There’s no question that the internet has made tons of useful tools and free software available that can help you to do a whole slew of activities. One such activity that’s popular among users is the ability to capture streaming videos using various software tools. If you’d like to start capturing videos yourself, we’ve put together a brief guide to getting started.

Under most circumstances, most internet media is downloadable. You click on a link or image and you’re immediately able to to transfer that file over to your computer. Streaming videos are different, however, and they’re designed to take some of the burden off whoever is hosting the site and helps to protect clips that you may not want people to download (though I wouldn’t exactly call it copy protection, it’s just a deterrent).

Thankfully, there’s plenty of tools out there that you can use to capture videos, in most cases you’ll be capturing things like Youtube and Windows Media Video files.

If you’re looking for a solution that doesn’t force you to download a software package, there’s always the popular Firefox Plugin Video Downloader. This adds a button to your Firefox browser that lets you easily capture streamed video. It supports a pretty wide array of video formats too, so if you’re looking for a quick and easy solution that’s not too intrusive ( and without too many features) this is worth a shot.

Alternatively you can head over to the site Keepvid. Keepvid allows you to insert the URL of popular media sites like Youtube and others and download them directly to your hard drive. While it supports a good number of formats, it sometimes has trouble converting media files and occasionally fails to properly capture, but is usually a good choice if you just want to grab a video and save it for later.

Finally if you’re looking for a more extensive solution to downloading streaming media, you may want to take a look at JohnQ. JohnQ is a much more versatile and extensive software packages that helps you save, organize, download, and search for videos in just about any format you can think of. It can search through Youtube and automatically pick up new videos and download them immediately. Unlike some other software packages that are limited in scope to certain media formats, JohnQ can play just about anything you can throw at it. It may not be free, but it also provides a much more comprehensive solution to your video streaming needs.

All of these software options may be a good choice depending on how often you download streaming video and what you intend to use those videos for. If you have any questions or would like to add in suggestions of your own, feel free to do so in the comments section!