Technology & Learning - October 2007 - (Page 42)

» How To: Player, Windows Media Player, and iTunes. No luck. The Video Downloader 2.0 site does let you convert FLV files to WMV (Windows Media Video), AVI (Audio Video Interleave), or other standard video formats, but that entailed downloading software, which I did not want to do. Although the site provides a free, downloadable FLV player, I preferred to convert the video to a format recognized by mainstream video players, such as the above-mentioned WMV or AVI, as well as MOV or QT (used to view Apple’s QuickTime videos). I did find other YouTube download services, but they also kept the format as FLV. Two sites, Vixy.net and Zamzar (www.zamzar.com), however, offered conversion to the formats I wanted. Vixy.net offered to convert FLV files to either AVI for Windows, MOV for Mac, MP4 for iPod, 3GP for mobile phone, or MP3 (audio only). I entered the YouTube URL, decided to convert it for my iPod, and clicked Start. An on-screen counter showed the conversion progress. My first attempt at using Vixy.net stalled after about 43 percent was Vixy.net and Zamzar are two download services that take online video and convert it into multiple video formats. Copyright and YouTube Worried about copyright? The YouTube Terms of Use states, regarding user submissions, “You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service.” (http://youtube.com/t/terms, section 6 part C) converted; after about 10 minutes with no movement, I cancelled and tried again. This time, it stalled at 62 percent. One more try, and it worked. The system then automatically began downloading the 20MB file to my computer (download time will depend on the speed of your Internet connection). I also tried the same conversion on Zamzar, a free online file conversion service. To use Zamzar, you can either upload a file or enter the file’s URL, then choose a format you want to convert to, enter your email address (to receive a link to the converted file), and click Convert. I chose to convert to MP4 for my iPod. It took about three minutes for the conversion, and a few minutes later I received an e-mail telling me the file was done and giving me a link to download it. Now to get the converted video onto my iPod. I began by opening the iTunes program on my computer and connecting my iPod. I had saved the converted MP4 file on my desktop, so when I chose Import from the iTunes File menu I navigated to the desktop and imported the file. I then checked the Movies section of my iTunes library, and there it was! Just to ensure that it actually would play, I double-clicked it in iTunes, and it immediately started playing. The last step was to copy the video onto my iPod; this is done by synchronizing it with iTunes. Choosing Sync Jeffrey Branzburg’s iPod from the File menu started the process, and in a minute or so I was viewing Governor Richardson’s YouTube interview on my iPod. Jeffrey Branzburg is a contributing editor and columnist for T&L. 42 | www.techlearning.com http://Vixy.net http://Vixy.net http://www.zamzar.com http://Vixy.net http://Vixy.net http://youtube.com/t/terms http://www.techlearning.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Technology & Learning - October 2007

Technology & Learning - October 2007 Editor’s Desk News & Trends Product Guide Reviews How Fast Is Fast Enough? Cover Story: Career Education in the Digital Age Getting It Wrong Higher Ed Point of View How To Bottom Line What’s New Emerging Tech

Technology & Learning - October 2007

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