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How-To: Download movie trailers from iTunes

Posted in AV, Howto, Revisited, Tech by Derek at 2:16 pm

Update 10/13: The script has been restored and is in working order. Enjoy your movie trailers!

Update 10/12: Apple has updated the backend of the iTunes Music Store. The script no longer functions properly. Stay tuned for an alternative option.

If you can’t read, and have difficulties following the two steps below, check out the short Wink Flash video.

As a follow up to the useful PHP script which allows you to download complete music videos from iTunes, this second script provides a download link for full movie trailers.

Step 1: Open the iTMS and navigate to ‘Movie Trailers’ in the left side column. Choose the trailer of your choice and click on the title. In the resulting window, right-click on the ‘Trailer’ link. Choose ‘Copy iTunes Music Store URL’.

Step 2: Go here and paste the URL into the ‘iTunes Trailer URL’ field and click ‘Submit’. [The URL that you copied from the iTunes Music Store should end in an index.xml. If it doesn't you didn't grab the right URL.] The resulting link is your full movie trailer download (.MOV format). Right-click and choose ‘Save Link As’. Make sure to rename your video appropriately.

If you’re looking for the tutorial on downloading complete music videos from iTunes read: How-To: Download music videos from iTunes. Also read: How-To: Download high resolution album art from iTunes.

35 Comments, Comment or Trackback

  1. Benjamin Morin

    Sweet. Thanks for hosting it, once again…

    Oct 10th, 2005

  2. blink

    Actually, this doesn’t seem to be working at all.

    Oct 12th, 2005

  3. Benjamin Morin

    Can you be more specific? It obviously works in the How-To video and I just tried it to make sure it hadn’t changed. Are you using an older version of iTunes? Are you using a storefront other than US? (Don’t test though routinely).

    Oct 12th, 2005

  4. Dan

    It does work - Using iTunes 6.0. Follow the video perfectly and you are fine.

    Oct 13th, 2005

  5. Tan The Man

    Doesn’t seem to work on macs…

    Oct 14th, 2005

  6. Derek

    Try again. It works. It doesn’t matter what OS you’re on. The script is handled online.

    Oct 14th, 2005

  7. david

    I think the script is broken again. Trying to get it to work but it only downloads like a 400byte file.

    Oct 15th, 2005

  8. pili

    no… it doesn’t work on macs :( tried to copy the iTunes URL, nothing ends with .xml

    Oct 15th, 2005

  9. Derek

    @david & @pili: I’ve tried the script with 4 different movie trailers and I was able to download the ’small’, ‘medium’, and ‘large’ .MOV files. The script is still working. (I tried it with iTunes 6).

    @pili: Make sure that you’re CTRL + clicking on the ‘Trailer’ link. Watch the Flash video tutorial to make sure you’re clicking on the appropriate link.

    Oct 15th, 2005

  10. Steve

    Yeah… IT still isint working… I have tried it will all of the movies even the CTRL +trailer link

    Oct 15th, 2005

  11. Derek

    I’m not sure what to say really… I’ve tried with every single trailer that I was able to click on and successfully received the download link for the .MOV file.

    Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the movie trailer sniffer page again. Maybe the old script is still being accessed by your browser?

    Oct 15th, 2005

  12. John

    every time it says “Error -2000: a neccessary data reference could not be resolved”

    Oct 21st, 2005

  13. sadman

    Same shit is saying on me “Error -2000: a neccessary data reference could not be resolvedâ€Â?… i can’t download it .. just watch it :(

    Oct 26th, 2005

  14. Michael

    I was having the same problem but found a solution. Do all of the suggested steps up to the last one (where you’re supposed to right-click on the link and save it to your computer). Instead of doing that, click on the link. The trailer should load in whatever browser you’re using (I’m using Safari). Let it load completely, then right-click on the trailer - NOT the white space around the trailer but the actual video image itself and choose “Save as Quicktime Movie…” That should work.

    Nov 1st, 2005

  15. Alfonso

    this works perfectly…i love it

    Nov 4th, 2005

  16. John

    for me to do that you have to buy quicktime 7…do u no any other way

    Nov 5th, 2005

  17. Cutty

    Everything seems to work EXCEPT downloading the movie. It downloads a 133byte .mov file. Any suggestions?

    Nov 6th, 2005

  18. npd89

    I have found a fix for this!!
    It works for me at least.

    1) Run the script and get the movie url.
    2) Copy the file name
    3) Now DELETE the part of the filename ” .i ” and after the numbers (480, 640, etc) add a ” w ”
    4) Now you must add the url to a file manager/downloader or make an html file with the link or something to download it.

