How to download any video/audio file when there is no download link provided and without a software or plugin.

First at all, i have to clarify that i wrote this tutorial just to teach someone who have no idea how to download the video/media files (hidden download link) from internet when they need to use it for education purpose. If you use it for commercial purpose, i will not take any responsible for this.

I have been using this method to download the video that i want to view offline since many years ago without using any additional software or plugin to do it. Most of the time it work for all the website, except the Movie trailer media file in Apple website, you have to use FireFox GreaseMonkey Plugin to download if you want, but not all end-user know how to use it.

首先，我需要声明我写这篇教学只是给那些不懂怎么下载那些下载地址被隐藏的视讯/多媒体文件档的读者，尤其是当他们只是拿来做学习用途或离线观赏。如果你是用来做商业用途，与我无关，我不负任何责任。

我已经使用这方法下载我要离线观赏的视讯文件很多年了，并不需使用任何插件或软件。支持大部分的网站，除了苹果官方网站的电影预告片需要靠 FireFox GreaseMonkey 插件来下载，但不是所有的用户懂得怎么用。

Reason

Most of people know how to download videos from YouTube, there are lots of downloader tool or firefox plugin from Internet. However, you may notice some video files are not able to download by those downloader tool/plugin, this is because the website is using a scrip or the Flash movie the hide the source address to prevent people illegally download it for commercial purpose.

But sometime some people just want to download the video to view offline, this is possible and not difficult, as long the video file is .mkv, .flv, .mov, .rm, .avi which what not live stream like .asf. The file is possible to download.

原因

大部分的人都知道怎么在YouTube下载视讯，网络上也一大堆让人可下载视讯的软件与火狐插件。可是有时你会发现某些视讯是无法使用软件或火狐插件下载的，那是因为该网站使用一些语法或Flash把视讯的文件的地址给隐藏了，以提防任何人非法下载做商业用途。

但对某些人来说，他们只是要下载来离线观赏，这是可以做到的，方法并不难，只要视讯档案格式是 .mkv, flv, f4v, mov, rm, avi 等等，只要不是streaming格式如 .asf，都是可以下载的。

The solution

Thanks to the “Safari” Web Browser, it just tell you where the media files located when you visiting the website.
Let’s pick a website to use it as an example for this tutorial, let say you like this video in Transformers official website:

方法

感谢”Safari“浏览器，在你浏览任何有视讯的网站时，它会告诉你档案的地址在那里。
让我选一个网站来做此篇的教学参考，就近期要上映的Transformers 2的预告片吧，官方网站：Transformers

Visit this site using “Safari” Web Browser, goto toolbar and select “Window” > “Activity”:

使用 “Safari” 浏览此网站后，点击工具栏的”Window” > “Activity”:

In this window, you can tell from the downloading file size, which one is the video file. if you are not sure, usually the video file is large than 2MB above, and it should be on downloading process, you should see the file downloading status as “784 KB of 24.1MB” (Example)

在这视窗里，你可以按照下载文件的大小来看，哪个是视讯文件。如果你不清楚，一般上视讯文件都是超过2MB以上，而且应该是在下载中的，你应该会看到这样的下载状态显示”784 KB of 24.1MB” (列子）

Do not double click the link, but copy it

If you double click the link now, the Safari will not download this file type if it is a “f4v”, because Safari can’t recognize this is the common file type for download. It will end up like this:

不要双击连接，但拷贝

如果你双击连接，Safari不会下载此文件，因为Safari无法辨识文件格式类型，你也许会看到这样的结果：

Unless it is a “flv”, “rm”, “wmv” etc. but still, sometime it will pop-up from the player that associated with the file type.
Therefore, you need to copy the link and paste into your web browser address bar again.

* Unable to right click and copy? Use keyboard shortcut:

Windows = CTRL + C
Mac ＝  Command＋ C

除非是类似 “flv”, “rm”, “wmv”格式，但有时，系统如果有安装可开启此格式的播放器，有可能就会在这时候自动打开，却不是下载。所以，你需要拷贝连接，在贴上浏览器的地址栏中：

× 无法左键拷贝？使用键盘shortcut :
Windows = CTRL + C
Mac ＝  Command＋ C

Now select “Window” > “Download”:

现在在工具栏选择“Window” > “Download” ”

And drag the URL into your download window, it should performing downloading process now:

让后把刚才贴上地址栏的地址拖放到下载视窗中，文件现在应该是下载中了：

Ok done, now the video is your.

Regarding video file type conversion

Now you have the video, if you have problem to open it, you will have to convert the video file, for Mac, there are numbers of video converter software, most of the time i use VisualHub, iSquint (These two are discontinue product and changed to another open source program) or Kigo Video Converter (Which supported many file types)

好了，就这样，此视讯档是你的了

关于格式转换

你现在有了视讯文件，但你有可能无法打开，你需要格式转换软件，把视讯转换去你要的格式，一般mp4都没问题，网络上很多视讯转换软件，我通常是使用VisualHub, iSquint (这两个已停止开发，转去另外一个开源软件) 或 Kigo Video Converter (支持很多格式)