[TUTORIAL:] Download ANY Video from Yahoo! Music

[monkey_05_06]

A few weeks ago I found this great website (here) that lets you not only browse and view any video stored on Yahoo! Music's database (most** of which are sync-ready WMVs), but also gives you the MMS required to download the videos with a streaming download program (such as the Streaming Download Project).

So, in order to get the videos, we're first going to need to get a program to download them with. You can download SDP from their website (here) for free (the setup file is 1.36 MB).

Once you've downloaded and installed SDP, run it. You'll see something similar to this:



Next, go to http://fernyb.net/phpLYFOX/. You should see a page like this:



Go ahead and type in the name of your favorite artist and click "Search YM":


Deny it all you want, you know it's true...

You'll be taken to a page with a list of results like this:



Just click on the title for a video, and you'll be taken to a page where you can watch the video, like this:



That's got a nice, long MMS link across the top. Go ahead and right-click on the link and click "Copy." So now that we've got the MMS link our next step is to go back to SDP. Click on "Open" and you'll see a window pop-up like this:



Now you've guessed it, paste that MMS link into the box where it says "Open:" and then click on "Ok." Your SDP window should now look something like this:



But before we can download the video, we have to make sure SDP is set up to transfer the file via the correct protocol. The first time I wrote this tutorial, I forgot to check this, and it's not something you need to worry about every time, but just so you'll know what happens if you forget this step, let's go ahead and click on "Go" now. You'll be asked where to save the file, and it should start saving it:



You'll notice if you look that SDP has actually created the WMV*, however, it's completely empty. That's because the default protocol that SDP uses is the TCP protocol, but we have to use HTTP to download Yahoo!'s videos.

So if we click on "Setup"->"Setup Options", and then click on the "Protocol" tab we can set the protocol to HTTP:



Click on "Close" and then click "Go" once more, and...SUCCESS!



You can use this method to download ANY video stored in Yahoo! Music's database...so have fun ripping off Yahoo!'s videos! I know I sure have.

*Note that you MUST explicitly use the WMV extension when saving videos or SDP may save them as ASF files. Which isn't necessarily a problem so long as you don't care what metadata your Zune registers...or doesn't.
**I say most because I don't want to be responsible if you find one that's not sync-ready.

[lpxxfaintxx]

Nice man, this deserves a sticky.

[Mammlouk]

Great post!

Just to let all the linux users know this program works great under wine.

To install just use the following command in the directory you downloaded it to:
wine msiexec /i MSI_v2_3_0.msi

[mrcc]

nice find cant wait to try it on my zune

[monkey_05_06]

Thanks for the comments guys!

BTW, I forgot to mention it this time around (as I mentioned, this is the second time I've had to write this since the first got lost in the forum-switch), but I believe that all the videos are sync-ready. At least all the ones I've downloaded are.

[Striker D]

I need some help, I download the files, add the .wmv extension so they're sync ready. They sync fine. I go to play them on my zune and I get a black screen, but I hear the audio (all my other videos play fine, it's just the ones I've obtained through this method). If I tap fast-forward it goes to about 0:30 and the video picks up from there and plays normally. Is there any fix for this?

And how do I tag my videos so they show up in 'music videos' on my zune?

[Mammlouk]

I'm not sure about the issue with them not playing right, but as far as tagging, use zMeta found here:

http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/too...ta-editor.html

[monkey_05_06]

I haven't had any issues with videos I've gotten with this method. Like Mammlouk says, you can use a metadata editor to set that your videos are music videos (so they will show up in the right section), but the artists and year won't display properly on your Zune.

About the only thing I can think to suggest regarding the videos is try to resync them. If they're still corrupt...did you check the videos on your computer? Do they play okay on your PC? If they do then something's gone amiss in the syncing, but if they don't they must have gotten corrupted during the downloading process. If it's the latter, you can just redownload. If it's the former...then you have a problem with your Zune itself...O.O

[Mammlouk]

Could be a problem from the software, and not necessarily the hardware too. You could try syncing with the HDD hack to rule out the software.. Also, PCs will almost always handle corrupted files better than portable devices, so it working on the PC isn't necessarily a complete indicator as to the files condition.

[thefadednight]

b - e - a - utiful


thank you so much!

[thefadednight]

Originally Posted by Striker D

I need some help, I download the files, add the .wmv extension so they're sync ready. They sync fine. I go to play them on my zune and I get a black screen, but I hear the audio (all my other videos play fine, it's just the ones I've obtained through this method). If I tap fast-forward it goes to about 0:30 and the video picks up from there and plays normally. Is there any fix for this?

And how do I tag my videos so they show up in 'music videos' on my zune?

i got this problem too. hmm.

[Klass]

Originally Posted by Striker D

I need some help, I download the files, add the .wmv extension so they're sync ready. They sync fine. I go to play them on my zune and I get a black screen, but I hear the audio (all my other videos play fine, it's just the ones I've obtained through this method). If I tap fast-forward it goes to about 0:30 and the video picks up from there and plays normally. Is there any fix for this?

I second this.

doubt it is the zune or the zune software as it happens on 2 zunes, 2 computers

are there any other settings you might have skipped?

[thefadednight]

must be. they work fine on the computer, its just when they go on the zune. odd.

[Sebas]

Sweet, but might want to remove your ip adress

[cpt jack]

Originally Posted by Klass

I second this.

doubt it is the zune or the zune software as it happens on 2 zunes, 2 computers

are there any other settings you might have skipped?

+3 mine goes black i can hear the music but thats it... no video... cry

[koolkidkorey15]

umm, for me it says
> Resolving DNS IP address, please wait...
> TTCP: socket connect failed: 10022
ne one know what the problem is? please help?

[monkey_05_06]

Regarding the "no video playback" problem...I'm not sure what to tell you. I haven't encountered this problem myself. I followed the steps listed exactly and it worked fine. No guarantees since I can't seem to replicate the problem myself, but you may try passing the video through a video-converter program.

Also, if you could tell me which videos you've tried, there may be a problem with those particular videos.

As for saying the TCP socket failed, have you made sure to set the protocol to HTTP?

[elysia05]

Originally Posted by cpt jack

+3 mine goes black i can hear the music but thats it... no video... cry

i 4th this...... i also tried with my zvm and it had the same problem and zvm supports more video files

[monkey_05_06]

Again, I still don't know what's causing this. It works fine for me. Following the tutorial exactly step-by-step it works (for me).

The only thing I can think to suggest is using a video converter program to try and "repair" the video...assuming it's broken somewhere and it's not a completely different issue.

On my Zune I found one video that wasn't playing (just the audio). I let it play for a few seconds, then hit the back button. I then hit to resume playing, and the video played also. I was then able to rewind to the beginning and watch the whole video. It's a bit of a hassle if you have to do this, but most of the videos I've personally downloaded haven't needed it. I'm still waiting for a response from anyone as to whether converting the video "repair"s it...?

[El Sobreviviente]

better then convertin all my vids nice find