get_flash_videos - Man Page

Video downloader for various Flash-based video hosting sites

Synopsis

get_flash_videos [OPTION]... URL...

get_flash_videos [OPTION]... SEARCH

Description

Download the Flash video from the web pages given in URL, choosing suitable filenames for each.

Alternatively if SEARCH is specified (either quoted or unquoted), get_flash_videos will search Google Video for SEARCH, and present a list of videos to download.

get-flash-videos attempts to support many video sites, therefore there is no list of supported sites in this manual page as it frequently changes, see the website for a list.

Options

-d, --debug

Print extra debugging information.

-f, --filename

Save downloaded file to the specified filename. Usually this shouldn't be necessary, as get_flash_videos tries to use a meaningful name for the video.

-r, --quality

The quality of the video to attempt to download. Some sites offer videos in multiple qualities; this will let you specify which quality to prefer. get_flash_videos will aim to download a video at the specified quality or lower, if no video is available at that quality it will download the next highest quality video available.

You can specify a quality as either:

  • high
  • medium
  • low

or a target resolution:

  • 1080p (1920x1080)
  • 720p (1280x720)
  • 576p (720x576)
  • 480w (854x480)
  • 480p (640x480)
  • 240w (427x240)
  • 240p (320x240)

High corresponds to 1080p or 720p, medium to 576p, 480w and 480p and low to 240w and 240p.

The default is high.

-p, --play

Begin playing the video once enough of the file has been downloaded.

--player=CMD

Specify the player to use for the --play option. Any occurrence of %s in this string will be replaced with the filename of the video (appropriately shell escaped).

The default on *nix operating systems is to use mplayer:

  mplayer -really-quiet %s

You may wish to automatically delete the video after you have viewed it:

  mplayer -really-quiet %s; rm %s

On Windows, if -p or --play is specified but no player is specified, VLC (if installed) will be used to play the video. There is no need to specify where you have installed VLC - this will be automatically retrieved from the registry.

--proxy

Proxy to use, a SOCKS proxy or HTTP proxy can be specified.

To specify a SOCKS proxy, simply provide the host and port in host:port format. If port is not specified, 1080 is assumed. LWP::Protocol::socks is required for SOCKS support.

To specify an HTTP proxy, provide the proxy URL, for example http://host:port.

For proxying RTMP downloads, SOCKS is required along with a version of rtmpdump which supports SOCKS proxying.

If no proxy is specified on the command line or the config file the $HTTP_PROXY environment variable will be used.

--subtitles

Download subtitles for the video, if available. Subtitles are converted to SubRip format and saved to a file of the same name as the video file, but with an extension of 'srt'.

--raw

HLS downloads are run through ffmpeg/avconv to cleanup audio by default, this options turn it off.

-t, --type

For sites that have multiple download type force selected type, 'hls' or 'rtmp'.

-q, --quiet

Be quiet, only print errors.

-v, --version

Print the version of get_flash_videos.

-y, --yes

Do not prompt with any questions, just say 'yes'. This means either literally yes, or the default or first option if choosing from a list.

--add-plugin=URL

Add an external plugin from a specified URL or local file.

Configuration

On startup get_flash_videos will read the configuration files located at /etc/get_flash_videosrc and then ~/.get_flash_videosrc.

The files follow a simple name = value convention where the name matches the long version of the command line options. For example if you want to specify the default player, to always say yes and to always run the player the file might look like:

  player = my-video-player %s 2>/dev/null; rm -f %s
  yes

  # Always play the video
  play

Options given on the command line will override these options, with the exception that it is not currently possible to disable an option enabled in the configuration file from the command line.

Examples

Play a video (may prompt for filename still, override with -y):

    get_flash_videos -p http://some.site/video

Download a video (note quotes are required for URLs with special characters like & in):

    get_flash_videos "http://some.site/video?f=1&v=1234"

Play the URL on the clipboard (UNIX):

    xclip -o | xargs get_flash_videos -y -p

Play the URL on the clipboard (OSX):

    pbpaste | xargs get_flash_videos -y -p

(Note if there is text on the clipboard rather than a URL above then get_flash_videos will search for it).

Play the first video matching "Open Source":

    get_flash_videos -y -p Open Source

Bugs

Third party sites are a moving target therefore it is possible support for some of the sites may not work correctly. First check that you are using the latest version.

If you wish to see open bugs or report a bug visit <https://github.com/monsieurvideo/get-flash-videos/issues>.

Hacking

If you'd like to change or improve get-flash-videos (for example adding support for another site), please see the project wiki where there's an overview to help you get started, and a detailed tutorial on adding support for a new site: <https://github.com/monsieurvideo/get-flash-videos/wiki>.

Info

2024-08-02 perl v5.40.0 User Contributed Perl Documentation