My Internet at home is too slow to watch HD content streaming without annoying buffering breaks. Previously Whiskey had their subscriber download button. I'm wondering now how we can nab videos like the iPad quick look in high def. I don't want to have to install a different browser, or deal with shady websites that promise to turn YouTube links into mp4s and mp3s. Nor do I want to worry about grease monkey scripts that never seem to be updated with changes in the way YouTube or the browser work that renders the scripts useless!
I'm hoping they'll still offer a flat out mpg or h264 or whatever video instead of having us download a 1080p FLV file. Or do they already?
@boocreepyfootdoctor: Everything is hosted off site; the point of moving to Youtube was to help relieve the massive bandwidth usage from us pulling down those HD videos and the like.
The currently do not off any sort of downloadable video here on Tested, and I'd have to imagine that they never will in the future. Sorry, Charlie. D:
I emailed Whiskey Media customer support because this feature being removed is ridiculous and not consumer-friendly. They should have at least kept the feature for the duration of the subscriptions. Shits dirty.
@Mirado: This Berman Braun media company, should be embarrassed, they are a media company that can't host their own media? So if I wanted to go with berman braun for my sites, I can't run my own ads I can't control my own media distribution, I'm at the mercy of YouTube just like any other Schmo out there? No thanks I'll look somewhere else for a media company that can actually host media.
I agree that it's not very trust worthy of a company to promise a service for a set period of time and then to remove that service without notice. Hopefully members will be able to download videos in the future. I was planning on downloading the rest of bricked, but I guess I'll just need to watch youtube instead. I'm still hoping tested comes out the better for the change in ownership, but only time will tell.
I know it's not exactly what you said, but run Firefox and get DLHelper extension. It's really great and you can indeed archive videos from almost anywhere with it and download it directly.
I never used the DLHelper extension but i would recomend the BYTube FireFox extension. You can download entire playlist at a time and while its no the same as downloading it right off the site it works great.
Yes, there are ways to download YouTube videos, but this is an entirely different issue. This is about a company not providing a good that you have payed for.
@Clark75115: If you think that's the only thing BB should be embarrassed about, perhaps you haven't looked at the state of this website lately? Now THAT is embarrassing.
Not hosting videos on site is a cost reduction measure; I wouldn't be surprised if all that bandwidth usage didn't partially factor into the timing of the WM sale by Shelby. I'm not defending it, but I understand why they wouldn't do it. (Plus, as a trade, you get 1080p footage instead of 720p on Youtube).
@Jayross: At this point, I'd be happy just getting the back catalog in HD (most of it isn't). As it stands, we don't even have the option to watch a lot of the older stuff in HD, let alone download it.
I say they move to torrents for distribution of downloadable files, if they won't serve it from the site, then let us provide most of the bandwidth ourselves ;)
@GTFShadow: The solution would be to seed that video content through BitTorrent. I'd much rather consume Tested videos through BitTorrent than youtube.
I've used a program called Youtube Downloader in the past. It's more work than the old Whiskey Download option, but it's worked reasonably well in the past. The latest release does try to install a toolbar for it, which is kind of lame, but it's a checkbox that can be unclicked. I used it to get a copy of the Samsung Galaxy S II ad when I did a paper about that ad for my English class.
Will mentioned somewhere (I forget where) that the only option they had to keep the old Tested content was to upload it to youtube. I'm guessing this means that the storage they had for hosting content went with GB and CV. Maybe the old content downloads will come back later after the Top Men have had time to get the new infrastructure set up.
If the Top Men aren't going to implement some sort of video download option, I'm sure it won't be too difficult for people in the community to use something like Youtube Downloader and rip the video and stick it up on The Pirate Bay. That would certainly help people like OP (and myself) that prefer downloading videos and playing them back offline, rather than streaming them.
There aren't any ads in the youtube videos, so it shouldn't matter to the Tested crew how we consume their content, surely?
@WolfOfOne: not to be a wet blanket, but the videos of Tested are technically copyrighted and owned by this media company that bought the site and its materials off the previous owner of Whiskey Media. torrenting or hosting the files/videos yourself might be deemed illegal and worthy of a letter filled with litigation sent to someones home.
@GTFShadow: Eh, I really don't want to host all that content on my FTP! Distributing through BitTorrent makes much more sense, and we can have an RSS feed for the trackers.
@WolfOfOne: not to be a wet blanket, but the videos of Tested are technically copyrighted and owned by this media company that bought the site and its materials off the previous owner of Whiskey Media. torrenting or hosting the files/videos yourself might be deemed illegal and worthy of a letter filled with litigation sent to someones home.
