A Hundred Million Miracles

Okay, maybe this is just one big miracle.

For my latest blog entry on Tarzan, please scroll down and read “Broadway Funk.” I just wanted to take a minute to let you know about something pretty awesome.

I don’t know whom, but on a deleted discussion thread from Broadway World, someone was kind enough to post info about this great piece of technology. In honor of doing unto others what I was thrilled someone did unto me, I’m going to tell you about FLV player.

In short, there is an EASY and FREE way to save YouTube video so that you may access them whenever you want. So far I haven’t figured out a way to make it work for Blue Gobo, but maybe someday.

The best part is that if you don’t even have Internet at home, you can use this. You just download the FLV player for free onto a USB drive, then install the player on your home computer. Then any files you save on your USB drive (or on your hard drive or wherever) can be played at your whim.

If you have dial-up, just go the library to save the files, then it’ll play on your computer without a problem because it’ll be a saved file. You can actually skip through and go back in clips without those pesky pauses because it’s not coming from another source.

There is some pretty awesome legal footage available on YouTube, such as a promo video for the tour of Wicked featuring the uber-talented pair Stephanie J. Block and Kendra Kassebaum, and there’s great Tony performances there too. Now you don’t have to be victim to the vagaries of people’s whims as footage comes and goes; you can keep what you want for posterity and reference. The more we can access such great footage, the more we can learn. The more we learn, the more we improve.

The site is www.keepvid.com. You download the player, just click on the giant play button (labeled “Click Here for a Free FLV Player”) at the top.

To save a clip:

1. Find it on YouTube.

2. Cut and paste the web address where you found the clip into the green bar at the top of the keepvid site.

3. When asked where the address comes from, click on YouTube.

4. Hit the download button. Below the green box, a grey/white rectangular box will appear labeled “Download.”

5. Hit the “download link” button.

6. A box will come up. Save it to whatever location you want (USB drives are usually in the E or F drive).

7. In naming the file, follow the example given by the site. Example: wicked_tour.flv. You must include .flv, or the player won’t be able to open the file.

Note: If you forget .flv, you can still change the name of the file once it’s been saved. Just right click on the file before you open it, then rename it with an .flv at the end.

8. Install the FLV player. Then to play an FLV file, click on “file” at the top of the player.

9. Watch your clips, learn, and be thrilled.

I don’t know who originally posted this on Broadway World, but I would like to thank that person for sharing this. I can’t tell you how excited I was to discover this big miracle and to learn how simple it is to do.


Broadway Mouth
June 26, 2007