Viewing & Sharing YouTube, Google and Other Streaming Video via BitTorrent and DVD

[FastTadpole]

For torrent sharing You can download YouTube, and some other streaming sites', online for free (Java Based Plug-in) with KeepVid or SaveVid.

To share with your friends on bitTorrent I'd recommend converting your flv and mp4 files to an XViD AVI for the best compatibility across all players and systems with a easy to use, open source, cross platform and free tool called WinFF.

For tips on how to disseminate your torrents using multiple trackers and keeping them alive best check out all the great threads (especially the pinned ones and the Tips for Sharing Torrents thread / torrent ) in the Torrent Seeding section. It's worked great for me.

If you are a complete nooblet (we all were at one point) on creating torrents. I would feel amiss without pointing to a how to link on on some of the more popular programs such as Azureus, BitComet and uTorrent. It's a bit dated (2006) but still relevant. Check out the program user manuals (F1) or read their forums for the most up to date guides.

http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-create-a-torrent/

For passing out DVDs there is a thread on Buying Bulk DVDs for Long Term Storage and Distribution that might be helpful. For burning to DVD I like to use ConvertXtoDVD because it is simple and saves a lot of time and meddling and has never failed me to date. It also has an easy menu creator and is compatible with all DVD players. I don't mind giving them a few bucks to support an ultra-decent product.
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VLC 1.10 has a neat new feature for viewing streaming video. This will automatically play the highest res video available. You can also record streams or part of them. I like KMPlayer too it has a slicker more intuitive interface and plays nearly everything out there, the last update was late last year.

Download the new and improved VLC Media Player v1.10 here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Quote:Play YouTube Videos Directly in VLC Media Player

There are plenty of tools for converting YouTube videos, and VLC Media Player is one of them. With its latest update, though, VLC can also simply play YouTube videos when you paste in a YouTube URL.

It wasn't promoted heavily, if at all, at the time of the 1.1 release, but there it is: hit File, choose "Open Network Stream," and paste in the main YouTube URL for a video (just the URL and first parameter, like youtube.com/watch?v=GQe3JxJHpxQ). The process is demonstrated in this YouTube clip, dug up by reader dariusvainilaviius:



Neat stuff, and perfect for those who have bad luck with browsers crashing, or would like a little more VLC-like control over their streaming video playback.

http://lifehacker.com/5577212/play-youtu...dia-player

[fabribek]

Using FF add-on DownloadHelper to grab most videos off web.
Has option to convert videos built in.

[capnchronic]

I head a claim on comments here that YouTube adds some kinda personal info to videos ripped off their sites, any truth to this?

[FastTadpole]

Just speculation but plausible since you can try downloading the same video from different computers, browsers or even at different times you get a different checksum. So there is some metadata or even extra bytes injected into the stream. Some of that could be a timestamp, your IP, maybe even modified video, or a mask audio.

A re-encode might mess with this, might not if it is encoded as video channel data.

More discussion on this here:

How To Remove Youtube Metadata from Downloaded FLVs
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=35607