Disclaimer: don’t download any video that isn’t yours. Stealing is bogus. Don’t be a goon.
Download Brightcove videos with this step-by-step tutorial. Downloading videos from Brightcove is actually very easy, if you have the right tools. I’ll explain the materials needed and walk through each step of the process.
Tools required
- Safari 4+ WITHOUT Flash Player installed (how to temporarily remove Flash Player from Safari)
- Firefox or any other browser
Downloading Brightcove videos
I have only tried this on Mac OS X. It should work the same way on Windows, but the steps to remove Flash Player will be different.
Locate a webpage with a Brightcove video embedded
Load that page in your Flash Player-less Safari 4+. Click to load the video, if required.
At this point, you should see something like this.
If you don’t see this Flash Player error message, it means Flash Player is still installed in Safari. Go back to Gruber’s instructions to make sure you properly removed Flash Player.
Enable Safari’s “Develop” menu
If you don’t already have Safari’s “Develop” menu enabled, you’ll need that. Go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced.
Trick the Brightcove video into HTML5 mode
Safari 4+ comes with the ability to render webpages as multiple other browsers, including Mobile Safari for iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. In the Develop menu, find User Agent and choose iPhone.
Rendering the webpage in Mobile Safari for iPhone (or iPad/iPod) tells Brightcove that you’re using an iOS mobile device which, by definition, won’t support Flash. So, since Brightcove doesn’t want to exclude Apple fans from their video platform, they serve an HTML5 version. [Update: not all Brightcove videos have this HTML5 version. More about that issue later.]
Open Safari’s Activity Window
Safari’s Activity Window shows a list of every asset being downloaded by the browser: every image, CSS file, Javascript file, and yes, video file. Access it in the top menu, Window > Activity.
Find & open the video file
Locate the file you want. It will probably have a .mp4 extension. Double-click the filename to open the file.
One last hiccup: Saving.
For whatever reason, Safari won’t let you save the file you’ve just double-clicked and opened. This is where Firefox or any other browser comes in. Simple copy the URL of the .mp4 video file and open it in Firefox.
Limitations (updated)
I failed to mention one limitation when I first published this post. For this technique to work, the Brightcove video in question must have a non-Flash fallback.
In my experience, most Brightcove videos are H.264-encoded by default and are served through a Flash player—the same method YouTube and Vimeo use. And like YouTube and Vimeo, without the presence of Flash Player, Brightcove can serve up the H.264 file using HTML5′s <video> element. However, not all Brightcove videos have that <video> fallback. Unfortunately, my technique is useless without it.
Happy downloading
I hope this helps others reclaim a few Brighcove videos. Again I’ll point out that this How-to is not intended to be used for stealing videos. No one likes a thief. But in the event that you have legitimate use for this technique, I hope you find it helpful.
Feedback
Did you find this post helpful? Do you know of another way to download otherwise-protected videos? Did I miss something or get it wrong? Let me know in the comments or tweet at me.
I have tried it, but seems won’t work for me… Can’t find the name of video on the Windows > Activity. It only works with the site you mentioned.
Thanks for the comment, W. The video you mentioned in your tweet doesn’t have a non-Flash fallback. That’s one limitation I forgot to mention in this post.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’ll update my post accordingly. I’m sorry my how-to couldn’t help you!
Cool it’s worked…. but with less quality than the flash video…
Brilliant solution. Thank you. A question:
Seems like the Brightcove platform supports dynamic streaming at various resolutions. I’ve noticed that sometimes, while watching a video with flash, it will kick into high-rez then sometimes kick back down to low rez.
It seems this method identifies the URL of the low-rez version, but if there’s a high-rez non-flash version, I’m not immediately finding it.
I wonder if the non-flash fallback is typically available in a high-rez version too and how to find the URL for the high-rez version.
EJ
Dave & EJ, thanks for your comments.
I hadn’t considered the quality of the video. It makes sense that Brightcove would provide a lower-quality version as a non-Flash fallback, since it’s designed to play on mobile devices.
I haven’t looked around enough to determine if the non-Flash video has multiple versions and, if so, how to find it.
Great points, though. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.
hi.
can you please let me know how can i download any of the videos from this site… they are brightcove videos. (any possibility to download in batch mode):
http://www.brightstorm.com/math/precalculus
Subs, thanks for your comment. Yes, they are Brightcove videos. If you follow the steps outlined above, you should be able to download them. But there are 2 things to keep in mind.
1) Stealing is illegal.
2) These videos must have a non-Flash fallback option for my technique to work. I can’t guarantee that these math videos will have such an option. You’ll have to try the steps and see for yourself.
My tremendous thanks for putting up this work around. Yes, the video quality is lower, but to highlight your comment against piracy, I should mention some news sites are using Brightcove but news stories can be legally referenced for fair use by the subjects of those stories. I work for a small not-for-profit that wished to make up a clip of coverage we’ve received and until I found this walkthrough I was frustrated in doing so effectively. You’ve done very nice work here, thank you once again.
Markeerb, thanks for your comment. That’s very useful information regarding fair-use. Thank you for posting and I’m glad my how-to was helpful for you!
