6 Quick Solutions to Download Blob Videos (Tested and Free)

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Peter William
December 07, 2023 Preview 84.0K Preview 0
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To prevent video download, some websites like Facebook and Instagram use a blob URL to encrypt the video link. When you try to download video with the blob URL, you may encounter various errors. As the blob URL is not the real video URL. So how to download blob videos? In this post, we will show you how to get the real blob video URL and download blob videos to MP4, MKV, MP3, etc.

This method works for all kinds of blob videos, like Facebook blob videos, Vimeo blob videos, JW Player blob videos, etc.

 

Facts You Need to Know about Blob Video

What is Blob Video?

When you use a crawler to crawl some videos or search for "src" of a video tag on Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc., you might find blob video URLs in Inspect Element with URL like this:

blob:https://XXXX.com/f2131345-fac6-4ec4-8038-4dc5ed27b2ff

What is blob, why these URLs can't be opened and return "404", "Your file was not found", “Your file couldn’t be accessed”, or other errors?

Blob: https is not a protocol, but a string of tags generated by the blob object in HTML5. The browser will parse the data contained in the blob object internally. The blob URLs are always short and allow to access the Blob. but it is only valid within the current document, while it’s open.

How to Find a Blob URL and Decode the Real Download Link?

  1. Open a blob video.
  2. Right-click the page.
  3. Choose "Inspect".
  4. In the "Element" tab, Ctrl + F and search the keyword "blob".find a blob url
  5. Copy the src of the blob video, the url may look like https://XXX.com/XXX
  6. Copy the link and edit to with your id ABC like this: https:XXX/XXX/ABC
  7. Replace the url blob:https://XXX/XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX inside the SRC with the URL we created step 6.
  8. Now you can use this new link to dowload blob url video directly.

Can I Still Download Video Blob Free from Inspect?

It depends on website codes. Some websites support blob video download, others may not.

The most common way recommended in the forum: open a blob video > go to "Inspect" > "Network" tab > download video in .m3u8 or .ts format.

However, I don’t think it’s a good way to download blob videos from “Inspect":

  1. Blob videos on different websites have different codes. You need to spend a lot of time studying them separately.
  2. The codes of blob videos are keeping updating, hence the solution doesn’t always work.
  3. A bit complicated for non-programmers.
  4. The blob videos in “Inspect” are broken down into many small clips in .m3u8 or .ts format, which are not easy to play.

 

How to Download Blob Videos on Mac/Windows via URLs?

Each blob video has both a blob URL and a regular URL. For example:

  • Blob URL: blob:https://www.youtube.com/e2f70957-e151-40c3-8582-65ac22bc3bbb
  • Normal URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfXWsabC-54

 

  • Blob URL: blob:https://twitter.com/514f0922-f071-4709-a032-50a7ba25cc35
  • Normal URL: https://twitter.com/MountainButorac/status/844505243538931714

 

  • Blob URL: blob:https://geo.dailymotion.com/a3472b30-57ff-4c7e-bd5c-0a520c5bbb5f
  • Normal URL: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7b56dr

 

  • Blob URL: blob:https://www.instagram.com/fe05be45-9c52-4f89-866b-20147a1c862a
  • Normal URL: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0hM6IiRhi8/

You can't download video via a blob URL but via a regular URL with the help of video downloader tools.

#1. Cisdem Video Converter (Best)

Cisdem Video Converter is a highly praised blob video downloader, capable of downloading blob videos from Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Dailymotion, Livestream, and other 1000+ video sharing websites. It can download videos in high quality under 1080P, 4K, 5K or higher resolution.

It allows you to rip DVD as well as convert downloaded blob videos to an array of popular formats like MP4, MKV, FLV, MP3, WebM, etc. in super good quality. Plus, more advanced features are accessible for your to modify the videos, including customizing the video appearance through trimming, rotating, adjust video effects, adding subtitles/watermark, etc., reorganizing the inner encoding parameters.

Pros:

  1. Download and convert Blob videos to any video/audio format you want
  2. Ensure high quality without data loss
  3. Batch process multiple files without limitation
  4. Merge several files into a large one with or without original format
  5. Easy to use with the simple interface

Cons:

  1. Not available on too old systems

Free Download macOS 10.12 or later    Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7

How to Use Blob Video Downloader:

To get the blob downloader, click the "Free Download" button above. Once the downloading process is finished, install, and run the software on computer.

