How to snag Flash.SWF files easily

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chief Suspect
  • Start date Start date
C

Chief Suspect

Lately I find a number of new shareware clients to snag
cute .SWF files found online. Some of these things are loaded
in full to your Temporary Internet Files where you might
search for and save them. Others increasingly are streaming
only, and will dole out only as much as can be displayed.
Is there available a freeware version to do this? ... To
actually search out the OEM website URL for snatching it,
or to otherwise record it as it plays?
 
Lately I find a number of new shareware clients to snag
cute .SWF files found online. Some of these things are loaded
in full to your Temporary Internet Files where you might
search for and save them. Others increasingly are streaming
only, and will dole out only as much as can be displayed.
Is there available a freeware version to do this? ... To
actually search out the OEM website URL for snatching it,
or to otherwise record it as it plays?
Click to expand...

I snag my Flash files with Maxthon.

-- Bob
 
You can do it with Firefox.

Click Tools/Page Info or right-click the page and choose View Page Info.
Click the Media tab.
Locate the .swf file in the list.
After it loads, select "Save As", and save it to your hard drive.

I use Media Player Classic to run swf files, but Irfanview and others do it
too.
 
You can do it with Firefox.

Click Tools/Page Info or right-click the page and choose View Page Info.
Click the Media tab.
Locate the .swf file in the list.
After it loads, select "Save As", and save it to your hard drive.
Click to expand...
===========

This technique will only work for those types of URLs that download
the .SWF to your computer before execution. They are decreasing in
number. More sophisticated techniques now require that your
computer accept truly streaming videocasts, that is .. watching it
while it is actually coming over the cable/phoneline to you. It
does not reside on the computer, thus is not available for saving
in the normal way you describe.
 
I snag my Flash files with Maxthon.
Click to expand...
===========

Good program .. as is the freeware FlashSavingPlugin.exe ..
but, still neither is the answer for Firefox. So far, all we
have are: a freeware plugin for MSIE, or separate shareware programs
(again for) MSIE, or a separate browser. Sigh!
 
Chief said:
Lately I find a number of new shareware clients to snag
cute .SWF files found online. Some of these things are loaded
in full to your Temporary Internet Files where you might
search for and save them. Others increasingly are streaming
only, and will dole out only as much as can be displayed.
Is there available a freeware version to do this? ... To
actually search out the OEM website URL for snatching it,
or to otherwise record it as it plays?
Click to expand...

Use Firefox to view the page and then simply save the SWF from the
"Media" tab under the "View Page Info" menu. Easy! :)
 
Lately I find a number of new shareware clients to snag
cute .SWF files found online. Some of these things are loaded
in full to your Temporary Internet Files where you might
search for and save them. Others increasingly are streaming
only, and will dole out only as much as can be displayed.
Is there available a freeware version to do this? ... To
actually search out the OEM website URL for snatching it,
or to otherwise record it as it plays?
Click to expand...

Use Firefox to view the page and then simply save the SWF from the
"Media" tab under the "View Page Info" menu. Easy! :)
[/QUOTE]
==========

Thanks for the reply, but you apparently missed the part above where
I explained that your technique only works for those .SWF files
which have been downloaded entoto to your computer .. not for
those which are "streaming" and playing live as you watch it.
 
Chief said:
Thanks for the reply, but you apparently missed the part above where
I explained that your technique only works for those .SWF files
which have been downloaded entoto to your computer .. not for
those which are "streaming" and playing live as you watch it.
Click to expand...

Got an example site where I can see one of these for myself?
 
Good program .. as is the freeware FlashSavingPlugin.exe ..
but, still neither is the answer for Firefox. So far, all we
have are: a freeware plugin for MSIE, or separate shareware programs
(again for) MSIE, or a separate browser. Sigh!
Click to expand...


Ah. Firefox. Sorry!

-- Bob
 
Lately I find a number of new shareware clients to snag
cute .SWF files found online. Some of these things are loaded
in full to your Temporary Internet Files where you might
search for and save them. Others increasingly are streaming
only, and will dole out only as much as can be displayed.
Is there available a freeware version to do this? ... To
actually search out the OEM website URL for snatching it,
or to otherwise record it as it plays?
Click to expand...

