Download Flash video SWF files in Ubuntu Linux

Q I'm trying to download streaming Flash video SWF files to a folder for later viewing. I am using Ubuntu 7.10 on a Compaq Presario SR1720NX. Is there some way to do this? When I drag the icon to a folder all I get is the link to the download.

A The first thing to do is check the link in the file you did manage to download. Paste that link into a browser, or download it with a command line downloader like Wget:

wget [link]

If the link is an mms:// URL, you can usually play it directly with MPlayer: mplayer "mms://blah....." You may need to enclose the full link in quote marks, because they often contain characters like ? that the shell tries to interpret. Enclosing the URL in quotes prevents this and ensures the URL is passed to program unmolested. If you are trying to play YouTube videos there are a number of scripts available that will determine the correct URL and download the video. One such script is Youtube-dl from www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl. Call it with the URL of the YouTube page containing the video, using quotes as above, to download the video to the current directory. Then play it with your favourite player. If you use KDE and the Konqueror web browser, there is a servicemenu available from www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Get+Yo uTube+Video+(improved)?content=41456. Once it's installed, you can right click on any YouTube page or embedded video and download or play it.

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