Download YouTube Videos

How to Download YouTube Videos

It's true, YouTube doesn't make it easy to download a video from their site. But fortunately, there are many simple ways to download videos from YouTube, so you can view them offline, burn a video DVD, embed them in a presentation, or do your own video mixing.

• The free RealPlayer software can download from YouTube. You'll need Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or Vista for PC users. A Mac version is also available.
• KeepVid is a site that lets you enter in a url of the video, then right click and save the link as a FLV (flash video) file.
• YouTube Downloader works in the same way.
• Javimoya is another such site and, like Keepvid, saves in FLV format. In addition, it has an extension for Firefox users. The small icon can be added on the status bar or tool bar.

And then there are other applications for doing more than just the basics...

Savevid is a very handy tool that lets you download from YouTube, Google, Metacafe, Spike, and other sites in FLV, AVI, MOV, MPG or WMV formats. Copy the video's URL and paste it in their green box, click download, and when the link is made you click again to download, choosing the video format.

DVD Video Soft has a free application so that you can download to your iPhone.

Or try one of these one-click widgets and bookmarklets, if you use Google's Chrome browser. Drag the Google Chrome buttons to your Bookmark bar. Next time you are on the site, select your video of choice and download from YouTube as a FLV video file.

I should mention that there's one more way to capture videos downloaded from YouTube, but it's a little geeky. When you view a video on YouTube, a copy of the video is stored in your browser's cache. You can use the Windows file viewer (Windows Explorer) to open the cache folder, sort the files by the Last Accessed date, and look for a file labelled "FLV File" in the Type column. For Internet Explorer, the cache folder is "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files". (Substitute your Windows logon name for USERNAME in the folder name.) Firefox users, enter "about:cache" in the address bar, and the location of the Cache Directory will be displayed. Copy that FLV file to another folder, rename it to something that makes sense, and you're done.

How to View or Convert a FLV Video

What do you do with a FLV? You watch it on a FLV player, of course. A simple download is all that is needed. There are many out there that are free, like the Wimpy Player, which is now in Version 3.0 for both PC and Mac. Another one I suggest is the Applian Technologies FLV Player for Windows that comes with the addition of a handy freecorder toolbar for recording audio and saving them as MP3s or WAVs.

Saving and watching the acquired videos is a simple enough process. When prompted, save the file to your hard drive, in a folder that you can easily find. I keep my player and files on my desktop so that I don't have to constantly hunt for them. After downloading the video, in most players you only need to drag and drop the file to the player.

If you'd rather watch the downloaded video with a player or device you already have, you'll need to convert the FLV to some other format. FLV Soft has a freebie player that can not only convert files, you can play them back on your iPod, iPhone, cell phone, PSP, WMP, Xvid, or other MP3 player. And Zamzar is a very nifty site that allows online conversion from not only video files, but images and doc files as well. Use Zamzar to convert the FLV file to WMV for the Windows Media Player, or into MPG or AVI which can be more easily imported into video editing programs. No download needed, since it's a web-based service.

So go ahead, download videos from YouTube, and create your own private video stash of stupid pet tricks and comic relief. Just be aware that YouTube and some other video sites prohibit this activity in their terms of service. Have you downloaded video from YouTube? Post a comment below...