It will open to the “convert" tab (the first tab). You should switch to the "download" tab (the third tab).

download interface

Step 1. Copy & Paste the Video URL in the Software

Locate to a blob video and copy its normal URL (from the address bar or right-click the video to get the URL).

copy the url of a blob video

Back to Cisdem Video Converter, and paste the URL of blob video in the white download box at the bottom.

Step 2. Download Blob Video on Mac or Windows

Click the download icon button to save blob video on your computer. You can download multiple blob videos in batches. Just click and repeat step 2 to add video links and start to download them.

download videos

Click the tick icon icon to bring up the folder named Cisdem Video Converter on Mac or Windows, in which you can see the downloaded blob videos.

Step 3. Convert Blob Video to Desired Formats (Optional)

Go to “convert” tab > drag the blob videos to it > open up the format library > select any of the formats > click the gear icon icon to tweak the quality, bitrate resolution, etc. of the output files.

convert videos

When all are settled, click the conversion icon button to convert blob videos to your favorite formats.

 

#2. VLC Media Player (Free)

As the name indicates, VLC is a preeminent open source player to play almost all videos and audios smoothly. Moreover, it is equipped with various potential features for more purposes, and downloading online videos is one of them. If you want to download blob video for free, VLC is a great option, which works with various websites and is able to download and convert them to some other formats, like MP4, WebM, TS, MP3, OGG and more.

Pros:

  1. Free and open source
  2. Multipurpose software

Cons:

  1. Fail to read or grab the video sometimes

On Mac

Step 1. Open the downloaded VLC on your Mac.

Step 2. Click “File > Open Network” on to top toolbox to call up the window for downloading.

Step 3. Visit a media website on browser, copy the normal URL of a blob video.

download blob video with vlc for mac

Step 4. Back to VLC, locate to “Network” tab, paste the copied URL into the blank box, tick out the “Stream output” box and then click the appearing “Settings” button to make output settings. Once done, click “OK” and then “Open” to play the video.

Step 5. Once playing the video, click “Window > Media Information” on the top toolbox to view the codec information, copy the URL at the bottom “Location” field.

Step 6. Paste the copied URL in to a new tab on browser and press “Enter” to load the video. Finally, right-click on the playing video and choose “Save Video as” to download the video.

On Windows

Step 1. Open VLC on your PC.

Step 2. In the toolbar, click Media > Convert/Save > choose Network tab. Or you can directly choose Open Network Stream from the drop-down list.

Step 3. Please copy and paste the real blob video url to VLC. And click “Convert/Save” > “Convert” on the bottom to continue.

download blob video with vlc for windows 01

Step 4. In the pop-up window, choose MP4 or other video formats you like, and click Browse button to select a suitable destination.

download blob video with vlc for windows 02

Step 5. Click Start and VLC will begin downloading blob videos.

 

#3. SaveFrom.net (Online Blob to MP4 Converter)

SaveFrom.net captures blob video from site the moment you enter the video link. It helps you download videos from over 40 media streaming sites, such as YouTube, Break, Hotstar, Bilibili, Streamago, etc., and save them as MP4, WEBM, or audio format. Aside from the online version, this blob video downloader also has an Android app and a browser extension known as SaveFrom.net helper.

Pros:

  1. Download blob videos online free without installation
  2. Can detect M3U8 files, and all videos will be downloaded and merged into MP4
  3. Can auto detect the added video link and analyze the contained video

Cons:

  1. Can’t download 4k blob videos
  2. No more selectable output formats and quality
  3. Can’t bulk download videos

Step 1. Visit https://en.savefrom.net/391GA/.

Step 2. Copy the link of blob video and enter your URL in the form box.

Step 3. Choose an output quality.

choose an output format

Step 4. Click the green “Download” button, and it will start blob video download immediately.

 

How to Download Blob Videos on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari?

#1. Blob Video Downloader Chorme - Video Downloader Professional

Video Downloader Professional is considered as one of the best blob downloaders extensions for Google Chrome. It works on most mainstream blob video websites and downloads videos in various resolutions from 240P to 1080P.

