Video DownloadHelper is a Firefox extension that watches the web pages you visit and notices when there are videos or audio files you could save to your computer. Once it detects something you can download, its little icon lights up and you can click on it to save the clip or audio.
Supports multiple streaming formats and live streams
The interface is basically a small panel that pops down from the toolbar icon, giving you the next steps for any video it detects. You can decide to download the whole video, grab just the audio or copy the clip’s URL. It also shows the different formats and qualities available, which depends on what the website is offering.
You can grab videos from over a thousand websites, including those that use special streaming formats like Dash, HLS or MPD. Generally speaking, those formats are used by some sites to stream video in pieces rather than one single file. If the content is a song, interview or lecture in a video, you don’t have to save the full clip, as you can just get the audio and listen to it separately.
Take note that while the extension can grab some live streams, that doesn’t automatically include every site. Big platforms and major streaming services often have protections that prevent simple downloading of live streams, so the add-on may not work.
Comes with a Smartnaming editor mostly for advanced users
Video DownloadHelper includes a Smartnameing editor option as well that can help you automatically give meaningful names to the files you’re downloading. When you first open this editor, it might look a bit scary because it shows what looks like code. But the truth is that it’s just a way to tell the extension how to name your downloaded videos automatically and it’s useful if you download lots of videos frequently.