Firefox Extensions - must have

Here's a bit from Linux Journal re: pulling embedded video:

Taking My Media Everywhere

If there's anything out there that could push me to buy a video-capable portable media player, it's the Authors@Google series on YouTube (and similar lecture series available on Google Video from various think tanks and science conferences). Science, public policy, arts discussion—the Net has everything a growing brain needs. Unfortunately, a lot of it isn't in easily downloadable podcast form, but it's sequestered in various video formats behind the YouTube Flash curtain or hiding in other embedded players. Bringing it down to the hard drive, even just in audio form, used to be a pain and a half, often requiring some fancy stream ripping involving speaker wires and mencoder scripts. Not any longer. Now, there are a bunch of extensions and Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox that let you rip your beloved content from the cold, uncaring fingers of the Internet and then load it on your portable media player to take with you to family reunions. Two of them are worth special note.

The first is Fast Video Download, which, as its name suggests, will let you download pretty much any embedded video with the click of a mouse. When you call up a video on YouTube or Google Video or just about anywhere else, and it's one you want to take with you for viewing on the commuter train or for listening to at the gym, simply click on the handy-dandy video downloader icon that appears at the bottom right-hand corner of the Firefox screen, and away you go. It pulls the video from the Web server, in whatever format it's natively stored, and drops it on your hard drive, from where you can load it onto your portable media player at your leisure. Fast Video Download's philosophy is no-nonsense and unobtrusive, and it either works on a given site or it doesn't—your mileage may vary.

The second is an extension called Download Helper, and it has a different approach. It maintains a compatibility list and a directory of video sites from which it can download and file types it keeps an eye out for. Accessing its submenu through the Tools menu on Firefox allows you to customize it, to allow or block adult and/or pornographic content, and it also has special entries to help you find instructional and tutorial videos. It's a more comprehensive tool than Fast Video Download, but it's also less elegantly integrated into Firefox. Although Fast Video Download is the tool you want on hand when you stumble across something you're going to want to listen to again later, Download Helper is a tool better suited for dedicated video hunts (say, if you're doing research or you're going to be on a long plane ride and want your portable media player loaded up with things you haven't seen before).

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