I never said I was going to pirate it, I was just saying that BB should look into official torrents for distribution, that way they could provide downloadable videos for those living in countries where YouTube is blocked (and for those with slow internet or people that want them on a mobile device) while vastly reducing the costs of distributing the files. They would only need to seed out the initial copy. Also, I was saying that I would be willing to leave a box on to help seed out the videos.
Just because it's a torrent, does not mean it's illegal you know ;) The torrent technology is advancing rapidly and is pretty good now a days. uTorrent can even stream videos now :)
Yeah, I think its f'ed up since they allowed downloads mere days ago, that they'd ever consider litigation against us trying to salvage those old videos. But I'd trust they wouldn't
How many members here do you supposed downloaded and saved non-flv versions of all of the old app of the days, Bricked, etc.?
If the Top Men aren't going to implement some sort of video download option, I'm sure it won't be too difficult for people in the community to use something like Youtube Downloader and rip the video and stick it up on The Pirate Bay. That would certainly help people like OP (and myself) that prefer downloading videos and playing them back offline, rather than streaming them.
There aren't any ads in the youtube videos, so it shouldn't matter to the Tested crew how we consume their content, surely?
really? I wonder why they haven't enabled ads on them? Oh, well I guess since premium members are still a thing so that's prolly why. In that case... I see your point. It shouldn't matter, but copyright is a b&($) like that. You could personally download the video but when it comes to uploading/sharing without permission then it gets illegal.
If the Top Men aren't going to implement some sort of video download option, I'm sure it won't be too difficult for people in the community to use something like Youtube Downloader and rip the video and stick it up on The Pirate Bay. That would certainly help people like OP (and myself) that prefer downloading videos and playing them back offline, rather than streaming them.
There aren't any ads in the youtube videos, so it shouldn't matter to the Tested crew how we consume their content, surely?
really? I wonder why they haven't enabled ads on them? Oh, well I guess since premium members are still a thing so that's prolly why. In that case... I see your point. It shouldn't matter, but copyright is a b&($) like that. You could personally download the video but when it comes to uploading/sharing without permission then it gets illegal.
So I can download the video and play it offline.. and boocreepyfootdoctor can download the video and play it offline.. but I can't download the video and then send it to boocreepyfootdoctor? Bullshit. That's too stupid even for copyright laws.
If there were ads involved or some sort of revenue tied directly to the content, then I understand it's a different matter entirely. But if the video is freely available on the internet, and it is okay for person A to freely download that content, and it is okay for person B to freely download that content, then it must be okay for person A to share that with person B. It's exactly the same thing.
They should really, -really- re-enable HD downloading of videos.
There was a reason I subscribed to Whiskey Media, and it was to get premium content and HD downloadable video.
Now I hear that all of the content has gone free (which is not so bad), and we're stuck with online-only youtube versions that buffer every five seconds. I honestly find it a little offensive for a site like this to bait-and-switch its own viewers!
@scarycrayons: I don't necessarily think of it as a bait and switch, but I empathize with where you are coming from. The major, and really only, reason I subscribed other than to support Will and Norm who I followed from MaxPC was for the HD video. I never really used the other features (no ads was nice, but I could have lived with ads to support the site). So yeah, I can see why you're upset over this!
@boocreepyfootdoctor: Everything is hosted off site; the point of moving to Youtube was to help relieve the massive bandwidth usage from us pulling down those HD videos and the like.
The currently do not off any sort of downloadable video here on Tested, and I'd have to imagine that they never will in the future. Sorry, Charlie. D:
@Mirado: This Berman Braun media company, should be embarrassed, they are a media company that can't host their own media? So if I wanted to go with berman braun for my sites, I can't run my own ads I can't control my own media distribution, I'm at the mercy of YouTube just like any other Schmo out there? No thanks I'll look somewhere else for a media company that can actually host media.
I agree that it's not very trust worthy of a company to promise a service for a set period of time and then to remove that service without notice. Hopefully members will be able to download videos in the future. I was planning on downloading the rest of bricked, but I guess I'll just need to watch youtube instead. I'm still hoping tested comes out the better for the change in ownership, but only time will tell.
I know it's not exactly what you said, but run Firefox and get DLHelper extension. It's really great and you can indeed archive videos from almost anywhere with it and download it directly.
I never used the DLHelper extension but i would recomend the BYTube FireFox extension. You can download entire playlist at a time and while its no the same as downloading it right off the site it works great.
@Clark75115: If you think that's the only thing BB should be embarrassed about, perhaps you haven't looked at the state of this website lately? Now THAT is embarrassing.
Not hosting videos on site is a cost reduction measure; I wouldn't be surprised if all that bandwidth usage didn't partially factor into the timing of the WM sale by Shelby. I'm not defending it, but I understand why they wouldn't do it. (Plus, as a trade, you get 1080p footage instead of 720p on Youtube).
