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If I am seeing a SWF video in my web browser (sample: http://www.somename.com/swf/x92154) how can I download the video to disk? If I use Save As it is saving .swf, not the video.

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7 Answers 7

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Although the URL for the SWF will be in the page source, in most cases this will not help you.

The SWF is usually streaming the video, alternatively it could have the video embedded in it. Most flash swf container have their video encoded as an flv or f4v. The link will explain the various encoding that may be in play (H.263, H264, On2...). The best thing to do is to use a browser plugin like tamper-data, fire-bug, safari's web-inspector resources, or a proxy to watch all the requests made while it is running the SWF. FLVs are often streamed over plain HTTP, and can therefore, once you find the url with the aforementioned inspection, be downloaded simply. They can be played back with an FLV player (there's a couple, most are iffy), or in a container built with flash, or Adobe Air. You probably want to convert them, which is trickier, but there's some ffmpeg guides with parameters to be found online. In the rare case that the SWF contains the video embedded in itself, you can use a tool to extract it, oddly enough some versions of ffmpeg do this.

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.swf IS the video (Shockwave Flash)

you can drag the SWF file into your browser or use some stand-alone player (e.g. Flash Movie Player) to play the video.

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    Pretty sure this person wants a .mpg or .avi video file instead of the swf. So for example, they want to go to a website that streams video using flash and rip the video out of it. I know there are ways to extract YouTube videos as .avi/mpg but the techniques are hacks and specific to the swf file/site. I'm thinking if the site wanted you to download the videos as avi/mpg then they would provide links to those formats.
    – Matt Cofer
    Aug 28, 2009 at 23:03
  • Matt, i have long since retired from the mind reading business. :)
    – Molly7244
    Aug 28, 2009 at 23:11
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    This is wrong. Flash videos are encoded as .flv files, which could be anything from sorenson spark to on2 something. Also H.263 and H.264. They are embedded or often streamed into .swf files. Downloading the .swf won't necessarily get the actual video. Check your browser's requests when loading the swf.
    – dlamblin
    Aug 28, 2009 at 23:50
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SWF Extractor This software can be used by the users to extract all uncompressed SWF files. It is easy to start its process by using its "Open and Extract all" button. It decompiles MP3 files and images from SWF and the users can have a facility to view all extracted resources by using a grid below the button.

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A .swf file is a shockwave flash video. In order to view it on your computer offline you'll need flash player.

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Actually, to play the SWF file, it needs to be downloaded to your disk first. It is usually saved in your temporary internet files. The map is hidden, by default on Windows.

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The quickest way is to get the .swf file path, then copy this to notepad...

<a href="PAST_LINK_HERE">Right click here and click save as</a>

For example, if I wanted to get http://mysite.com/test.swf I would use.

<a href="http://mysite.com/test.swf">Right click here and click save as</a>

Then save it as a .htm or .html files called anything you want. Double click on it and then do as it says!

When you have saved the file, you should be able to open it up VLC media player, Flash Player or convert it using the usual set of tools.

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View the html source of the page, search the page with Ctrl+F and search for ".swf".

Click on the link and save the page (Ctrl+S).

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