I was asked by my friend Shane Supple if it was possible to download a video that was uploaded to Bebo.com.
It is not as straight forward as you may think, having tinkering around with source code etc. I discovered that when you upload a video to Bebo you are actually storing your file on www.videoegg.com so I took the embed source code that Bebo provide which reveals the first part of this tip.
Go to a page that displays a bebo video, you will know it is a bebo video because their logo is embedded as a watermark over the video then scroll down till you see the “Embed” part of the page.
Example:
Copy the embed code and paste it into Notepad, it will show something like this:
<embed width=”425″ height=”350″ src=”http://static.videoegg.com/videoegg/loader.swf” FlashVars=”bgColor=FFFFFF
&file=http://download.videoegg.com/gid329/cid1124/E7/7N/1175278125C1Zp0f2MW8
zokcDy8sWC&autoPlay=false
&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true” quality=”high” allowScriptAccess=”always” bgcolor=”#FFFFFF” scale=”noscale”wmode=”window” name=”VE_Player” align=”middle” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” /><br><a href=”http://bebo.com/watchtv”>Watch More Videos</a> Uploaded by <a href=”http://bebo.com/watchuser/436885205″>www.bebo.com/De-baw</a>
All you are interested here is the part:
http://download.videoegg.com/gid329/cid1124/E7/7N/1175278125C1Zp0f2MW8
zokcDy8sWC
To download and save that file you need to put _high.flv to the end of the URL string in order to download that file in .flv format.
So the new URL would be:
http://download.videoegg.com/gid329/cid1124/E7/7N/1175278125C1Zp0f2MW8
zokcDy8sWC_high.flv
Type or copy/paste this URL into a browser window and you will be prompted to download the .flv file
Try it here: http://download.videoegg.com/gid329/cid1124/E7/7N/1175278125C1Zp0f2MW8
zokcDy8sWC_high.flv
How to play an .flv file
You need to download a FLV Player to play back the .flv file. There are many free flv players available on the internet I use Wimpy FLV Player. No installation needed as its a stand alone player and it also supports drag and drop. It is available for both Mac and Windows.
Download it here: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/products/wimpy_standalone_flv_player.html
There is probably lots of software and tricks to download video from Bebo but I think this is the quickest way around it. Hope this helps you…
+Kieran McCarthy
To Augustine & Reese.. sorry but I still havent found a solution to the Brightcove video downloads yet. I am busy work wise and will find a solution when I get some free time. talk soon… Kieran
Hi there all! I have a REALLY SIMPLE solution for “downloading” vids from brightcove.tv (and any similiar sites i assume): first of all – get Opera (browser) then load video you want in it, when it’s done go to folder “cache4″ on your drive (it’s deep in Documents & Settings, but it’s not hidden) and…yes, your vid is waiting there:) (look for .flv format) Just copy it where you want (because after closing Opera it will be probably deleted) and that’s all! Well, it’s my first help online, so i hope it will be…helping;) Cheers!
Mike…. well done and thank you for providing us with a simple approach to downloading video fron brightcove… I have used a similar approch using Internet Explorer where by you dump/clear all of your “Temporary Internet Files” first then visit and watch the Brightcove video you need, and after it has finished playing go back to your “Temporary Internet Files” folder and look for the .flv or similar files that you need and then copy or cut to a different location for your own use…
Thanks again for your approach and thanks for visiting
Kieran
<>
I have actually tried that with the EW link I mentioned in my other comment but couldn’t find the proper flv file, at least not with the brightcove vid…anyone else have any luck with that?
Okay Reese, my orbit downloader managed to pick up the name of the flv but is having difficulties downloading your video. The following is the link to the video:
rtmp://brightcove.fcod.llnwd.net:1935/a500/d6?videoId=1689589879&lineUpId=1683773559&pubId=219646971&playerId=1378342280&playerTag=&affiliateId=|a500/d6?videoId=1689589879&lineUpId=1683773559&pubId=219646971&playerId=1378342280&playerTag=&affiliateId=|media/219646971/219646971_1691169408_Watchmen-Crudup|http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/federated/f_013.swf?bn=130&pubId=219646971|http://www.ew.com/ew/video/festivals?bcpid=1378342280&bclid=1683773559&bctid=1689589879|media/219646971/219646971_1691169408_Watchmen-Crudup&1218358800000&b87d46dd9bc9f76920428bbecb21bc07|Player|1689589879|1683773559|1378342280||&OBT_fname=219646971_1691169408_Watchmen-Crudup.flv
as you can see, is a whole lot of mess…i know the url is a link somewhere in there..or is a matter of putting it together..anyone?
