Downloading from itunes store without itunes?
March 29, 2010 7:21 AM Subscribe
Downloading from itunes store without itunes?
There's a video blog that I just found and would like to watch all of their past videos. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 videos. I would prefer to download them so I can watch them offline or from my phone. As they are using Viddler, I can't download them with the standard youtube downloading type software.
But hey, they post all their videos to itunes! For free. However, I am not an itunes user and would really dislike having to d/l this software just for the sake of these videos. I'm sure I could convert the videos once I d/l them, if they didn't already play in VLC or MPC, but apple won't let me. Once I click on the download link, it brings me to download itunes software page.
I'm pretty sure the answer is to suck it up and d/l itunes. And I hate wasting a question when I already know the answer, but I really, really don't want to do this. So does anybody know of an alternative way to get these videos?
There's a video blog that I just found and would like to watch all of their past videos. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 videos. I would prefer to download them so I can watch them offline or from my phone. As they are using Viddler, I can't download them with the standard youtube downloading type software.
But hey, they post all their videos to itunes! For free. However, I am not an itunes user and would really dislike having to d/l this software just for the sake of these videos. I'm sure I could convert the videos once I d/l them, if they didn't already play in VLC or MPC, but apple won't let me. Once I click on the download link, it brings me to download itunes software page.
I'm pretty sure the answer is to suck it up and d/l itunes. And I hate wasting a question when I already know the answer, but I really, really don't want to do this. So does anybody know of an alternative way to get these videos?
Response by poster: Oh and one more thing, Viddler can sometimes allow for external downloading, but it has to
be triggered by the uploader to be allowed, and it's not in this case.
Blog
itunes link
posted by wile e at 7:41 AM on March 29, 2010
be triggered by the uploader to be allowed, and it's not in this case.
Blog
itunes link
posted by wile e at 7:41 AM on March 29, 2010
If this is a one-off, just install iTunes and then uninstall it once you have the videos. The videos are in standard MP4 format and will be left in the default iTunes Library location after you uninstall the program. You don't have to give Steve Jobs your first-born son to download iTunes, and you don't have to use iTunes to watch the videos once you have them. Life is short.
posted by caek at 7:45 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by caek at 7:45 AM on March 29, 2010
In case you didn't know this already: you can install iTunes and tell it to leave all of your existing settings and music files along. If you click the appropriate buttons during the install it won't become your default player for anything, it won't move your music or video files around, etc. So you could grab it, grab the videos, and then uninstall iTunes. That could be the simplest approach to getting the videos and ending up with a machine that doesn't have iTunes installed on it.
posted by alms at 7:50 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by alms at 7:50 AM on March 29, 2010
Do you use Firefox? Download Helper is your buddy. Once installed, browse to the episode page with the embedded video, and click the spinning (indicating video is available for d/l) DH icon displayed in the toolbar to start downloading. The helpful little add-on will even convert vids to your preferred format. It's a great add-on.
posted by prinado at 7:52 AM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by prinado at 7:52 AM on March 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I just checked, and Download Helper will indeed download these and offer you the option of downloading them as .flvs or downloading and converting them to another format (.mp4, .wmv, etc.).
posted by rtha at 7:57 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by rtha at 7:57 AM on March 29, 2010
They don't seem to link to it, but they do have a YouTube channel with all the videos.
posted by smackfu at 8:56 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by smackfu at 8:56 AM on March 29, 2010
If video podcasts work the same way audio podcasts do, there is an RSS feed out there with direct links to the mp4 files that you could run through one of the many third party desktop RSS clients to download.
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:03 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:03 AM on March 29, 2010
(Assuming this is a video podcast blog type thing and not a Hollywood produced/released video blog for a real show)
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:04 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:04 AM on March 29, 2010
Because they have a YouTube channel and high quality options with the videos, Download Helper should be able to get M4A files for you, if that's what you want.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:15 AM on March 29, 2010
posted by filthy light thief at 11:15 AM on March 29, 2010
Best answer: Are you sure it's in iTunes? iTunes is also a podcast catcher so people steer you to that feature even though the actual content is not hosted on Apple's servers at all.
posted by chairface at 12:34 PM on March 29, 2010
posted by chairface at 12:34 PM on March 29, 2010
Response by poster: Download helper is a very nice extension, didn't know of that. However I would need to go to each page and wait and download. A very good option, but the list that WCityMike makes my life 100x easier. Thanks WCityMike, appreciate it.
posted by wile e at 1:58 AM on March 30, 2010
posted by wile e at 1:58 AM on March 30, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
But what are the blog details? Maybe someone can come up with some other workaround.
posted by smackfu at 7:29 AM on March 29, 2010