How to Capture Flash Video and Animation (FLV and SWF Files)

Now that almost everybody is surfing the Net with a high speed broadband connection, there's a ton of great video out there. And more and more sites are using Flash Video as their streaming video solution of choice.

Flash appears in two ways: animations (SWF files) and video files (FLV files). What if you want to capture these flash videos? And how do you play them back?

This article tells you how to capture Flash (FLV) videos using Replay Media Catcher. There's a video tutorial at the end of the article as well.

Here's how to capture Flash Videos or Animations with Replay Media Catcher:

 1.First, go download and install a copy of Replay Media Catcher.

2. Open Media Catcher and you'll see this prompt:  

2. Click Yes. It is really important to Start Recording before going to the web sites that you plan on capturing from. Once you click yes you will see the Recording Button turn red. This signifies that Media Catcher is ready to start capturing media, including FLV files.

3. Go to the site that you want to capture from. Once you start playing the video that you want to capture, it will immediately show up in the Media Catcher list:

4. To play the video, simply right click on the file and choose Play:       

The video will automatically open with Applian's free FLV Player.

That's it, you're done! As you can see this is a really great tool for capturing online videos. It works with all the major protocols. Media Catcher also captures SWF files, MP3's and MP4's, making it a great program for many music sites as well. Now that you have seen how easy it is, download the demo of Replay Media Catcher 4 and try it for yourself.

Here's a quick video showing how this all works:

Learn more about capturing flash videos with Replay Media Catcher: