I have a number of programmes that offer to download flash videos from Youttube, all of which have had difficulties lately. Today I decided to find out where my browser, Opera, keeps videos from the internet, and to see if my flash players would run them.

I ran this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFTzuOzy7ig from Youtube and then looked for it in my browser’s cache.

Well, Opera stores them as .tmp files in its internet cache C:\users\owner\apppdata\roaming\opera\opera\profile\cache4 . The .tmp file extension is not recognized as a valid media file type by either Aero or Eltima’s Flash players; therefore, neither of these programmes would even attempt to open the file.

However, Media Player Classic Player http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Player_Classic played the .tmp file flawlessly.

Back in my DOS days, I would often find that I needed to open a text file created by a word processor that I did not have available. I would open it in whatever I did have available. The file would be displayed with screen garbage where my programme did not recognize the processing commands of the other word processor; but the text would still be displayed as recognizable text (because it was all ASCII). So, I still expect programmes to at least try to open whatever files I tell them to.

I would not expect a programme to be automatically opening unknown files, especially on the internet, because they would have no way of distinguishing malware from legitimate files. But when I tell them to and they don’t even try, that’s a little annoying.

After running the .tmp file in Media Classic and determining that it was not corrupted, I renamed it with a .flv extension and both of my flash players handled it with no problems.

I realize that the Aero player was designed with ease of use in mind, and a lot of today’s computer users don’t know what file extensions are (Windows hides them by default); but, I don’t see why the programme wouldn’t be able to try unknown files if the user tells it to.

If, however, the developers are able to add download functionality to this programme, that would be a whole lot more convenient than searching through dozens of files in the browser’s internet cache.

Downloaded and installed fine and I was greatly enticed by the prospect of making a flash my screensaver. However, I really couldn’t figure out the control menus.

I was expecting a “Scan Disk” for media files option like new installs of audio players., but I could not find it, if it does exist. If it does, that should be right there in clear print upon install. If this is a library manager, then building the library should be the first option. I think too many get used to their own train of thought and don’t realize that many might have trouble navigating menus if they are not in sync or used to the particular jargon.

Never got past that.

After reading some further remarks about updating the flash player, I see that I misunderstood the notification screen. It was referring to the Adobe Flash player and not the Aero Player. So, my conclusion that this is a trial version and not a full version were unfounded. So, I checked my Adobe version, discovered it was out of date, and updated it on the Adobe website.

@ comment 49

When I landed on http://www.swfmax.com/ I did not get redirected anywhere. Maybe you need to check your browser settings? The version there is only free if you try or buy something from one of the partner sites. So, it is not a total freebie on that page.

@ comment #50

Is the Aero player dependent on Adobe? I ask because when I use Foxit to read .pdf files, Foxit does not try to install Adobe Reader, which I have been avoiding lately due to security concerns.

I uninstalled and reinstalled to have a closer look at the Adobe Flash player update screen. I did not see any install or uninstall checkboxes, nor any install yes, no, remind me later dialogue. I had to dismiss the screen in order to proceed. Now my Adobe NPSWF32_Flashutil.exe is telling me that my flash player needs updating; yet, when I use the version checker at Adobe’s web site, it tells me I have the latest version. You can see that this option has caused quite a bit of confusion; so, maybe you want to refine the dialogue screen.

I did see that the option to make Aero the default .flv player was pre-checked. That is a minor annoyance. I am not going to make anything my default until I have tried the programme and decided to keep it. I do not like having to opt out of this feature during the install.

I also don’t understand why the installer wanted to create a default flash directory in my documents folder, instead of in my video folder. I’ve seen a lot of programmes try to put inappropriate stuff in the documents folder. For instance, I have one or two games that put their save files in the documents folder and I have a screen capture utility from donation coders that installed into the document folder by default. That’s just weird!

I’ve now removed this program. I have a good enough flv player. I don’t think I’d want to watch too many swf files, which are most cases adverts. And I would not want create .exe flash files to give away with this prog, considering the troubles the installer had caused (removing existing file association and installing the Flash player Active-X without asking). So there’s no good reason for me to keep this.