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Heavy Fluid · Mar 30, 2006, 05:28 PM

I apologize in advance here people, I am sorry. I don't know much about computers, especially Mac's. I have a G5, and I am having some difficulties saving .mpg movies to my computer. I am very familiar with the right click, save as on Windows, but I am stuck on my Mac.

I go to a website, find an mpeg I like, open it, it plays, I try to drag it to the desktop, and nothing happens. OK, I go to the top, and try save as, and it works, but then Quicktime says it is not a recongized file.

Will it work if I just ctrl + click on the actual movie? Let me explain. You go to a site, there is a picture of what the movie is, you click it, and it opens. Do I do the ctrl + click there?

Please help......

Also, is there like a download cache that saves stuff you have looked at on the net? Like if I look at a movie, does it save it to the hard drive? Where would I find that?

Nai no Kami · Mar 30, 2006, 08:12 PM

Unless the page allows you to download video, getting QT Pro is the only way you will be able to save the files (easily as clicking and selecting from a menu).

Workaround 1: use Firefox and select Window > Page Info > Media and select the movie there and click save as.

Workaround 2: in Safari go to Window > Activity. Locate the media you are interested in and then copy its address. Create an HTML document with a link to that address and open it in Safari. Right click on the link and select "Download linked file".

This should get your files in the same format as the source. With QT Pro, you can convert (if possible) the video format played to a .mov file.

Heavy Fluid · Mar 30, 2006, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Nai no Kami

Workaround 1: use Firefox and select Window > Page Info > Media and select the movie there and click save as.

Now that is something I can do. I have Firefox, but don't use it much. Is it better than Safari?

WOPR · Mar 31, 2006, 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by Nai no Kami

Workaround 2: in Safari go to Window > Activity. Locate the media you are interested in and then copy its address. Create an HTML document with a link to that address and open it in Safari. Right click on the link and select "Download linked file".

You can just paste the address into the Safari address bar and hold option while you hit return, it will then download the file instead of viewing it... works for any file.

Heavy Fluid · Mar 31, 2006, 07:04 AM

Well, I couldn't get either to work. Hmmm. Go to www.kontraband.com, and try to save a video please. Then tell me how you did it. Thanks

WOPR · Mar 31, 2006, 09:56 AM

Paste http://209.0.146.17/10/graphics/movies/ForJamieOnly.mov into Safari press option-return. I got the URL by right clicking next to the movie and choosing 'view source'. Then did apple-f and searched for .mov

Sorted!

FireWire · Mar 31, 2006, 09:34 PM

No, the idiots are inside the Apple building, that had the ingenious idea that saving a video was a "Pro" feature, worth 30$. Kontraband uses a variety of video format (QuickTime, Windows Media Player) so the right-click method wouldn't work for every one of them even if you paid. As WOPR suggested, your best bet is to look in the source (beware that the file extension may be different from the one in the example (.mov, .mpg, .wmv, etc) and save it using his method.

If you stumble on a direct link, option-clicking on it will also save it. Or you can select "Download linked file" from the contextual menu (right-click or control-click), as Nai no Kami said.

As for the cache, you can effectively obtain a copy of the video that way (provided that it is handled by QT and not WMV). However, as I have QT Pro, I can't certify that this option is also present in the "regular" version. Go in your system preferences and select QuickTime. Click on the Browser tab and select the "Save movies in disk cache" checkbox. That should do it