where do QT movies get stored on your HD for temporary playback?

[Mac+]

I located this commercial that I liked and have just viewed it using Safari. To play it, Safari loads up a fresh page and plays it automatically, without me having to click on a button or anything. I'd like to save it to disk - but there are no QT buttons or options to ctrl-click on. It is just the movie on a white borderless Safari web page.

My question is - did this movie actually get loaded onto my hard drive in an invisible file somewhere - and if so, can I access it and save it as a QT movie?

Also, I presume - if I disconnect from the interent I will lose this TV ad - would that be true... or is it still lurking on my HD, just waiting to be accessed somehow?

And one more thing, how do I find the source of this ad on the web page when I view source code? I am stuck trying to figure it out. (yes I have looked for .mov references) If anybody is willing to help here, I'll send you the source via PM! ;)

TIA :)

[curiousuburb]

Inside HTML source, you can search for the EMBED tag, used to call inline QT

Sometimes points to a reference movie rather than the real file, though.

QuickTime Pro will make saving movies much easier.
With Pro, you can sometimes right-click on movies and save them directly.

With a white borderless safari window playing the movie, go to the View menu and pull down to show address bar (CMD-I but the hotkey seems disabled for chromeless windows, you must use menu to access). If the resulting address is a .qt or .mov file you should be able to go File-Save and save the movie itself.

If it's only the reference movie, you'll end up with a 4k or 8k file.

There is a system cache of the movie you've just watched, but IIRC, it doesn't have a .mov or .qt extension (though you can change the extension and it will play)

I think the default save location is under ~/Library/Caches or Private/tmp
Empty your Safari Cache and reload the movie so you know it's recent.
You might be able to do a search for 'files modified today' of 'size greater than 1Mb'

Somebody can chime in to correct me if I've got the default cache location wrong.

[Luca]

There are a few options for this:

1) Get QuickTime Pro. I have no idea why this isn't in the free version, but apparently it's a "pro" feature to be able to right-click a movie and select "download movie."

2) If you have the exact location of the movie, and it's open in Safari, just hit command-S and it'll ask you where you'd like to save the movie. This works for nearly any file, from an HTML file to pictures and movies.

3) Find a link to the movie (or even make one, by whipping up a quick HTML file that contains the link) and option-click it to download.

Heh, you could even MAKE a link to the movie by editing one of your posts here at the forums to contain the link. Then just go to your post and download from there.

[Mac+]

OK (feeling proud now :D)...

I went into the terminal and found a private/tmp folder... then typed sudo, (not that I fully understand it - but that is for root level use or something) and located an appropriately large file in there (about 4.4MB).

I then renamed it and moved it to my home folder (YAY!) using the mv command - first to rename it and then to move it to my home directory. It was called "WebKitPlugInStream..." with some letters and numbers that followed in place of the ... (I renamed it commercial.mov)

But now when I go to open the renamed .mov file QT pops up an error message stating : "Couldn't open the file because there is an error in the program" Any ideas?

Still keen to learn how to find the movie location on a source web page too, if anybody is interested in schooling me a bit. ;)

[Mac+]

Thanks for the replies - I made my post above before getting bumped from dial-up, so when I got back on I just hit submit and didn't realise you both had posted.

I bought QTPro last month and have indeed downloaded the "Seinfeld/Superman AMEX" ad :D ... but this file does not even allow a right click or anything like that. That's why I'm confused. :confused:

curiuosuburb - I have already got the address bar and it just says the "address/commercial.html" What does commercial.html mean in this instance?

btw, I think I found the cache file (see my post above).

Luca - thanks for chiming in too :)
1) Purchased QTPro already - no go (it seems)
2) ended up with a 4K file as curiousuburb thought I might.
3) don't know how to make html files :o

I'd can PM the source code of the page to one of you boffins if you'd like to take a look. It certainly is not much!

Thanks again.

[curiousuburb]

commercial.html means it's the HTML page wrapper for the Movie.
If it were the movie itself you'd be able to save that 'page' and be done.

sounds like you've found the true location of the cached file...
(thought my recollection was spotty)

Try renaming it .qt rather than .mov to see if that helps.

[Mac+]

Well - now I feel like a DOOFUS!!! :rolleyes:

I logged back on to the site and reloaded the movie - then I was able to right click and have since downloaded it. I don't know what I wasn't doing right the first time... but sorry for being such a putz! (<- I got that word from HOM in a different thread :D )

Having excused myself there, I did at least learn a tantalising little bit about locating files in the temporary folder and if I could just learn how to save them then I don't think I'd have needed to buy QTPro. (Mind you - I'm not upset at having bought it.)

Please note, though, that I would still like to get my hands dirty and learn more about the "inner workings" of the OS.

AND I would also still like to learn about locating the movie from reading the HTML source code.

Thanks for the help guys :) ... apologies for the unnecessary bother. :grumble:

[Mac+]

commercial.html means it's the HTML page wrapper for the Movie.
If it were the movie itself you'd be able to save that 'page' and be done.

sounds like you've found the true location of the cached file...
(thought my recollection was spotty)

Try renaming it .qt rather than .mov to see if that helps.

I changed it to .mpg and it worked - thanks for the hint curiousuburb.

I love this type of community help ... you guys rock! (http://homepage.mac.com/ajsonego/lookatthis/headbang.gif) ;)

[synotic]

AND I would also still like to learn about locating the movie from reading the HTML source code.It shouldn't be too hard, do you have a link to the site? In the source you should just be able to search for .mpg and find a link. Although depending on the site it can be harder to get.