port format. If port is not specified, 1080 is assumed. "LWP::Protocol::socks" is required for SOCKS support.

 

To specify an HTTP proxy, provide the proxy URL, for example "http://host:port".

 

For proxying RTMP downloads, SOCKS is required along with a version of "rtmpdump" which supports SOCKS proxying.

 

If no proxy is specified on the command line or the config file the $HTTP_PROXY environment variable will be used.

--subtitles

Download subtitles for the video, if available. Subtitles are converted to SubRip format and saved to a file of the same name as the video file, but with an extension of 'srt'.

-q, --quiet

Be quiet, only print errors.

-u, --update

Check the get-flash-videos website for a newer version. If a newer version is available download it and replace the running version with it. You will need to run this as a user with permission to write to the location of the get_flash_videos program. If you installed using a packaging system it is recommended to use that to upgrade, not this option.

-v, --version

Print the version of get_flash_videos.

-y, --yes

Do not prompt with any questions, just say 'yes'. This means either literally yes, or the default or first option if choosing from a list.

--add-plugin="URL"

Add an external plugin from a specified URL or local file.

CONFIGURATION¶

On startup get_flash_videos will read the configuration files located at /etc/get_flash_videosrc and then ~/.get_flash_videosrc. The files follow a simple "name = value" convention where the name matches the long version of the command line options. For example if you want to specify the default player, to always say yes and to always run the player the file might look like:

  player = my-video-player %s 2>/dev/null; rm -f %s
  yes
  # Always play the video
  play

Options given on the command line will override these options, with the exception that it is not currently possible to disable an option enabled in the configuration file from the command line.

EXAMPLES¶

Play a video (may prompt for filename still, override with -y):

    get_flash_videos -p http://some.site/video

Download a video (note quotes are required for URLs with special characters like "&" in):

    get_flash_videos "http://some.site/video?f=1&v=1234"

Play the URL on the clipboard (UNIX):

    xclip -o | xargs get_flash_videos -y -p

Play the URL on the clipboard (OSX):

    pbpaste | xargs get_flash_videos -y -p

(Note if there is text on the clipboard rather than a URL above then get_flash_videos will search for it). Play the first video matching "Open Source":

    get_flash_videos -y -p Open Source

BUGS¶

Third party sites are a moving target therefore it is possible support for some of the sites may not work correctly. First check that you are using the latest version. If you wish to see open bugs or report a bug visit http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/issues/list <http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/issues/list>.

HACKING¶

If you'd like to change or improve get-flash-videos (for example adding support for another site), please see the project wiki where there's an overview to help you get started, and a detailed tutorial on adding support for a new site: http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/w/list <http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/w/list>.

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright 2009, zakflash and MonsieurVideo Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 <http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0> Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. Contributions are welcome and encouraged, but please take care to maintain the JustWorks(tm) nature of the program.