I posted in the feature suggestion thread and got the following reply:

Thank you for your reply. I have tried this option many times but it has never worked.

For example, when I try to use Flashgot + FDM version 3.8 build 1173 with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ef0Xyfz56M it brings up
Save as: videoplayback
Comment: Live_Dual_Cast_Monobattles_p3 (video/mp4)

I verified that the "Append comment to the filename when done" option is checked.
It downloads to a file named videoplayback.
When the download is finished, it creates a zero-byte file named videoplayback(1) in the same directory.

Maybe the space, parenthesis, or slash in the comment is causing the append to fail?

Addendum:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Firefox 7.0.1, although this has been happening for as long as I've used FDM (around Firefox 4)

If I understand correctly, you use regular download in FDM via Flasghot catching.
Have you tried to use flash video monitoring directly in FDM with FDM add-on for Firefox, not with FlashGot add-on?

_________________
Andrzej P. Wozniak
FDM user and forum moderator

I prefer using Flashgot for its ability to highlight multiple links and download them with a single command. But I went ahead and tried the FDM flash video download feature as you suggested.

Note that I am on Firefox 7.0.1 due to an incompatibility between a security extension I use and newer versions of FF. Their updates tend to trail the latest releases of Firefox by a few months (I just noticed their extension for FFv8 is now out, so I will be upgrading this weekend).

I followed the instructions on this page: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/youtube.htm

Following steps 1-5, copy/pasting in the URL of the YouTube video directly into the FDM main window, results in downloading a file named 'watch'. It seems to contain the HTML of the YouTube web page.

Going further down, following steps 1-3 and using FDM's context menu sort of works:

- If I follow the instructions and right-click on the thumbnail from a list of videos, and select Download Video with FDM, it results in a "There were no flash videos found on this page" error.

- If I first click on the video to load its page and start it playing, then right-clicking and selecting Download Video with FDM works and properly transfers the filename (plus some cruft about youtube). However, it only works for unaffiliated YouTube videos.

If I try the same on a YouTube video within a channel, the filename I get is the channel name, not the video name. e.g. If I go to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft/featured

and select Download Video with FDM, the resulting video is named "HuskyStarcraft's Channel - YouTube.mp4". So if I selected a half dozen videos to download from a channel this way, I'd end up with a half dozen files with the same filename except a (1), (2), (3), etc. at the end.

I suppose this will have to do. I'll just have to make sure I open up the videos in a new tab to break it out of the channel first, instead of viewing them within the channel. But I really would suggest you clean up these features and fix the comment-to-filename bug. FDM is a great program otherwise.

This instruction is outdated - it was prepared for FDM 3.0, when separated flash video download module wasn't available yet.
For flash video you don't need to do any copy-pasting and you shouldn't use "Download video with FDM".

All you should do were described in this forum more than once:
- Turn off all browsers.
- Go to FDM menu Options | Settings | Downloads | Flash Video.
- Turn on "Monitor flash video download in browsers".
- Mark Firefox and other browsers you are going to use.
- Mark "Show 'download it' button (Internet Explorer and Firefox only)".
- Click "OK".
- Turn on your browser, go to youtube or other flash video site.
- Choose flash video resolution you want to view and click play to start flash video.
- Go to the upper left corner of video box - you should see "Download it" button over there - click it and follow instructions in a download dialog window.

Just search and read other topics in this forum before asking again, please.

_________________
Andrzej P. Wozniak
FDM user and forum moderator