VidSave — One-Click Video Saver for Brave

Detects <video> elements on any page — even sites that don't offer a "Save video as…" option — and saves them into a subfolder of your Downloads folder with a single click and no save dialogs.

How it works

• A content script scans every page (including dynamically loaded content and iframes) for <video> elements and overlays a small ⬇ Save video button on top of each one, with a live progress bar/percentage.
• Clicking it:
  1. Tries to fetch the video's underlying file via a privileged background fetch (works for normal <video src="...mp4"> and most direct source URLs, bypassing page-level CORS restrictions that block a content script's own fetch).
  2. Falls back to an in-page fetch for blob: URLs.
  3. If both fail (e.g. fragmented MSE/streaming players that never expose a whole-file blob, or DRM-adjacent CORS locks), it records the video in real time via captureStream() + MediaRecorder, which works for anything the browser can already play.
  4. The resulting file streams to the background service worker, which saves it via chrome.downloads.download() — no "Save As" dialog, ever.
• Files land in Downloads/<subfolder>/, where <subfolder> defaults to VidSave and is configurable in Settings.

Install in Brave

1. Open brave://extensions.
2. Turn on Developer mode (top right).
3. Click Load unpacked and select this VidSave folder.
4. (Optional) Open Settings from the toolbar popup to change the subfolder name — it defaults to VidSave.
5. Visit any page with a video, hover over it, and click ⬇ Save video.

Changing the actual save location

chrome.downloads always saves relative to Brave's configured Downloads folder. To redirect everything (including VidSave's subfolder) to a different drive or directory, change Brave's base download location once at brave://settings/downloads — VidSave will follow whatever that's set to.

Notes & limitations

• DRM-protected video (Widevine, etc.) cannot be captured — this is a browser-level restriction, not something any extension can bypass.
• For sites that use adaptive streaming (HLS/DASH via MSE) without a fetchable source file, VidSave records the stream in real time, so saving takes as long as the video's actual playback (recording starts automatically and plays it if paused).
• Re-running a save on the same page names the file uniquely rather than overwriting (conflictAction: "uniquify").

File overview

File	Purpose
manifest.json	MV3 extension manifest
content.js / content.css	Video detection, save button overlay, progress bar
background.js	Service worker; background fetch, blob assembly, chrome.downloads save
options.html / options.js	Settings page for the Downloads subfolder name
popup.html / popup.js	Toolbar popup showing the current save location