I'm thinking of buy the Premium but I feel the descriptions don't say enough.

[Giulio Duck]

Hi, I have some other things that i would like to know that aren't in or at least I can't even tell if those things are implied or not?  Like first after 1yr. all free support stop but does that mean updates too and do have to pay for the whole thing all over again to renew free support?  As well as how many browser can one have it on and then on how many devices?  And, I think that's all for now...

[Wild Willy]

When it comes to support, this Google Group is the support mechanism. It's free. It's
basically a co-operative effort by fellow users to help each other. For example, I'm a
fellow user, not an employee of VDH. On the other hand, employees of VDH do monitor this
group & post helpful answers, including Michel (MIG) who is the developer of the product.
I don't really know why the web site talks about free support for just one year. Maybe
that was going to be their business model at some point in antiquity. But it's not true
now. You can get free support for life right here.

When it comes to updates, they just appear & you can install them. You don't have to pay
for your license again.

As for browsers, the license is by browser type. There is a license for Firefox, a
different license for Chrome, and yet a third one for Edge. Each one is a separate
purchase. They are not transferable from one browser to another. But each one is for
life. It also covers every instance of the given browser on your systems. Note that.
Plural. Systems. Your license is good on every system you own, and for however many
instances of the given browser you may have on each system. It will also be good on any
system you might own in the future. Just keep your license somewhere you can cut/paste
it into the VDH Settings dialog wherever you might be using it. But be honest. Don't
give your license to your friends & don't post it in public (here). These guys make a
great product & charge barely anything for it. Don't interfere with their attempts to
make a bit of coin. But do buy a license & support their work. You might find some
additional ideas worth knowing over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/AUQA23Jnmoo

[Wild Willy]

It seems appropriate to add that VDH for Chrome & VDH for Firefox have one very important
difference. This difference is not affected by whether you have a license. It's a
difference enforced by Google. Since Google owns both the Chrome browser & YouTube, they
are free to enforce the restriction that no third-party Chrome extension is permitted to
download content from YouTube. Clearly, that applies to VDH. I don't use Chrome so I
don't know what is available from Google but I suspect they have their own tool for
downloading from YouTube. It may even be a Chrome extension. I just don't know & I am
not sufficiently motivated to find out. VDH for Chrome does not perform downloads from
YouTube. This is not a technological shortcoming. I'm sure Michel could easily write
YouTube support into VDH for Chrome. At which point VDH would be banned from the Google
Store & there would probably be a lawsuit. So VDH for Chrome does not download from
YouTube & that explains in large part the difference in price with VDH for Firefox. VDH
for Firefox is not within Google's reach so that extension is quite successful at
downloading from YouTube.

[Stephen Smith]

Do I need to purchase the VDH premium license for Firefox now in order to download videos from a Facebook Group??

Without the license certificate I consistently get the message "No media to process in the current tab" ... and I get this same message when using Chrome WITH a VDH certificate that I just purchased.

If the answer is "yes", then please change my Chrome license certificate to a Firefox license certificate ... or otherwise refund my purchase and I'll start over again with Firefox.

Thanks for your help!

[John Taylor]

Stephen,

If you like Chrome and want to stay with it before you do a switch to Firefox (which is what I use) there is a tip trick from an earlier posting that might help. Change to the mobile version of Facebook. if you put m. in front of the page you want to download from, it may work. Facebook has been making it harder and harder to download videos on there as they want you to only watch the video on their site.

You should search this forum for "downloading from facebook" and it should have more instructions of using VDH on facebook.

JT

[Stephen Smith]

Thanks, John!

Downloading from a Facebook Group works now, but it wasn't easy ...

Trying the m. trick on Chrome took me to a completely different video. But then I could go to the FB Group to see the intended video and do the m. substitution, but then I once again got the message "No media to process in the current tab". Frustrating ...

Just for fun, I then tried do all of this with Firefox ... and this time the download worked!