Pros:

  1. Easy to use
  2. Support many websites
  3. Can detect .m3u8 links

Cons:

  1. Can only read the videos links on YouTube, Twitter, etc., but cannot download
  2. May fail to detect blob videos playing on the screen (No videos found)
  3. May divide blob video into too many 100 kb small segments

Step 1. Install Video Downloader Professional from Chrome web store. Just search its name and add the extension to Chrome.

Step 2. Open a blob video on the website you need to download and play the video to help the extension detect it. You will see a red dot pop up Video Downloader Professional icon in Chrome’s toolbar.

Step 3. Click on the extension icon, and the blob video that is playing will be displayed in the pop-up dialog with sizes.

download blob videos chrome

Step 4. Choose one with the largest size and click the “Download” button to start to download blob video Chrome.

 

#2. Blob Video Downloader for Firefox - OFFMP4 Video Downloader

OFFMP4 Video Downloader is testified to be one of the best blob video downloader for Firefox currently, which is a powerful online video download helper to download blob videos and embedded videos in Firefox for free. It perfectly works on the existing popular streaming sites, like YouTube, Dailymotion, Twitter, Bilibii and more. With this clear tool, you can extract videos from websites on Firefox effortlessly while maintaining high quality up to 1080P.

Pros:

  1. No ads
  2. Fast blob video download with a few clicks
  3. Support massive websites
  4. Offer video and audio options for people to choose

Cons:

  1. Need the help of a third-party online tool (9xbuddy) sometimes
  2. The speed becomes slow when dealing with a large video at high quality
  3. Only offer MP4 or MP3/M4A as the output format

Step 1. Open Firefox browser and navigate to the OFFMP4 Video Downloader addon page, and click "Add to Firefox".

Step 2. Click "Add" to confirm the installation, and then pin the icon of OFFMP4 to make it show up beside the address bar.

Step 3. Visit a blob video and wait for Firefox addon to detect it.

Step 4. Click the add-on icon to save the video offline. But it will randomly show you two situations.

#1. It pops up a window with different quality options for you to download. In this case, just click the according Download button.

case 1 - click download button

Then it prompts a new small window for you to write down a suitable output name and destination. Once done, click Save to start the download.

case 2 - start the download

#2. It shows you the video link with Download button. In this case, click the Download button.

case 2 - click the download button

It will then take you to a new page of 9xbuddy.com, a great online video downloader, which will analyze the link automatically and show you the available download options when finished. Click the Download Now button of the desired video quality and it will be saved to your computer right away.

case 2 - choose to download blob video

 

#3. From Activity Window (Prior to Safari 6)

The older Safari version has a hidden feature that can download a blob video on Safari.

Pros:

  1. No need to install plugins and extensions

Cons:

  1. Only available on older Safari version

Step 1. Launch Safari. From the menu bar, click the "Windows" tab > then “Activity”.

Step 2. Head on to a website where the blob video is and play the video.

Step 3. Go back to the “Activity” tab and find the video file from the list.

Step 4. Double-click it to download the video.

activity option

Can I Download Blob Video via Safari Extension?

Yes, you can!

People are able to install a Safari extension: go to menu bar > “Safari” > “Safari Extensions” > get extension from App Store. Unfortunately, there is no blob video downloader tool out there.

Everything you can do is to install Parallels Toolbox (available on macOS and Windows 10 from https://www.parallels.com/products/toolbox/. But it’s not as same as Stream Video Downloader and Video Downloader Pro, you have to install the .dmg or .exe file and pay $19.99/per year.

 

Final Thought

These are our solutions to download blob videos on Mac and Windows. We believe it really helped you in blob video download from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, JWplayer, Twitter, and other websites. The free online tool and extensions come with limited functionality while third-party software such as Cisdem Video Converter offers more powerful features (batch download, edit, many output options, etc.). So if you need to download videos very often, using a professional tool is your best choice.

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Peter William
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Peter has always had great enthusiasm for writing, programming and web development. He likes writing about software and technology, his works are featured on some tech blogs or forums like Tom's Hardware, CNET, etc.

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