It’s no secret that you can download streaming video from sites like YouTube.com or Google Video. But did you know that you can also download other streaming video, as well as convert that video into a format that can be played in iTunes? I’ve written a little guide on one of the ways that you can accomplish this.
1. Getting the software: There is a little add-on for Firefox called DownloadHelper that I have found to be the most helpful and easiest way to find and get video off the internet. After you installed the DownloadHelper extension, you should see a new icon in your tool bar.
Note:This program also supports getting .mp3’s as well but I’m going to focus on the streaming video aspect of the program.
2. Finding Videos: You can now get video’s two ways. By clicking the DownloadHelper and going through the list of video sites it supports and search from the sites or you can go to some external sites and find some stuff you normally won’t find from a basic search. If you are looking for longer videos such as movies, you might want to look from the external sites. There are many of these sites around and with a little hunting you can find a lot of them. One example and probably the most well known of these sites at the moment is SideReel.com. Another lesser known site is 66stage.com but it is a little harder to navigate and if you do go to that site remember, only click the movies listed on the right side of the page, the ones in the middle are bogus.
3. Getting the Video: For the example we are going to work with SideReel.com and find a Family Guy episode. Try to choose a link that has something to do with flash. (Veoh or DivX videos will not work) I find the ones that say “(HDTV Flash)” work well.
Once you have loaded the page with the episode, you should see the icon for the add-on light up. (If it has not try playing the video) Now click the lit up icon and select the .flv file and save it.
It took about 11 minutes to download my episode.
4. Converting the video: There are also a lot of programs that can do this function but I have found one that is very easy to use and free so it can’t get much better than that. The program I am talking about is called iSquint On the site they try to get you to buy Visual Hub which is another good program but not free so its up to you… Simple open iSquint and drag and drop the downloaded .flv file, select your options, then hit start. It is a self explanatory program so I don’t need to go into much detail. It even has a add to iTunes feature so that you have even less to worry about. 