I assume that I can now reply to the confirmation email to get a refund for the premium Chrome license that doesn't work for me.

Thanks,

Stephen

[jcv...@gmail.com]

hi,

We do not change the available streams depending on which premium you have. We list all what we retrieve. Except for Chrome which excludes youtube videos.

Actually I didn't find your Chrome license.

jerome

[Wild Willy]

People regularly believe that buying a license will correct a problem they are seeing on
a given web site.  This belief is false.  Click the link above at the end of my first
post, the one dated 2021/7/28.  Read what I have to say in that other thread.  That
should help you understand why getting a license is not going to make VDH suddenly
recognize videos it's not already recognizing, nor will it make VDH successfully download
videos it is failing to download without a license.  You need to report such problems
using the standard problem reporting format & pursue problem resolution the same when you
don't have a license as when you do have one.  VDH works without a license.  The
unlicensed VDH is the full function VDH.  Buying a license has a specific result, as I
describe in that other thread.  You don't have to buy a license to use VDH.  It will work
99.99% the same without a license as with.  I describe the 0.01% difference in the other
thread.  If you're having a problem, forget the thought that buying a license will do
anything for you.  Buying a license is something you should do.  Let me be clear about
that.  You should support Michel's work developing VDH.  But don't expect a problem
you're seeing to go away because you buy a license.

[Wild Willy]

Further to that thought, you should not get VDH when you've never used it before &
immediately buy a license.  Use VDH for a while & decide whether it works in your typical
use cases.  If it doesn't, just uninstall it & move on, no harm done, no need to ask for
a refund.  Once you decide it works for you, definitely buy a license.  As I've said many
times, including upthread here, I believe it's the thing to do to buy a license & support
Michel in his work here.  But don't get a license if you give it a test drive & it
doesn't work for you.

VDH for Chrome does not download from YouTube.  If you're going to be doing a lot of
YouTube downloads, don't use Chrome & do get VDH for Firefox or Edge.

VDH makes no claim to work on every web site.  The situation with multimedia hosting on
web sites is rather anarchic.  There is no international standard governing the way web
sites host videos, which are the primary focus of VDH.  In light of this, I have to say
it's pretty amazing that VDH does work on as many sites as it does.  But it would not be
surprising if you come across a site where VDH doesn't know what to do.  By all means,
report such cases here.  Just understand that it might be quite a long while before your
case is investigated, if ever.

VDH does not download DRM content.  To do so would be a violation of copyright laws.  It
would be illegal.  Don't expect VDH to work in such a situation.  One of the most common
types of site where VDH does not work is pay sites, especially educational sites.  The
fact that it is a pay site complicates the problem diagnosis process.  It is against
company policy for the VDH folks to temporarily use your paid user ID & password.  I, as
a non-employee of VDH, also will not do it.  So if you're having a problem with a paid
web site, you most likely will have to post screenshots of what you're doing because
nobody here will be able to try things to see if they can duplicate your results.

VDH is available for Firefox, Chrome, & Edge.  No other browsers are supported.  I've
seen people in here asking about Waterfox, Chromium-based browsers, and other things I've
never heard of.  VDH is not built & tested to work on those browsers.  Safari, Opera,
forget them.  It is possible that some fellow user has figured out a hack that makes VDH
work on an unsupported browser.  In that case, that user is your technical product
support,  Direct your support requests to that person.  The VDH folks won't help you.  By
all evidence, I believe Michel Gutierrez -- the guy who posts on here as MIG -- is VDH.
I believe he is the sole developer.  It's quite possible he does other things in his
professional life that take priority over VDH.  That's pure speculation on my part.  I
don't know if that's a fact.  We've got Jérôme (jcv...@gmail.com) who appears to be an
assistant to Michel.  His help here enables Michel to spend more of his time on VDH.
Jérôme comes on here & does his best to diagnose usage problems.  He also handles all
licensing issues.  But when it comes to diagnosing & correcting bugs, it's Michel by
himself.  So don't expect the kind of support you might get from a multinational
corporation listed on stock markets in New York, Tokyo, London, Toronto, Paris, & Sydney.
All things considered, you'll probably get more than adequate support here despite that.
Also, understand that these guys are in France, so take into account the difference in
time zones when you ask for help.

