Watch an online course without a connection
How to keep a copy of the videos of an online course you bought, to watch them on a train, on a plane or on a poor connection.
You bought an online course and you would like to follow it where the connection is missing: on a train, while travelling, or simply without depending on a player that keeps buffering. Many course platforms offer no download button, even when their terms allow a personal copy. Here is how to do it with ExtNest Video Downloader.
First, check what you are allowed to do
The terms of the platform and of the course's author decide. Many allow a copy for strictly personal use; others forbid it. Read the terms page, or ask the author. This article assumes you are within your rights.
Why right-click gives nothing
Course platforms almost always serve their videos as streams: the video is cut into pieces of a few seconds, in several qualities, described by a list (the HLS or DASH formats). The player assembles those pieces on the fly, so there is no file to "save as".
Step by step
- Open the lesson and play it for a few seconds.
- The extension's icon lights up: click it. The video appears with its title, its duration and the list of qualities.
- Pick a quality. For a course filmed in a studio, 720p is plenty and halves the file size compared with 1080p.
- Click Download. The pieces are downloaded and then assembled into a single MP4 file, on your computer. For a one-hour lesson, count a few minutes.
The file is named after the lesson's title. You can add a rule for the site in the settings: a subfolder per course, and the quality chosen once and for all.
Several lessons in a row
Start the downloads one after another: they queue up and are assembled in turn. The history keeps the list of what was saved, and a download cut by the network resumes by itself.
If nothing shows up
Some platforms protect their videos with DRM: the extension says so and attempts nothing, as the rules require. Others load the video only after you press Play: start playback, then open the popup again.
Good to know
Only save what you have the right to save: your own videos, royalty-free content, or in the cases allowed by the law and the site's terms.