I've used and have enjoyed the following program to view or save to view
later:
Flash Movie Extractor Scout Lite 1.70
(1 MB) || freeware

at:
http://www.bytescout.com/files/FlashMovieExtractorScoutLite.exe

Hope it works for you also

Later
Ted

If your e-mailing me be sure to remove the nospam before mailtag.com
 
====================

Thanks Ted .. Yours is at least a program that makes it easier to
transfer .SWF files from the cache (already in your computer TEMP
folders). It still has no effect on ... streaming .SWF files that
are not deposited in the cache entoto before executing.
Click to expand...

Would you post a link to one of the streaming .SWFs? There may be a
work-around.
 
I cannot use this technique on any of the SWFs at the CBeebies
website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/jukebox.shtml
Click to expand...

No, they put a switch in to fool programs like the one mentioned.
But there is a work-around, it just involves a little manual labour.

If you go to the above URL and click the Koala Bros link for example
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/koalabros.shtml>. Once the
Flash animation downloads, right-click onto the page to view the
page source. Then scroll down the page, or do a Find to locate the
first ".swf" in the HTML code.
You should see this:
"flash/singasong.swf?singasong=koalabros" This is the switch, the
'singasong.swf' fools the Flash extractor program. The file name is
actually 'koalabros.swf' and it resides in a folder or directory
named flash.

Prepare a very basic HTML page using Notepad or similar.

Taking the URL you supplied:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/jukebox.shtml
and replace the 'jukebox.shtml' with 'flash/koalabros.swf' add an
href, and place it into your basic HTML doc so it looks like this:

<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/flash/koalabros.swf">Koala Bros right-click me to download</a>

Copy the above and paste it into your HTML doc + another 7 times
(there's 8 animations in all on that page). Substitute remaining 7
'koalabros' with the respective filenames found in each link
'64zoolane', 'angelmouse', 'littlerobots' etc. Place a <p> or <br>
between each line and there you have it. Open in a browser and
right click each link in turn to save the .swf's to your drive.
My little boy loves these and we watch them continuously. It would
be good to have them all a click away.
Click to expand...

Have fun.
 
Taking the URL you supplied:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/jukebox.shtml
and replace the 'jukebox.shtml' with 'flash/koalabros.swf' add an
href, and place it into your basic HTML doc so it looks like this:

<a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/singasong/flash/koalabros.swf">
Koala Bros right-click me to download</a>

Copy the above and paste it into your HTML doc + another 7 times
(there's 8 animations in all on that page). Substitute remaining 7
'koalabros' with the respective filenames found in each link
'64zoolane', 'angelmouse', 'littlerobots' etc. Place a <p> or <br>
between each line and there you have it. Open in a browser and
right click each link in turn to save the .swf's to your drive.
Click to expand...

This works to get the pieces downloaded, and each SWF will play
individually, but the website combines the SWFs when it plays them.
singasong.swf provides the frame (the stage), each of the 8 others
provides the character and a song, and some SWF I can't find the name
of provides the instruments so a kid can play along with the song. Any
idea how to get them to combine properly once on a local machine? (I
tried creating a local HTML page with the same kind of links the
original site has, e.g. href="singasong.swf?singasong=koalabros", but
that didn't do it.)
 
This works to get the pieces downloaded, and each SWF will play
individually, but the website combines the SWFs when it plays
them. singasong.swf provides the frame (the stage), each of the 8
others provides the character and a song, and some SWF I can't
find the name of provides the instruments so a kid can play along
with the song. Any idea how to get them to combine properly once
on a local machine? (I tried creating a local HTML page with the
same kind of links the original site has, e.g.
href="singasong.swf?singasong=koalabros", but that didn't do it.)
Click to expand...

Oops I see, a bit more complicated than I thought. Haven't an answer to
this just yet. - will have a tinker later and see if I can discover
something.
 
Back
Top