VDH licenses are available for browsers on Windows & Mac.  On Linux there is no license.
Michel has a soft spot in his heart for Linux & Linux users so he doesn't ask for a
license on that operating system.  He develops VDH on Linux so maybe that has something
to do with it.

[Wild Willy]

When you purchase a VDH license, you receive an E-mail from VDH.  Save this E-mail.  Let me repeat.

SAVE THE E-MAIL YOU GET FROM VDH

WHEN YOU PURCHASE A LICENSE!!!!!

This E-mail is an important document.  Treat it as such.

This E-mail contains your license number.  It also contains a link you can click to view your invoice on the VDH web site.  The URL looks like this:

https://www.downloadhelper.net/show-invoice?invoice=<number>&key=<number>

The numbers are sensitive information that should never be posted in public.  It takes you to a web page on the VDH web site that shows your license number, among several other things.  You should never post your invoice in public, either.

Unfortunately, if you did not save your registration E-mail, you will no longer have this URL & you will not be able to view your invoice on the VDH web site.  I wish there were a way for people to find their own invoice when they've lost it.  There is a way to retrieve your license number when you've lost it, which you can read about over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s

But that doesn't give you enough information to retrieve your invoice off the VDH web site.  The only way is to save your original registration E-mail containing the link to your invoice.  Or send an E-mail to Jérôme, as I mention above, asking him to send you the information.  When I bought my license, I clicked the link in my registration letter to my invoice, then I saved that web page on my computer, same as I saved the E-mail I got from VDH containing the link to that web page.  I repeat, these are important documents.  You need to treat them as such.  Make sure you don't lose them.

[Wild Willy]

You can find an explanation of some details of the process of purchasing a license over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/TZlnBqVICG0

[mjs]

This is what it does without a license

For downloading, YouTube ( ADP )  and Vimeo & other sites using Dash streaming adds a watermark to the video.

Simple mp4 videos and HLS videos = no watermark

Chrome & Edge though have a 2 hour limit for HLS downloads.

For Download and convert, convert local files and the aggregation tool all add a watermark with no license.

So buying a license won't add a watermark or have a 2 hour limit in Chrome & Edge.

[Jaymo]

Others answered your main question, I'd like to add that this option (VDH) is the best option to download video to your hard drive that I've found so far, have used many programs and still use others sometimes, but some of those programs are out of support and I have rarely used them lately, you will have trouble with some videos, perseverance and educating yourself on how to overcome problems is IMO the only way you will get most and some difficult videos to download successfully, sometimes I need to reset the extension (that option is in the settings page under the "More" tab) then reload the page for the video ... "mostly" then the video will download, somtimes rying again later works, learning the difference between the options for the video download displayed when clicking the extensions icon helps also, sometimes the HLS option is the only one that works IME, paying for it not only lifts the restrictions and watermark but also means the developer will keep at it.

I'd pay, helps us all, and use Firefox over any other browser, the license is browser specific and Chrome limits the extension, plus it has become a resource hog.

[Wild Willy]

Oh. I thought if you didn't have a license, everything got a watermark. Thanks for
correcting me, mjs. It's been so long since I did not have a license, I didn't really
know. So without a license some things get the watermark & some things don't. With a
license, nothing gets a watermark. Got it. Thanks again.

[Jaymo]

Use a gmail or something permanent like that for the licence, email addys that can disappear, email addys such as your web server hosted email or  work email is something to avoid, and add a star to it, I also uploaded the info to dropbox

[Wild Willy]

There's some relevant information about VDH & the Chromebook laptop over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/Y5RGSRZpKCk

[Wild Willy]

Some related information is over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/C_euTgmSj4A