WVU #47 – How To Turn Videos Into MP3 Files

Posted by Dave on Jul 31, 2009 | 8 comments

If you watch a lot of webinar recordings or educational videos, many times it’s easier to listen to the videos instead of watching them. But how exactly can you turn a web video into an MP3 file that can be played on an iPod, MP3 player or cell phone?

In this video, I show you exactly how.

Resources:
RichFLV
Adobe Air

8 Comments

Terrie Wurzbacher

You must have been reading my mind lately Dave. This annoys me no end – to have a webinar with slides that are just there to fill up the webinar space but are not really needed and then you have to sit there.

Question though: How can you download webinars produced by camtasia. My download helper grays out when I have a camtasia video up. That would really make my day!

Thanks as usual for such great content

Terrie

Reply
Rainer

Another great tip, Dave. I have audio and video converters but none crosses over from video to audio like RichFLV. It will come in handy.

BTW, I am also interested in Terrie’s question up above. My download helper (RealPlayer) doesn’t pop up at all when I try to download a camtasia video.

Rainer

Reply
Dave

@Terrie & @Rainer:

This is probably because the Camtasia videos you are trying to download were encoded as SWF files and not FLV files.

SWF files are another type of Flash file. Although Camtasia can produce them, they are also always used for the video players that web videos play in. Because they are so common for this purpose, download software ignores SWF files as they would clutter up the download list.

You can still download them though. In Firefox, do this:

1. Right-click on any blank area in the web page
2. Choose View Page Info
3. Select the Media tab in the window that opens
4. Find the SWF file in the list and select it
5. Click the Save As button

So that’s how you download it. Problem is, RichFLV works with FLV files…not SWF files.

So you need other software than can extract audio from an SWF file. There are lots of options available, and while I can’t personally vouch for them, here are a few of the more popular ones:

http://www.swfkits.com/flash-knowledge/swf-to-audio.html

http://download.cnet.com/FlashDigger-Plus/3000-6676_4-10260390.html

http://www.fortop-digital.com/product/swf-resources-extractor/index.htm

http://echoone.com/filejuicer/

Reply
Terrie Wurzbacher

Wow Dave – you are THE best!!! Thanks for your help with this. I am having trouble installing RichFLV due to weird problems with my computer so your alternatives are helpful.

I also found out that some of the webinars I want to download are MP4s and I added MP4 to my preferences for Download helper and that helped. Now I just need to get the RichFLV to work – I normally don’t have problems with any Adobe AIR programs so I’ll keep working on it.

Thanks again
Terrie

Reply
Brian

Hi Dave,

Many thanks for this! I wish I had a dollar for each time I had to sit through a lengthy webinar when all I really wanted to do was to just listen to the dang thing on the ride to and from work!

Great job!

Reply
Louisa

I am so glad I have a go-to expert for all matters pertaining to Videos. Truly this tip alone will be very helpful to me. Simple, doable and it works!

Thanks Dave!

Louisa

Reply
Helen

Hi Dave,
I have been trying to download RichFLV from Richapps but there seems to be some kind of error in the download.

I click on the Install Application icon and it says “please wait while the file installs” and then a few moments later just comes up with “try again”.

I have Adobe Air installed.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Helen

Reply
- Dave
  
  @ Helen – Sorry, I can’t help with this. You’d need to contact the application developer
  
  Reply

WVU #47 – How To Turn Videos Into MP3 Files

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