    That’s it!

    EXAMPLE
    Wallace and Grommit large teaser trailer
    the url the script on this site gives is:

    http://movies.apple.com/405/us/media/trailers/dreamworks/wallace_and_gromit/wallace_and_gromit_h.i640.mov

    NOW CHANGE the end of the url to

    wallace_and_gromit_h640w.mov
    (note the very end, the h640w)

    so the full thing is:

    http://movies.apple.com/405/us/media/trailers/dreamworks/wallace_and_gromit/wallace_and_gromit_h640w.mov

    I think the original URL is like some kind of refering file for quicktime, like an asx file for windows media player, not

    sure though.

    Have fun!
    -npd89
    cnnej.ugtech.net

    Nov 9th, 2005

  19. pak

    i still couldnt get it to convert.. when i tried to save then play.. it says “error -2000: a necessary data referance could not be resolved”.. thats from quicktime. Please help.

    Nov 11th, 2005

  20. pak

    ok it works.. what i did was wait till the trailer finishes playing.. then right click to save as. thank you!

    Nov 11th, 2005

  21. laura

    it doesnt work for me… this thing of saving when its complete is only for quick time pro… and that one of changing the url doesnt work either… is there any way to get them with the regular quick time?

    Nov 14th, 2005

  22. npd89

    Update to above thing:
    Sorry, what I said before only works for some videos.
    To find out what you should change the name of the video file to, download the small (usually like 100 bytes) file, open it in notepad, and somewhere there should be another filename. Replace the last part of the url given to you with the name in the file.

    So, for example, for the Return of the King trailer, the url I get from the script is
    (the apple url)/movies/newline/returnoftheking/returnoftheking_480.mov

    And when I open THAT file in notepad, one of the other filenames listed is returnoftheking_m480.mov,
    so I change the other one to
    (the apple url)/movies/newline/returnoftheking/returnoftheking_m480.mov

    Then it should download correctly. I hope this works.

    Nov 14th, 2005

  23. koolJack

    npd89: thanks a lot man. it works gr8

    Nov 20th, 2005

  24. Varun

    I cant find the Itunes Trailer URL field for dowloading trailers. Can you be more specific ?

    Dec 17th, 2005

  25. Innocent

    What if I can just download the smallest version? :(
    I tried to copy the url and delete ‘.i’ and add it to speeddownload.
    It only works when I choose the small size.

    Jan 5th, 2006

  26. bg

    it works… only for large. Not on small or medium.

    use the script. change ‘large.xml’ in the URL to ‘index.xml’.

    then delete ‘.1′ and add a ‘w’ before .mov

    example:
    http://www.apple.com/moviesxml/s/universal/kingkong/trailer7/large.xml

    use script, take out ‘.1′ and add ‘w’ before .mov
    http://movies.apple.com/405/us/media/trailers/universal/king_kong/king_kong-tlr_h640w.mov

    Jan 17th, 2006

  27. Coca-Cola

    Thank you SO MUCH npd89:
    What you said is totally correct, all you have to do is open the link that the script gives you, with NOTEPAD, and there you cand find the correct name of the archive.
    Now you just have to change it in the link that the script gives.
    Believe it or not (as funny as it is), it WORKS!
    Thanks again npd89.

    Feb 7th, 2006

  28. tr

    Not working
    i use windows xp and tried everything
    npd89 your stuff doesnt make sense

    Feb 7th, 2006

  29. Anna

    Well, what I did (so far it works) is instead of adding a ‘w’ to the end, I didn’t. Hope this helps!

    May 14th, 2006

  30. nono

    http://movies.apple.com/movies/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/spider-man_3-tsr_h.i640.mov

    Jun 27th, 2006

  31. Anna

    hey, when i convert the url to where i can change it from .i to w, how do i change it?
    :( sry im not so smart with this stuff.

    Jul 5th, 2006

  32. Anna

    sry. forget about my comment before this.
    i was trying to get trailers onmy ipod, but i just found out that if you go on the apple website and click on the trailer you wish to view, it has a link labled ipod. and if you click on that, you will have to open a temp. internet file. or save it. whatever you want. and when it opens, you double click on the trailer. if you have itunes, it will start playing when you double click it, and will be part of your library. so now, you can have it on your ipod.

    here is the link to the apple site with the trailers…i just thought i might save you guys some work :)

    http://www.apple.com/trailers/

    Jul 9th, 2006

  33. Regal Shocker

    The notepad technique helps. Thanks!

    Jul 22nd, 2006

  34. tom

    thanks for the tip michael, you saved me! good karma for you.

    Mar 27th, 2008

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