Many videos, such as those on YouTube, are streamed through this popular browser plug-in.
...cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough web experiences and is installed on more than 98% of Internet-connected desktops...learn more at adobe.com
Apple's QuickTime Player is available for MacOS & Windows platforms.
...compresses video tightly - resulting in much smaller files - without sacrificing any quality. So you can watch video of astonishing quality - crisp, clear and brilliantly saturated - in a window up to four times the size you are currently used to seeing...learn more at apple.com
Microsoft's robust multimedia player supports many types of video on multiple platforms & operating systems.
...offers great ways to store and enjoy your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV favorites - all from one place...learn more at microsoft.com
...download Web videos from thousands of sites...play every major media format - it's the only player you'll need...learn more at real.com
Sites that use the DivX format will require a free DivX player install.
...watch, create and share high-quality videos on your computer...the kind of quality you normally wouldn't expect to see on your PC—full-screen, high-definition, home theater-level quality, not the grainy Internet videos you get from some formats...learn more at divx.com
Nullsoft's popular multimedia browser, player & file manager.
...play many major video formats (AVI, NSV, WMV, MPG, etc.) with ease...easily resize video playback...watch your favorite videos in Full Screen mode...learn more at winamp.com
Certain videos (not all) that come from veoh will need their player if you want to view more than the first 5 minutes. You will get a warning message about it being limited to 5 minutes when you come across one of them. You can register for a free account and download their free player to view the rest of a movie.
An alternate way of watching RM files without having to install the Real Media player, which can be slow and bulky to load. This tool will play video using a light-weight player you probably already have on your system, like Media Player Classic.
Windows & MacOS media player
Firefox add-on that saves streaming video with a single click from the toolbar.
...Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, Pornotube...and all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc)...learn more at videodownloader.net
Although marketed as an adult video downloader, this application allows you to quickly and easily download any FLA video that streams within a web browser.
...Instantly download and keep streaming Flash movies from most websites, such as YouPorn, RedTube, PornHub, Tube8, YouTube, CNN, EbaumsWorld, and more...learn more at heatseek.com
A download helper site with an easy, browser-based utility for capturing streaming videos.
...Download & Tag Videos & MP3s from Millions of Sites...Easily Convert FLV Files to iPod, AVI, WMV & Burn DVD's too...learn more at keepvid.com
You can view the videos either by playing them directly from the site or by downloading them first and then playing them. When you play a video directly, your Web browser will open a page with a video player and begin to cache the video. You can then play the video but the video will not be saved on your hard drive (not easily found) and cannot be played again later without reloading the page. When you download and play a video, you can sometimes save the video to your hard drive and after it is completely downloaded you just need to locate the video on your hard drive and can then play the video any time you like.
If a video is starting and stopping often, or just says buffering without starting, you can press the pause button and wait a few minutes for things to get caught up (if the connection is very poor you may need to wait an hour or more). After waiting you can then press play again and things should stream smoothly.
Many sites will embed the videos into the website your are viewing. These cannot be directly saved. However, there are software tools available that may allow you to download them for later viewing. You can then burn them to a DVD for playback on an external device, like a DVD player.
Once you have downloaded a video, converting it to a DVD in a format that will play on a standard DVD player requires converting the file to a special format that DVD players can recognize. Your first step will be to convert the file to a standard initial format, like .AVI. Using a service like VideoDownloader will save an online video file in .FLV format, but you will still need a program that can convert it to .AVI. There are many free FLV players, but that will only allow you to watch the video on your computer. You can do a search on the Google to find free utilities that will convert a FLV file to AVI format.
Once you have the videos in .AVI format, you can use Nero StartSmart, dvdSanta, or some other DVD video burning program to burn these videos onto a DVD so you can watch them on any standard DVD player. Here is a link with more information on creating a DVD from an AVI file using free tools. While the free approach works, most people will find it much easier to buy a commercial tool, like Nero StartSmart. Another solution is to get a DVD player that plays mpeg-4 files (Magnasonic DVD6118-4 does this and costs about $20), so you can just burn the .AVI file directly to a dvd-rw disk and play it on a TV immediately after you burn it.
Another approach is to connect your computer to a TV and just watch them directly skipping the DVD entirely (see below).
VideoHelp.com is a good source for finding answers to your video conversion questions.
Tired of watching stuff on your small computer screen? Several companies now have relatively cheap hardware cards that allow you to play video from your computer on a regular TV. You can also connect your video output to an LCD video projector and get the full movie experience. You can search for them on Google.
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