You’re handy with BitTorrent, you’ve learned your way around Usenet, and you have all kinds of files streaming onto your hard drive. Learn how to automatically unpack, rename, convert, and otherwise make your media ready for viewing with these 10 helper apps. More »
Mac only: When it’s time to download something via BitTorrent, most Mac users manage their torrents with the popular client, Transmission. Folx offers almost all of Transmission’s features, but adds quick torrent adding and a download manager for your browser. More »
Windows only: Last year we shared TubeMaster Plus with you, an extremely handy program for downloading videos and music from streaming sites. TubeMaster++ has been released and comes with a slew of new features.
TubeMaster++ makes grabbing streaming videos and music incredibly simple. As long as TubeMaster++ is running, it will grab nearly every kind of media you watch over your internet connection thanks to its ability to scan the incoming data and not rely on the browser itself. Whether you’re watching a video in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera, as soon as you start watching it, TubeMaster++ will begin capturing it.
You can save files, play them back right in TubeMaster++ and convert them. What formats can you convert into? A better question would be what formats can’t you convert into. You can convert audio formats into WAV, MP3, OGG, and AC3, among others. Video can be converted into dozens of formats and presets for mobile devices including the Creative Zen, iPod, Blackberry, PSP and PS3, various mobile phone sizes, and more universal formats like AVI and MPEG4.
TubeMaster++ does lose one feature from its predecessor: because of dependencies it has on installed software it is no longer portable. The trade off will be more than worth it for most people however as the new version is more stable, offers more features, has a built-in video and music search engine, and has dropped the upgrade requirement to download from adult video-sharing sites. TubeMaster++ is freeware, Windows only, and requires Java Runtime Environment and WinPcap (both of which are included in the installation if you don’t have them.)
Firefox: If you’d like to save a video you’ve found on a popular streaming video site, NetVideoHunter is a handy Firefox extension that makes that download a snap.
Most extensions and add-ons enabling video downloading usually place a single link by the Flash video box on certain sites, letting you download the file you’re currently watching. NetVideoHunter places a small icon in the lower right corner of your browser, tracking the videos you’ve watched.
Clicking on that icon will bring up a list of videos, including the current one you’re watching. From that list you can download or play the files. The ability to grab previously viewed videos is rather handy if you’ve decided, after tunneling through a YouTube chain, that you’d like a copy of that video three clicks back. It works on nearly any video sharing site including YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe and Dailymotion.
NetVideoHunter is free and works wherever Firefox does.
