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I am using Chrome and was trying to inspect a Flash video to check the file size and could not find it using the built in developer tools. Is there a way in Chrome, as well as other browsers?

How about for HTML 5 videos?

Edit: As an aside, Chrome only seems to get the filesize of cached items, so no streaming video (unless it is cached once it is fully loaded, I assume)

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1 Answer

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For HTML5 there is currently no DRM or copyright implemented natively in the browser, so most (90%+) sites using it will have videos that can be downloaded by right-clicking on the video and choosing "Download" or by viewing the source and searching for the file... For HTML5 try the following to search for extensions after doing a "View Source" and in the text finder CTRL+F type:

  • .mp4 or .m4v
  • .ogg or .ogv
  • .webm

For Flash-based content, try a browser plugin for FireFox like Video DownloadHelper to download and see the exact size on disk: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

If you just want to estimate the size without downloading, try: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/live-http-headers/

If that doesn't give you want you want, for a more heavy duty Network monitoring desktop application tool the best I know of is WireShark

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Thanks. One question - how do I infer the file size using the http headers? I assume there's a page size variable in there somewhere? As for being on Chrome, I found a video downloader extension: chromeextensions.org/utilities/flash-video-download – AndrewKS Feb 25 '11 at 20:56

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