Monday, February 20, 2012

Movgrab : Cool Command Line Tool for Downloading Video Clips and Movie

Category: — SkyHi @ Monday, February 20, 2012
Movgrab is a command line tool that allow to downloading video clips from websites video streaming such as YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv,Daily Motion, Break.com, Liveleak and More ..



Movegrab has no dependencies with another program or library, everything that’s needed should be there in the tar.gz package. Movgrab can connect through an HTTP proxy, can output the download to stdout for piping into another program, and can fork into the background to free up the console. When Movgrab forked into the background, its progress can still be seen in a ps list.

Here’s highlight features of Movgrab:

  • HTTP proxy support
  • Fork into background (use option “-b” )
  • Write the download to std-out so you can easily play the video in an external application
  • Lets you pick the preferred video/audio formats for sites that offer more than one
  • Generic downloader which means Movgrab might be able to download videos from other websites not listed as supported
  • Can resume downloads (use option “-r” – only works when writing a single file)
  • Written in straight C so it has no dependencies

Full list of supported websites:

  • YouTube
  • Metacafe
  • Dailymotion
  • Vimeo
  • Break.com
  • eHow
  • 5min.com
  • vbox7
  • blip.tv
  • Ted
  • MyVideo
  • ClipShack
  • MyTopClip
  • RedBalcony
  • Mobando
  • Yale University
  • Princeton University
  • Reuters
  • LiveLeak
  • Academic Earth
  • Photobucket
  • VideoEmo
  • VideosFacebook
  • Aljazeera
  • Mefeedia
  • IViewTube
  • Washington Post
  • CBS News
  • Euro News
  • MetaTube
  • MotionFeeds
  • Escapist
  • Guardian
  • RedOrbit
  • Sciive
  • Izlese
  • uctv.tv
  • royalsociety.tv
  • British Academy
  • Kitp
  • Dotsub
  • Astronomy.com
  • Teachertube.com
  • Discovery
  • Bloomberg.com

How to Install Movgrab in Ubuntu 11.10/Linux Mint 12

To install Movgrab in Ubuntu 11.10/Linux Mint 12,Open terminal and run the following commands:
Download source movgrab latest version from official site developer of movgrab
Extract and install source movgrab:
sudo tar -xzvf movgrab-1.1.8.tgz
cd movgrab-1.1.8
./configure
make 
sudo make install
you can also install movgrab via PPA but it still version 1.1.7, for Ubuntu/Linux Mint Users install Movgrab by using the main WebUpd8 PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install movgrab

Usage Movgrab

To download a video using the default options:
movgrab [Video URL]
Example:
movgrab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98
To Download video with specify the filename, use Option “- o”, Example:
movgrab -o cartoon.mp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98
To be able to resume a video download, use option “-r”, Example:
movgrab -r http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98
If you want to download video with specify the video format and quality, firstly you’ll need to get a list of supported video formats. Example:
movgrab -T http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98
Output:
Formats available for this Movie: webm:640x360 flv-h264:640x360 mp4:480x360 flv:400x240
Selected format item:webm:640x360
Now you can download video with specify format and resolution:
movgrab -f mp4:480x360 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98
you want to watch a video using mplayer, without having to download video firstly – Movgrab can write the download to std-out:
movgrab -o - [URL] | mplayer -
Example :
movgrab -o - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNKDIlu7w98 | mplayer -
For more help and option, run movgrab in terminal
Movgrab developed by Colum’s Code, for more info about release movgrab you can visit Colum’s Code Webpage

REFERENCES