Thanks for this tutorial. It works for Safari 5.0.3 for Windows, but unfortunately, there was no HTML5 fallback file for the video I wanted. Oh well.
+9000 internets to you TJ, this worked perfectly, my wife was in a news spot that was posted in Brightcove and after I found your post and this link to remove Flash from my Mac Safari temporarily
http://forums.appleinsider.com/archive/index.php/t-63300.html
I was able to download the fallback MP4 video. Thanks for helping save this bit for family posterity!
Worked like a charm. Thank you for saving me from insanity! It’s people like you who make the web a wonderful place. Thanks so much for sharing.
Glad I could help, Norris, and thanks for your kind words. Happy downloading.
I’m trying to download the video at this link for a friend so he can add it to his company’s youtube channel. I think I followed your instructions properly, but maybe it doesn’t have the non-Flash fallback? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.digtriad.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=152945
Thanks for the info! I was able to get the html5 version to display but didn’t see an .mp4 in the activity window. So, I right clicked on the video and did a “view frame source” and was able to see an escaped version of the URL. When the source came up I just searched for .mp4
http:\/\/brightcove.vo.llnwd.net\/pd15\/media\/823412108\/823412108_955867789001_B202-Open-Distribution-vs-Premium-SME-2011.mp4
Take out the “\” characters resulting in:
http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd15/media/823412108\/823412108_955867789001_B202-Open-Distribution-vs-Premium-SME-2011.mp4
and paste the URL in Chrome or FF to Save As…
Left one of the “\” in.. http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd15\/media/823412108\/823412108_955867789001_B202-Open-Distribution-vs-Premium-SME-2011.mp4
Andy, thanks for your responses. Are you suggesting that Brightcove changed their display techniques? Or might yours have been an isolated incident? (I haven’t done any testing on the matter recently.)
Hi, just to say many thanks for this trick, it worked just fine on Windows 7. :)
Btw, the fastest way to disable Flash in Windows is simply to unistall it and reinstall it later, as it only takes seconds. (Unistall the “Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin” to disable it in Firefox & Safari).
Thanks for the comment, Dacs! Glad to know it works on Windows too.
You can save it directly from within Safari. Just click the desired mp4 in the Activity window as described above. Copy that location and paste it into a new Safari window. Then hold the Option (Alt) button down when pushing enter and the file will be downloaded.
1) open up you favorite screen recording software.
2) press “Play” on video.. go to full screen.
3) Press “record” on your screen recorder.
4) Save video
5) All done…
Hi TJ… nearly there, I am stumbling somewhere… have got the mp4 but now Firefox just spins and spins and won’t replay. Any ideas how to capture this file that I’ve managed to isolate with your great tutorial ?
http://brightcove04.brightcove.com/3/791607097001/791607097001_933126033001_Seminar-Series—Regional-Infrastructure-Development-for-Asia-s-Connectivity—Current-Progress-Challenges-and-Ways-Ahead.mp4
Thanks again for your posting, time and effort.
Don’t mind me… brain freeze….just saw Scott’s comment above which has solved all issues. Thanks.
Sometimes a video file (mp4, flv, etc) does not show up in the Activity window.
After following originals steps, do this:
Hold down CONTROL button and mouse click the middle of the player, near but not on the play triangle. Choose “View Frame Source”.
Look through the resulting window of code and find the url (which likely ends in .mp4). The url will have unnecessary slashes in it. Remove those so you have a clean workable url (no spaces, no reverse slashes) and copy paste into Downloads window.
Thanks for the original tip, TJ. Very helpful.
TJ – thank you SO MUCH for this tutorial!
Pete Roser – your tip was critical for me as it seems Brightcove has changed how they embed. TJ should consider adding your tip to this tutorial.
Hi TJ, I tried to download the following videos by using this guided, however it did not work:
http://bcove.me/lzzzh33s
http://bcove.me/3gnl3g6g
http://bcove.me/b2z8pof5
Many, many thanks. Using your tutorial combined with Pete’s comment has worked like a charm for me.
You don’t have to completely uninstall Flash. By simply disabling plugins you disable Flash. To do this in Safari open Safari preferences, click the Security pane, and uncheck Enable Plugins. I’ve successfully downloaded 3 Brightcove videos this way.
Sorry, I forgot to mention one more little tip. When you find the video in the activity window, simply hold down option and double click on it and Safari will download the file for you instead of opening it. Also it may be hard to find in the activity window because the the name will usually be too long and be truncated in the window. Just look for an item in the list that doesn’t have a size listed for it. It’ll probably be the video and there won’t be a size listed because it’s currently loading.
For Windows at least, even easier than uninstalling/reinstalling Flash you can just go into Safari’s Preferences, under Security, and uncheck “Enable Plugins”. This trick works fine, then you can just re-enable plugins. I’d assume it works on Mac too.
Thanks for the post, saved me a major headache.
Tommy, Kevin, and Tom: thank you so much for your comments. I will (someday) update the how-to based on the latest feedback. Glad it’s still proving useful!
