A free, open-source video and audio downloader for Chrome — find and save media from any web page

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Media Grabber is a fast, lightweight video and audio downloader built as a dependency-free Chrome extension (Manifest V3). It automatically detects the real media source behind any web page so you can download video and audio in one click — even when the site has no download button. For adaptive HLS and DASH streams (.m3u8, .mpd), it generates a ready-to-run FFmpeg command to save them.

An open-source project by Matily — free, non-profit software for everyone.

If this project saves you time, please consider giving it a star. It takes one click, costs you nothing, and is the single best way to help other people discover it.

Demo

A quick run through detection, one-click download, and the built-in recorder:

Screenshots

Detect and download media from any page — the toolbar popup lists every audio/video source it finds, with one-click download.

Record tab audio, microphone, or both — a docked side panel with a live waveform, pause/resume, and WebM or WAV output.

Features

• Network detection. Watches response content types and catches media files (mp3, m4a, aac, ogg, wav, flac, mp4, webm, mov, and more).
• Page detection. Scans the DOM for <audio> and <video> elements, including the source that is actually playing.
• One-click downloads. Saves direct files through the browser's own download manager.
• Stream support. Detects HLS and DASH playlists (.m3u8, .mpd) and produces a copy-paste FFmpeg command to save them.
• Audio recorder. A docked side panel captures tab audio, microphone, or both mixed — ideal for streams that can't be saved directly (in-memory MediaSource / blob). Live waveform, pause/resume, preview before saving, and WebM (Opus) or WAV (lossless) output — both native, no dependencies.
• Per-tab badge. Shows how many media items were found on the current tab.
• Private by design. No accounts, no tracking, no external servers. Everything runs locally.

Capabilities and limits

Media type	Detect	Download
Direct files (mp3, mp4, webm, ...)	Yes	Yes, one click
HTML5 <audio> / <video> with a URL	Yes	Yes
HLS / DASH streams (m3u8, mpd)	Yes	Via the generated FFmpeg command
MSE blob streams (for example YouTube, ElevenLabs)	Element only	Use Record tab audio
DRM-protected media (Spotify, Netflix)	No	No, encrypted and not bypassed

Installation

This extension is unpacked (developer) and needs no build step.

1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions.
2. Enable Developer mode using the toggle in the top-right corner.
3. Click Load unpacked.
4. Select the project folder.
5. Pin Media Grabber from the extensions menu.

Usage

1. Open a page and start playing the audio or video.
2. Click the Media Grabber toolbar icon to see detected media.
3. Press Download for files, or Copy FFmpeg for streams and run the command:

   ffmpeg -i "STREAM_URL" -c copy "output.mp4"

4. Use the re-scan button if media loads late.

How it works

                 +------------------------+
  network ─────► |   background worker    |
  responses      |  (webRequest sniffer)  | ──┐
                 +------------------------+   │   per-tab,
                                              ├─► de-duplicated  ──► popup UI
                 +------------------------+   │   media list
  page DOM ────► |     content script     | ──┘
  <audio>/<video>|  (element scanner)     |
                 +------------------------+

• src/background.js observes webRequest responses and classifies them by content type.
• src/content.js scans the page for media elements and reports them.
• src/popup.js renders the combined list and triggers downloads.

Project structure

media-grabber/
├─ manifest.json          Extension manifest (Manifest V3)
├─ src/
│  ├─ background.js        Network sniffer and per-tab media store
│  ├─ content.js           DOM media scanner
│  ├─ popup.html           Toolbar UI
│  ├─ popup.css            Toolbar styles
│  ├─ popup.js             Toolbar logic
│  ├─ recorder.html        Recorder window UI
│  ├─ recorder.css         Recorder window styles
│  └─ recorder.js          Tab/mic capture, mixing, WebM/WAV encoding
├─ icons/                  Toolbar icons (16, 32, 48, 128)
└─ assets/                 Logo and brand assets

Responsible use

Use Media Grabber only for media you have the right to download, such as your own files, public-domain or Creative Commons content, or media you are licensed to keep. Respect the terms of service of the sites you visit and all applicable copyright law. The extension deliberately does not attempt to bypass DRM.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and open an issue or pull request. If you like the direction of the project, a star is a great way to show support.

Topics

chrome-extension · video-downloader · audio-downloader · media-downloader · hls-downloader · m3u8 · dash · ffmpeg · stream-downloader · manifest-v3 · javascript · open-source

License

Released under the MIT License. © Matily.

If Media Grabber is useful to you, consider starring the repository.