OS X people may be interested in ffmpegX (shareware) which is a drag-n-drop app that sits on top of things like mencoder and can convert between several different video file formats. Of course VLC on OS X seems to be able to open FLV files fine, so that might be a possibility as well (system( "open -a /Applications/VLC.app $infile" );).

And I had to ++ the OP just for the choice of default URLs it pulls down. :)

Please post your flv to mpg converter, sounds like a good idea.

---

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

is anyone using this script on windows? I am trying to run it with camel pack on win XP. download is fine , size also looks fine but the .flv would not play in VLC player.

oops forgot to binmode the file on windows !!

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::Simple;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# shamelessly reversed engineered from a python script :-) 

print "starting first page retrieval\n";
my $urlin  = shift || "http://youtube.com/watch?v=NeiLBET8Cdk";
my $content = get( $urlin  ) or die "argh : $!\n"; 
print "done first page retrieval : $urlin\n";

# print "$content" ;
# regex for 2 key text strings which identify the video file
# the second one $2 is unique for each download attempt
# $content =~ /player2\.swf\?video_id=([^&]+)&.*t=([^&]+)&/ ;

$content =~ /<title>(.*)<\/title>/ ;
my $infile = $1.'.flv' ;

$content =~ /watch_fullscreen\?video_id=([^&]+)&.*t=([^&]+)&/ ;
print $1, "\n" , $2, "\n";  

#http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=p_YMigZmUuk&t=OEgsToPDskLRl
+9-iKyfQVcNT8xes2OIT
my $get_url = 'http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id='.$1.'&t='.$2
+;

print "gettin video file : $infile\n";

# don't buffer the prints to make the status update
$| = 1;

open(IN,"> $infile") or die "$_\n"; 

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
my $received_size = 0;
my $url = $get_url;
print "Fetching $url\n";
my $request_time = time;
my $last_update = 0;
my $response = $ua->get($url,
                        ':content_cb'     => \&callback,
                        ':read_size_hint' => 8192,
                       );
print "\n";
close IN;

#play the flv file with mplayer
# system( "mplayer $infile" );

#############################################

sub callback {
  my ($data, $response, $protocol) = @_;

  my $total_size = $response->header('Content-Length') || 0;
  $received_size += length $data;

  # write the $data to a filehandle or whatever should happen
  # with it here.
  print IN $data;

  my $time_now = time;

  # this to make the status only update once per second.
  return unless $time_now > $last_update or $received_size == $total_s
+ize;
  $last_update = $time_now;

  print "\rReceived $received_size bytes";
  printf " (%i%%)", (100/$total_size)*$received_size if $total_size;
  printf " %6.1f/bps", $received_size/(($time_now-$request_time)||1)
     if $received_size;
}

__END__
[download]

Thanks for pointing that out, it worked here. I did notice that YouTube started changing it's downloads a few months ago. At the time, it looked to me like they were trying to work out a system of regional servers to improve efficiency, and there was some extra codes in there. I figured that ultimately I would need to switch to WWW:Mechanize, and decided it wasn't worth the effort..... since the novelty of YouTube has worn off for me, and they might change it all again at some future time. :-)

---

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

Well the times they keep a changin' ...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::Simple;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# shamelessly reversed engineered from a python script :-)

print "starting first page retrieval\n";
my $urlin  = shift || "http://youtube.com/watch?v=vCsQLQ00hvs";
my $content = get( $urlin  ) or die "argh : $!\n";
print "done first page retrieval : $urlin\n";

# print "$content" ;
# regex for 2 key text strings which identify the video file
# the second one $2 is unique for each download attempt
# $content =~ /player2\.swf\?video_id=([^&]+)&.*t=([^&]+)&/ ;

my $infile     = ($content =~ m{<title>([^<]+)</title>})[0] . '.flv';
my ($video_id) = ($content =~ /watch_fullscreen\?(?:.*?)video_id=([^&]
++)/);
my ($t_id)     = ($content =~ /watch_fullscreen\?(?:.*?)t=([^&]+)/);

my $get_url = "http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=$video_id&t=$
+t_id";

print "gettin video file : $infile\n";

