Downloading a video from YouTube or similar sites is something that pops up as a question so often. You can always reach the video and watch it, but what if you need it off-line or at a place without an Internet connection? Or if you want to edit it? Then you use one of the video downloaders. My favourite being Media Converter.
Media Converter supports conversion and downloading of files up to 100MB. Larger files (up to 500MB) are available for premium members, check the site to see the details. List of formats and sites from which you can download is impressive. I won't bother you with those details.
How to do it? Despite the number of options, it's simple. You go to Media Converter's web-site or you use FireFox add-on. In the case of FireFox add-on, you invoke it from the right-click menu option "Convert this video" or by clicking the blue arrow-like icon near the browser's address bar. If you're using the web-site, you should enter the URL of the page that contains the video.
The next steps (four of them) are the same for both approaches. First, you should choose the output format. Nice thing about this tool is that it also converts formats, saving you from using another tool to do so if you need something specific. If you don't know which one you need, then it's safe to choose avi here. If you want just to rip the music from the video, then choose mp3. Click next…
Next window offers some options for converting the video. If you just want to download it, leave everything as it is ("no changes").
Third step requires nothing from you but patience. This step is where your video gets converted and processed, which can take a bit of time.
When you reach the fourth step, it's time to actually download the video to your hard drive. Click the big blue sign that says "Download now" and you'll be presented with regular FireFox download window. You know what to click there, right?
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Thanks for this! I use keepvid.com but it’s nice to have extra options. Keepvid.com saves the file as a flash (.flv) file which won’t play on Windows Media Player, but it’s playable on free players like the GOM player.
Comment by Quaintly Tuqiri — November 22, 2008 @ 9:12 pm
I use this simple (and free) method to download YouTube videos as MP4s – http://thewordfrombelow.blogspot.com/ for an off-line player I recommend VLC – http://www.videolan.org/
Comment by Haizo Baum — November 22, 2008 @ 10:37 pm
Thanks for sharing. I always have problems with playing flv unless I import it into flash project.
Comment by dandellion — November 23, 2008 @ 12:05 am
Or just type "youtube-dl -b <url>". The -b stands for "best" and fetches the MP4 version, if there is one. Youtube-dl is available here: http://www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl/ and it’s updated every once in a while, when youtube change their mode of obfuscation… ;-)
Comment by Torrid Luna — March 3, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
WOW, that’s an another useful one. Thanks.
Comment by dandellion — March 4, 2009 @ 11:48 am