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On Windows I use StreamTransport (recently renamed as FreewareTube Studio) to download videos from any website: it can detect and download videos with HTTP/RTMP/RTMPE/RTMPTE protocols which cover the majority of video-sharing sites, such as FC2, YouTube, NicoVideo and so on. The program is straightforward to use: it's a wrapper around Microsoft Internet Explorer, we enter an URL, the webpage get displayed, we can enter username/passport if needed to access the page, StreamTransport spots video streams and it allows to download them. What are the closest equivalent programs for for Mac and Linux?

To put it otherwise, I'm looking for a (if possible free) program for Linux (preferred) or Mac that detects video streams and does not rely on a predefined list of supported websites such as Aimersoft YouTube Downloader for Mac. It should allow users to log in on the website if needed.

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    Does a Firefox plugin count (as it is no stand-alone program)? If so, you might wish to take a look at DownloadHelper. Not sure if it works on really every site, but they have a list of sites users reported working. If that's acceptable, let me know to convert the comment into an answer ;)
    – Izzy
    Commented Jun 22, 2014 at 23:47
  • @Izzy Thanks, browser extensions are good too but does DownloadHelper use a predefined list of supported websites, or instead automatically detect the presence of a video?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 0:49
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    AFAIK it autodetects the presence of media (video as soon as it "plays", but also images). The list I referred to thus is not the one the dev presents, but users reporting success. Trouble is with sites sending a movie in separate "snippets", but always using the same file name (e.g. movie.mp4); in those cases I've not been able to capture the movie. But it's a while ago I've tried last, maybe that's fixed now.
    – Izzy
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 6:12
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    Probably not as flashy as you'd like, but wget does a pretty good job. You can use wildcards in it like wget -r http://avideosite.com/videos/*.swf && wget -r http://avideosite.com/videos/*.avi
    – Elliot Reed
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 8:29
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    @FranckDernoncourt There you go – enjoy! I've checked with the mentioned FAQ thoroughly, and found confirmation: it really detects the media, so it's not bound to a pre-defined list of sites (see quote).
    – Izzy
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 15:51

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I'm using DownloadHelper from time to time. That's a Firefox addon, sitting in you menu silently (grayed-out) until it discovers media (pictures, videos) it can handle – then it turns colorful and gets animated, to catch your attention (of course nobody forces you to use that icon, in case it disturbs you).

As for video streams, they are detected as soon as they play; the addon seems to detect the (streaming) media itself, so that's unlikely to be bound to a pre-defined list of sites. Though, the project's website has a list of sites users reported working, for reference.

DownloadHelper is made of several distinct modules running different algorithms to detect media to be downloaded.

Source: FAQ

One draw-back I encountered was with sites splitting up larger videos (such as movies) into smaller snippets, which always keep to the same name (such as movie.mp4) – obviously served via a kind of playlist. When I tried one of those last time, the addon was not able to handle that.

I cannot give a general review here, as I'm not using the addon regularly (and must admit I haven't used it lately). That "draw-back" I've mentioned might already be fixed (checking the reviews on the Firefox addon page seem to suggest something like that (I cannot expect you to read through all the 2,209 comments there currently; but an average rating of 4 with that many votes seems to send a positive signal as well. Note that the screenshots there seem pretty outdated).

Several more details can be obtained by their FAQ and their manual.

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