Well, yes it could be as simple as that. But you don’t want the .swf source, you want the .flv that their video player (the .swf) is playing, unless of course, you just want to embed their player. To use your own player get the video file url.
Keep in mind that I am talking about the url to the video file, not the html web page that holds the video. And I’m assuming that you are using something like an xml file to hold the playlist for your custom player.
So for example, with a Flash player coded to get the video file url from a playlist, the xml file for the playlist would look something like this:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<videos>
<video caption="Trying to load video from Web"
title="Web video"
url="http://phvids.voxcdn.com/twistage-production/155332_293924"/>
</videos>
My custom player I tested this on also has a video title and a caption area. The url shown above is from the first video listed on the link you provided. Downloads and plays just fine.
The owner of the video can provide that url to you or you can view the video, go to your temp Internet cache, find the video file, and the url to it will be listed there.
Best wishes,
Eye for Video www.cidigitalmedia.com
Anytime you download a video, it is stored on your machine in your Temporary Internet Files file, (the cache) and played back on your player from there. So best way to retreive the url is to delete all the files from your cache first, then go to the page with the video you want. Choose the video and watch it (it's now being downloaded into your cache). Then go to your Temp Internet Files and look for the video you just downloaded. The actual file will be there along with the actual url to the video file, or photo, or text, or anything loaded into your cache.
Just be sure to copy it exactly and there you go!
EfV
Okay so if I may ask: how is the video downloaded from the URL? That's what I really meant by the last question.
Originally Posted by Eye for Video
Anytime you download a video, it is stored on your machine in your Temporary Internet Files file, (the cache) and played back on your player from there. So best way to retreive the url is to delete all the files from your cache first, then go to the page with the video you want. Choose the video and watch it (it's now being downloaded into your cache). Then go to your Temp Internet Files and look for the video you just downloaded. The actual file will be there along with the actual url to the video file, or photo, or text, or anything loaded into your cache.
Just be sure to copy it exactly and there you go!
EfV
The url provides the path to the video in exactly the same way as typing:
C:/mywork/flashprojects/video_player/video1.flv
The path above is a relative address. Using a Web url provides an absolute address.
How are you loading video files into your player now?
EfV
Currently, we're still developing, but the FLV's are being loaded via the (XML) playlist.
For example though, YouTube videos don't have a .FLV extension. So how would it work in that case?
Thanks for your replies.
Originally Posted by Eye for Video
The url provides the path to the video in exactly the same way as typing:
C:/mywork/flashprojects/video_player/video1.flv
The path above is a relative address. Using a Web url provides an absolute address.
How are you loading video files into your player now?
EfV
Problem with YouTube videos is that the url is about 2000 digits/letters long, so I didn't test that. They also want you to use the YouTube player (with it's ads, etc) so expect things to be a little harder and more complicated if you are using your own. And remember, anytime you watch a YouTube video, the entire file is already downloaded onto your machine. So if you have permission from the original poster, you could just use the actual file.
So get your player up and running, test it on shorter urls to make sure you have it working. Then sit down and copy one of those dang long urls from YouTube.
EfV
I wasn't able to find the 'downloaded' YouTube file in my Temp, when I load a YouTube video. But I can load FLV's from blip.tv, for example. So where exactly can this downloaded file be located?
Can you also elaborate more on the 'long' YouTube URL's you talked about? The only URL I get so far are the regular <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQBIzVb7yxI> which doesn't seem like what you're talking about.
Many thanks,
Anthony.
Originally Posted by Eye for Video
As you can see in the example I tested earlier, it doesn't have a .flv extension either. That doesn't prevent it from working.
Problem with YouTube videos is that the url is about 2000 digits/letters long, so I didn't test that. They also want you to use the YouTube player (with it's ads, etc) so expect things to be a little harder and more complicated if you are using your own. And remember, anytime you watch a YouTube video, the entire file is already downloaded onto your machine. So if you have permission from the original poster, you could just use the actual file.
So get your player up and running, test it on shorter urls to make sure you have it working. Then sit down and copy one of those dang long urls from YouTube.
EfV
Keep in mind that YouTube does not want you to steal their videos, so they disguise the file somewhat. Also remember that when most video is played over the Internet, it is progressively downloaded into your Temp Internet Files file. On YouTube for example, you see a status bar indicating the download progress, as well as a playback position indicator. Once the download progress bar reaches the end, it’s on your machine, and playing back from there, not YouTube.
To make it easier to spot the file, delete everything from the Temp Internet file. Then go straight to YouTube and select and play a video (note the download progress bar). As soon as the file has finished downloading, go to your Temp Internet file and look for something coming from YouTube that has a very large file size (like the video will have), that’s a dead giveaway that it’s a video file. If your files are sorted by size, that makes it easy, just scroll to the bottom of the page. The file will NOT have an easy to recognize name and it will NOT have a .flv extension (see attached photo).
But that’s the file!
To verify that it’s a video file, copy that file into the work folder with your video player videos, change the file name to something like “youtube_test.flv” and away you go. Just be sure to give it the .flv extension.
OK, so if that’s the video file, The file name is in the first column and it's URL is right next to it (see photo). It’s really, really long and I’m not exactly sure if it will work or if they have thrown up other roadblocks, such as the file name changing after a certain amount of time. But give it a try, I’d be curious to know.
Keep on Truckin’
EfV
Well I'm not sure, but I would expect someone here in the Forum should know the answer. I Googled
"how to find temp internet files in vista"
and found that in Vista, the folder is protected and many of the files are hidden. http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-623...237566&start=0
So can you identfy the downloaded video file?
name: TY7890NNDK009B
Can you copy it, rename it, and play it?
The file is there, just need to figure out how to find it.
EfV
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Originally Posted by Eye for Video
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