Augustine, thanks…I did try with Orbit before (a number of times) and it just gives a constant cycle of “waiting…retry…” and eventually times out. Somehow, orbit is blocked from grabbing the flv file. I did previously extract that URL you mentioned above but could never figure out exactly where the correct link in there was, or how to determine it from that string. It’s driving me crazy.
Can someone update on how to save Brightcove videos?
I tried the Opera / IE method but could not find the cached files whatsoever.
Did they change their service again to prevent this?
Kieran
Any luck on how to download Brightcove videos?
Trying to download:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1755406369
Any help appreciated
hi i downl a vidoe from bebo but the ( bebo tv )logo is still in it way to downl without the logo or get rid of it ?
Jeff.. when you upload a video to bebo it encodes the bebo tv logo with it, therefore you cannot download the video without it.
Kieran
Michael… no still no luck in downloading the Brightcove videos direct. I have been able to get a path and files name(.flv) to the original files using “Orbit” downloader and using their Firefox plugin but the length of the url and other session variables will some time to de-code.
David A… when we find a solution I will contact you… meanwhile subscribe to the comments and check back regularly.
Kieran
how were you able to get the videos off of brightcove normally I’d just download the podcast of this episode but the band or jack must have uploaded a different video or something happened in between them uploading to brightcove(shows up on their official site) and uploading it to youtube and itunes because the quality of those are horrendous and realplayer won’t get it
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1785350269&channel=340478121
can you help? please
alternative link
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1554364211/bclid1551132450/bctid1785350269
forgot to mention I am not willing to download Firefox because every laptop I’ve installed it on something went wrong after I installed it everytime so I am wary of using that browser on laptops
sorry didn’t read the other comments but the brightcove problems probably now that I think about it have something to do with the settings of the user
like this video embed from fuse.tv that is a brightcove video when I pause it it loads (and I can use realplayer to get the flv)
http://hpfan6.buzznet.com/user/video/3361711/this-hilarious-rock-n-roll/?p=2
but with that video it loads as it watches or something and you can’t prevent it from pausing to load by pausing and waiting for a while
http://gabelicious.buzznet.com/user/video/3538831/tai-tv-episode-16-cutting/?p=1
I have not had time to dissect all of this, but maybe if i give you some puzzle pieces, we can figure this out.
The brightcove streaming is a lot more complicated to break. I found that if you use their API and drill down in there file, they give a RTMP path, (using your video link above from Lindsay http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1554364211/bclid1551132450/bctid1785350269) and running it through their API, and drilling down into their player I get rtmp://brightcove.fcod.llnwd.net/a500/d5/&media/340478121/340478121_3065915001_TIATV25-brightcove&1227740400000&794d6ccc846aee51e905840861ac8078
We break this down to a file with params:
1. rtmp://brightcove.fcod.llnwd.net/a500/d5/
2. &media/340478121/340478121_3065915001_TIATV25-brightcove
3. &1227740400000
4. &794d6ccc846aee51e905840861ac8078
1. – The rtmp part is the base URL
2. – I was able to figure out as:
media/[ACCOUNT ID]/[ACCOUNT ID]_3065915001_TIATV25-brightcove
3. – Is a time stamp (probably some key in order to access the file)
4. – Probably another key
My guess is that they use those params and append some other data to get a video
I have heard that they create a dynamic file on the fly and only have a 20 minute time gap to use that file before a new one is created.
Any insight to grabbing these videos would be Appreciated.
Aman.
Ok, see the problem is that i downloaded some videos to my bebo a couple of years ago or so and their still there, the problem is, i want them on my computer so that i can put them on other things and keep them..but idk how, like it’s all soo confusing..i tried what u said up there but it’s not working out for me..and this sucks..if u can help me out anyway, i’d be more gratful
Thanks,
Aman.. thanks for taking the time to post up this useful info but I have almost abandoned the brightcove video download problem… they do have some dynamic/temp file access on those videos and I am beginning to think that they are using some sort of streaming service for these clips hence the rtmp protocol… I will keep on trying and keep you posted if something resolves.