@Jayross: At this point, I'd be happy just getting the back catalog in HD (most of it isn't). As it stands, we don't even have the option to watch a lot of the older stuff in HD, let alone download it.
I say they move to torrents for distribution of downloadable files, if they won't serve it from the site, then let us provide most of the bandwidth ourselves ;)
@WolfOfOne: If YOU host it they will come! :D
@WolfOfOne That's actually a really good idea.
@GTFShadow: I'd happily seed a torrent version :)
@WolfOfOne: Maybe talk with Will or Norm to see if they would let you or someone host/share videos for a temp time.
@GTFShadow: The solution would be to seed that video content through BitTorrent. I'd much rather consume Tested videos through BitTorrent than youtube.
The Norwegian public broadcaster NRK uses BitTorrent to distribute their content for this purpose.
I've used a program called Youtube Downloader in the past. It's more work than the old Whiskey Download option, but it's worked reasonably well in the past. The latest release does try to install a toolbar for it, which is kind of lame, but it's a checkbox that can be unclicked. I used it to get a copy of the Samsung Galaxy S II ad when I did a paper about that ad for my English class.
Will mentioned somewhere (I forget where) that the only option they had to keep the old Tested content was to upload it to youtube. I'm guessing this means that the storage they had for hosting content went with GB and CV. Maybe the old content downloads will come back later after the Top Men have had time to get the new infrastructure set up.
If the Top Men aren't going to implement some sort of video download option, I'm sure it won't be too difficult for people in the community to use something like Youtube Downloader and rip the video and stick it up on The Pirate Bay. That would certainly help people like OP (and myself) that prefer downloading videos and playing them back offline, rather than streaming them.
There aren't any ads in the youtube videos, so it shouldn't matter to the Tested crew how we consume their content, surely?
@mortface: I know I agree. I was saying maybe a fellow Tester would be able to.
@mortface: Maybe just a basic FTP site or something along those lines? Just to be able to download them something basic.
@WolfOfOne: not to be a wet blanket, but the videos of Tested are technically copyrighted and owned by this media company that bought the site and its materials off the previous owner of Whiskey Media. torrenting or hosting the files/videos yourself might be deemed illegal and worthy of a letter filled with litigation sent to someones home.
@GTFShadow: Eh, I really don't want to host all that content on my FTP! Distributing through BitTorrent makes much more sense, and we can have an RSS feed for the trackers.
@BaskervilleManor said:
I never said I was going to pirate it, I was just saying that BB should look into official torrents for distribution, that way they could provide downloadable videos for those living in countries where YouTube is blocked (and for those with slow internet or people that want them on a mobile device) while vastly reducing the costs of distributing the files. They would only need to seed out the initial copy. Also, I was saying that I would be willing to leave a box on to help seed out the videos.
Just because it's a torrent, does not mean it's illegal you know ;) The torrent technology is advancing rapidly and is pretty good now a days. uTorrent can even stream videos now :)
It really sucks. I was at least hoping to finish off downloading the last 2 episodes of Bricked.
Yeah, I think its f'ed up since they allowed downloads mere days ago, that they'd ever consider litigation against us trying to salvage those old videos. But I'd trust they wouldn't
How many members here do you supposed downloaded and saved non-flv versions of all of the old app of the days, Bricked, etc.?
@mortface said:
really? I wonder why they haven't enabled ads on them? Oh, well I guess since premium members are still a thing so that's prolly why. In that case... I see your point. It shouldn't matter, but copyright is a b&($) like that. You could personally download the video but when it comes to uploading/sharing without permission then it gets illegal.
@WolfOfOne said:
So I can download the video and play it offline.. and boocreepyfootdoctor can download the video and play it offline.. but I can't download the video and then send it to boocreepyfootdoctor? Bullshit. That's too stupid even for copyright laws.
If there were ads involved or some sort of revenue tied directly to the content, then I understand it's a different matter entirely. But if the video is freely available on the internet, and it is okay for person A to freely download that content, and it is okay for person B to freely download that content, then it must be okay for person A to share that with person B. It's exactly the same thing.
They should really, -really- re-enable HD downloading of videos.
There was a reason I subscribed to Whiskey Media, and it was to get premium content and HD downloadable video.
Now I hear that all of the content has gone free (which is not so bad), and we're stuck with online-only youtube versions that buffer every five seconds. I honestly find it a little offensive for a site like this to bait-and-switch its own viewers!
@scarycrayons: I don't necessarily think of it as a bait and switch, but I empathize with where you are coming from. The major, and really only, reason I subscribed other than to support Will and Norm who I followed from MaxPC was for the HD video. I never really used the other features (no ads was nice, but I could have lived with ads to support the site). So yeah, I can see why you're upset over this!