Downloading Flash Video files

An ever increasing  number of web sites now host flash based video content, often with high quality H.264 MPEG 4 encoded streams. These look very good and users often want to download and store these, for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes this is possible, and even encouraged, and other times it is not - and strictly prohibited.

Which can be a shame.. so, whilst not encouraging anyone to break the law - and it is now almost impossible to keep up with what the law is even in major jurisdictions - there are some clever tools out there on the 'net which make almost anything possible.

You want to grab a programme off the BBC I-Player when you return from vacation but find the 'download' option has gone so you can only stream it? Or you want to watch an episode from a Channel 4 documentary on your I-pad on the commuter train - and find it's encoded with secure Flash?

Well, there used to be a free product called Stream Transport, which worked well and can still be found on the 'net, but unfortunately this is no longer being developed.

The best shareware solution I can find now is Tube Digger, which is $25 and can be found here. Works well, well supported and recommended.