# don't buffer the prints to make the status update
$| = 1;

open(IN,"> $infile") or die "$_\n";

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
my $received_size = 0;
my $url = $get_url;
print "Fetching $url\n";
my $request_time = time;
my $last_update = 0;
my $response = $ua->get($url,
                        ':content_cb'     => \&callback,
                        ':read_size_hint' => 8192,
                       );
print "\n";
close IN;

#play the flv file with mplayer
# system( "mplayer $infile" );

#############################################

sub callback {
  my ($data, $response, $protocol) = @_;

  my $total_size = $response->header('Content-Length') || 0;
  $received_size += length $data;

  # write the $data to a filehandle or whatever should happen
  # with it here.
  print IN $data;

  my $time_now = time;

  # this to make the status only update once per second.
  return unless $time_now > $last_update or $received_size == $total_s
+ize;
  $last_update = $time_now;

  print "\rReceived $received_size bytes";
  printf " (%i%%)", (100/$total_size)*$received_size if $total_size;
  printf " %6.1f/bps", $received_size/(($time_now-$request_time)||1)
     if $received_size;
}

__END__
[download]

Works like a charm again! :)

thanks for the update !

missing binmode again

#/bin/sh
# output plays with ffplay or latest mplayer-1.0pre8
# takes an .flv file as arg1 and produces a basename.avi
mencoder $1 -vc ffflv -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1000:v
+hq -ofps 24 -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=96 -o `basename $1 .flv`.av
+i
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use LWP::Simple;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# shamelessly reversed engineered from a python script :-) 

print "startring first page retrieval\n";
my $urlin  = shift || "http://youtube.com/watch?v=EkTpUxh8Vxc";
my $content = get( $urlin  ) or die "$!\n"; 
print "done first page retrieval\n";
#print $content;

# regex for 2 key text strings which identify the video file
# the second one $2 is unique for each download attempt
$content =~ /player2\.swf\?video_id=([^&]+)&.*t=([^&]+)&/ ;
print $1, "\n" , $2, "\n";  
my $infile = $1.'.flv';  #add a .flv extension
my $filename = $1;

#http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=p_YMigZmUuk&t=OEgsToPDskLRl
+9-iKyfQVcNT8xes2OIT
my $get_url = 'http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id='.$1.'&t='.$2
+;

print "gettin video file $get_url\n";

# don't buffer the prints to make the status update
$| = 1;

open(IN,"> $infile") or die "$_\n"; 

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
my $received_size = 0;
my $url = $get_url;
print "Fetching $url\n";
my $request_time = time;
my $last_update = 0;
my $response = $ua->get($url,
                        ':content_cb'     => \&callback,
                        ':read_size_hint' => 8192,
                       );
print "\n";
close IN;

#play the flv file with mplayer
#system( "mplayer $infile" );
my $return_val = `ffmpeg -i $filename.flv -ab 56 -ar 22050 -b 500  -s 
+320x240 $filename.mpg`;

#############################################

sub callback {
  my ($data, $response, $protocol) = @_;

  my $total_size = $response->header('Content-Length') || 0;
  $received_size += length $data;

  # write the $data to a filehandle or whatever should happen
  # with it here.
  print IN $data;

  my $time_now = time;

  # this to make the status only update once per second.
  return unless $time_now > $last_update or $received_size == $total_s
+ize;
  $last_update = $time_now;

  print "\rReceived $received_size bytes";
  printf " (%i%%)", (100/$total_size)*$received_size if $total_size;
  printf " %6.1f/bps", $received_size/(($time_now-$request_time)||1)
     if $received_size;
}

__END__
[download]

Hi, that sounds good, mplayer is so powerful. I have noticed that You-Tube is getting more sophisticated in setting up their links, to different servers (maybe due to heavy loads from popularity?). It seems to be getting harder to screen scrape their pages to get reliable links. Maybe I'm just too lazy to try harder. :-)