Hi TJ,
Can you please help me to download the video from this Nike site:
http://www.nike.com/en_us/sportswear/stories/lookbooks/look_of_sport_always_on_live
I couldn’t find the .flv file from the method you have posted. It’s a good tutorial though!
Thanks!!
I was trying to download a video using your instructions, yet saw no video formats to go after. The video is here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid618568018001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEM5N1U~,8TYAlu2PuKzK4sTt6U23R74dsP6KyiLF&bclid=0&bctid=1483103167001
Any thoughts?
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My problem is as follows:
I am running Safari on Windows XP. I have disabled flash but I do not see the MP4 in the Activity window.
I know that this Brightcove video has an HTML5 fallback because it plays on my iPad and iPhone.
Thoughts?
DG: It looks like that video isn’t using Brightcove’s player. I haven’t tested any other player, sorry!
Joe: Have you tried viewing the video on a mobile device?
SF: I haven’t tried this on Windows. Some commenters above may have some advice for you.
To all: Brightcove has updated their methods since I wrote this 18 months ago. Most of what I wrote still applies, but slightly modified. I’ll do my best to stay current on the matter.
I disabled Flash in Safari on my W7 machine. I get the “We’re sorry…” from Flash when the page loads with the video I want.
Then I switch Safari’s User-Agent to iPhone (also tried iPad and iPod). This gives me the HTML5 page of which I copy the URL and place into FF… Page loads, but I cannot download the video with FF add-on “DownloadHelper”….any thoughts?
Never-mind…my bad. Sorry about the first post. Seems to be working as of the moment. Great post!
This helped a ton, thank you!
I am having problems with this video…no mp4 coming up even though Flash disabled:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/section/multimedia?project=Crain%27s%20Events&title=Crain%27s%20Physicians%20Group%20Breakfast&template=mobile
I love you!!!!
Thanky you
Worked great!!!
It won’t work with this one:
http://admin.brightcove.com/viewer/us20120524.1211/BrightcoveBootloader.swf?playerID=1555958083001&playerKey=AQ~~%2CAAAAPLptWHE~%2Cndp_QiqbO1QnaDaHsMyOYVhObEpiZodi&%40videoPlayer=1632204378001&autoStart=&bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&debuggerID=&dynamicStreaming=true&flashID=myExperience1632204378001&height=298&isUI=true&isVid=true&showNoContentMessage=&startTime=1338476628047&width=530
Does this video have a fallback?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1680442824001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAF4QYhM~,8vMx38_7mU5bXriXNxOtE9SqNkKcWOoh&bctid=1726682376001
I tried and it didn’t work
Does this have fall back?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1680442824001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAF4QYhM~,8vMx38_7mU5bXriXNxOtE9SqNkKcWOoh&bctid=1726682376001
Hey, I know this is a couple months old, but I tried using this method to download a video and it seems the Activity window is gone from Safari! Is there another way to do it?
Good question, CJ, thanks. I haven’t tried it recently, but try looking in Safari’s Web Inspector. There’s a list of page resources that might show the file.
Here’s a screenshot of the resource list and how to find it – https://dl.dropbox.com/u/545430/safari-web-inspector.jpg
Great tutorial! I tried downloading this video using your method but I wasn’t successful.
http://www.dbtv.no/?vid=1998472863001
Like a few others this doesn’t have a back-up MP4 file.
Do you know of any other way to download this particular video?
Hi KC, thanks for your comment. No, I don’t know of any other way to download that (or other) video without a fall-back. I’m sure there must be a way, but I haven’t looked around very hard for it. Thanks again for taking the time to comment!
A much easier way is to use one of the Safari extensions mentioned in the page by Gruber linked to in the article. The extension (not the plugin) is called ClickToPlugin and basically replaces all flash content with a placeholder, which you can then click on to play normally or use HTML5 instead if there is that option. Here’s the link to the extension. http://hoyois.github.com/safariextensions/clicktoplugin/. What makes it so easy is the “download video” option in the shortcut menu you get when playing a brightcove video (or any other video for that matter. Just right click on the placeholder and click ‘download video’. No need to mess around with browsers or anything!
I figured out a faster way to disable flash. Go into Safari. Open up ‘Preferences’ -> ‘Security’ and untick “Enable Plugins”. Done. Flash is now disabled.
None of the Brightcove tricks (I’ve tried them all) has worked for me on the morning and afternoon video updates on autonews.com.
On daily news summaries like this, where I’d like to save and review the videos for subsequent study, I don’t understand why all the secret hoopla. If you can give me an idea of how to defeat this needless Fort Knox-ing of innocuous content like this, I’d be appreciative.
I’m on Mac 10.7.5 using FF 19.0.
Here’s a typical link to a video: http://www.autonews.com/article/20130305/VIDEO/303059870/first-shift-corvette-convertible-debuts&cciid=email-autonews-firstshift#axzz2MgK8VWMC
EMMETT – you nailed it – that worked like a charm for me – thanks!
I described how to extract video from an RTMP source here, http://www.johntantalo.com/blog/extracting-video-from-brightcove-player-with-rtmpdump/
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My name is TJ Kelly. I'm a web user experience designer & developer in North Andover, MA.
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