Download Helper Extension

I had great success in downloading content from video portals using the excellent Grab++ application that is part of Orbit Downloader. That is, until I came to a website that did not allow me to download the videos even though Grab++ was running. To explain it a bit further, Grab++ is observing the Internet traffic and lists links that meet certain criteria such as videos.

I began my research and stumbled upon the Firefox extension Download Helper which supports lots of sites, several hundred would be my estimation. The site list is divided into normal video sites and adult video sites. The process however is the same.

Once you install Download Helper it will add a icon in one of your toolbars. If you can’t find the icon you need to right-click a toolbar and select customize from that menu. Then drag and drop the icon to one of your toolbars.

The icon serves several purposes. The main is that it will display videos that can be downloaded. A downwards arrow will appear on the right side and if you click it you see all videos that can be downloaded from that website. A click on a video opens the save as dialog in Firefox.

You can furthermore access the sites list by clicking on the icon. That will load the site list with site names, ratings and comments. If you click a site in that list you will be taken to a download helper page. If the site is adult in nature you have to verify your age. After that the site link, the ratings and comments will be displayed.

Videos have to be played before you can download them. Many sites do not play videos automatically which means that you will have to press the play button if you want to download the video. The file link should become visible immediately afterwards in Download Helper.

Download Helper is counting your downloads by default which you can disable in the options. I see no reason to keep track of the amount of downloads.