---

I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::Simple;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use CGI qw(:standard);
print "Content-type:text/html\n\n";
my $query = new CGI;
print qq~
<html>
<head>
<style>
div{
position:absolute;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form name="aa" action="" method="get">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" name="islem" value="1">
<textarea name="url" cols="25" rows="6" OnFocus="this.value=''">
Lütfen Youtube Linkini buraya yapıştırınız.
</textarea>
<INPUT TYPE="submit" name="submit" value="İndir">
</form>
~;
my $myurl  = $query -> param('url');
my $islem  = $query -> param('islem');
 
 if ($islem eq "1") {

# shamelessly reversed engineered from a python script :-)

#print "starting first page retrieval\n";
my $urlin  = shift || $myurl; ###"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q3Uv
+6_jXzg";
my $content = get( $urlin  ) or die "argh : $!\n";
#print "done first page retrieval : $urlin\n";

# print "$content" ;
# regex for 2 key text strings which identify the video file
# the second one $2 is unique for each download attempt
# $content =~ /player2\.swf\?video_id=([^&]+)&.*t=([^&]+)&/ ;

my $infile     = ($content =~ m{<title>([^<]+)</title>})[0] . '.flv';
my ($video_id) = ($content =~ /watch_fullscreen\?(?:.*?)video_id=([^&]
+++)/);
my ($t_id)     = ($content =~ /watch_fullscreen\?(?:.*?)t=([^&]+)/);
$infile =~ s/YouTube/Seyret/isg;
$infile =~ s/[\*]//isg;
$infile = normalize_filename($infile,'-', 40);
my $kaydet="flv/".$infile;
my $get_url = "http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=$video_id&t=$
+t_id";

#print "gettin video file : $infile\n";

print qq~
<B>Dosya Adı :</B> $infile<br>
<B>Tamamlama Yüzdesi :</B> <div id=yuzde></div><br>
<B>Hız :</B> <div id=hiz></div><br>
<B>Alınan :</B> <div id=alma></div><br>
~;

# don't buffer the prints to make the status update
$| = 1;

open(IN,"> $kaydet") or die "$_\n";

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
my $received_size = 0;
my $url = $get_url;
#print "Fetching $url\n";
my $request_time = time;
my $last_update = 0;
my $response = $ua->get($url,
                        ':content_cb'     => \&callback,
                        ':read_size_hint' => 8192,
                       );
print "\n";
close IN;
print "\nBitti</body></html>";
#play the flv file with mplayer
# system( "mplayer $infile" );


#############################################

sub callback {
  my ($data, $response, $protocol) = @_;

  my $total_size = $response->header('Content-Length') || 0;
  $received_size += length $data;

  # write the $data to a filehandle or whatever should happen
  # with it here.
  print IN $data;

  my $time_now = time;

  # this to make the status only update once per second.
  return unless $time_now > $last_update or $received_size == $total_s
+ize;
  $last_update = $time_now;

  #print "\rReceived $received_size bytes\n\n";
  #printf " (%i%%)", (100/$total_size)*$received_size if $total_size;
printf "<script>document.all.yuzde.innerHTML='(%i%%)';</script>",(100/
+$total_size)*$received_size if $total_size;
printf "<script>document.all.hiz.innerHTML='%6.1f - KB';</script>", ($
+received_size*8)/1024/(($time_now-$request_time)||1)  if $received_si
+ze;
printf "<script>document.all.alma.innerHTML='%i-KB / %i KB';</script>"
+, ($received_size/1024),($total_size)/1024  if $total_size;
}

sub random_string{
    my $length_of_randomstring = shift;
    my @chars=('a'..'z','A'..'Z','0'..'9');
    my $random_string;
    
    for(my $i = 0; $i < $length_of_randomstring; $i++){ $random_string
+ .= $chars[int(rand(58))]; }
    
    return $random_string;
}

sub normalize_filename{ 
    my $file_name = shift;
    my $delimiter = shift;
    my $max_file_length = shift;
    
    if(length($file_name) > $max_file_length){ $file_name = substr($fi
+le_name, length($file_name) - $max_file_length); }
    
    $file_name =~ s/[^a-zA-Z0-9\_\.\-]/$delimiter/g;

    return $file_name;
}

 }
[download]

Thanks for the link :)

http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/