Kieran
how can i get this video to download?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1670076655?bctid=1736991105
thanks
love the site, having a nosey through….. got some great tips!!
Hi, I was wondering if there’s a way to download the five part Anoop interview out of this Brightcove video playlist? I can’t find the .flv file anywhere?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid21495792001?bclid=21520199001&bctid=21552915001
Great news guys! I was able to download using GrabPro on IE7. Although GrabPro is from Orbit, don’t use Orbit’s Grab++.. Grab++ won’t work because brightcove is now using rmtpe on new content.
Here’s how to use it http://www.orbitdownloader.com/GrabPro-tutorials.htm. Just remember to start downloading as soon as it detects a streaming video. If it ends abnormally just refresh the page and try again.
Quick note, Sometimes this doesn’t work on TV streams or lists because the player keeps loading another file after playing just a few seconds.
I would like to share something I was able to come up with the help of Aman and a few other posts.
From this line
“rtmp://brightcove.fcod.llnwd.net:1935/a500/d7?..”
the “:1935″ is actually a port number similarly used with SSL. That’s why Grab++ never gets a connection to the server and ends up retrying forever. If you take a look here http://support.brightcove.com/en/docs/content-delivery-options#fms you’ll see that rtmpe is, and I quote, ‘..an enhanced and encrypted version of RTMP developed by Adobe systems for securing the stream data between flash client and server…’. This means rippers that rely on header information to get the exact file being streamed has no way of getting it.
From what Aman shared I was able to make these comparisons:
With RTMP, original donwloadable file sample:
location is: http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/d5/unsecured/media/165012893/165012893_1536203463_3b0dc04c7b783ac69e980852ea8387aea8e3f543.flv
Actual file is: 165012893_1536203463_3b0dc04c7b783ac69e980852ea8387aea8e3f543.flv
With RTMPE, from Orbit’s Grab++
[code omitted here]..OBT_fname=340478121_1793085102_taitvs3ep16-brightcove.flv
If you look at the two closely, they both have the format of
[ACCOUNT ID]_[some code]_[file_name].flv
With RTMP, the [filename] part is a 40char hex hash code. For the RTMPE it's like a simple machine readable code. So the only way to get the exact file name is to find a way to get the hash code portion. If this is a database entry then there's no hope. But if this is generated by some code/key and algorithm then maybe there's a chance to get the exact file. I have tried many samples from the code passed by Grab++ and used Sha1 to get a 40char hex hash code but all download attempts failed.
That's all I have to share. Good luck to you all and have fun!
Mark… thank you for sharing your findings with us. Your detailed info is very well explained and welcoming. I will test your solution myself over the next few days and report back here with my results.
Thanks again Mark!
Kieran
How do I get this flv:
Baixe o Flash para ver o player.
sorry, this:
sorry again…
param name=”flashvars” value=”&file=pf_sergio_gurgel_dir_penal_aula_01_video_02.flv&backcolor=999999&streamer=rtmpe://tichost9.zapto.org/canal&dock=true&image=preview.jpg&skin=controlpanel&bufferlength=15″ /
more details:
http://img405.imageshack.us/i/clipboard01fp.jpg
Hello everybody! I tried everything to download video from brightcove, but all failed, even the Grab Pro prescribed by Mark(the liar who claimed he succeeded), could any real genius stand up tell us the correct way? OMG!
i am trying to download a video i uploaded from bebo but the video embed code does not have any video egg in the code and i casnnot get it saved
can you help?
comment
Hey everyone. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to find the .flv file for a Brightcove video on a Mac computer using Safari. I can’t download Orbit Downloader since it’s a Windows only program and the alternative program I was directed to doesn’t seem to detect the .flv file when I play the video so it doesn’t download it. I’ve searched my cache folder as well and can’t find an .flv file in it. I’ve also gotten the embed code for the video but anything that resembles a URL in it doesn’t work when I copy/paste it into my browser and add the proper extension.
Anyone please help if you can.