Download YouTube Videos?

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

I want to download a few YouTube videos to give to someone who doesn't have a good internet connection at the moment. I've been looking at programs to download YouTube videos, but when I google them to see if they're "safe" and won't contain viruses or unleash a zillion pop-ups, I find complaints mentioning viruses and popups.

Could anyone suggest any safe, easy to use programs I could try? =/

[EvanED]

I'm sure I'd never violate YouTube's TOS like that. No siree. But if chose to, I might use this.

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

I'm sure I'd never violate YouTube's TOS like that. No siree. But if chose to, I might use this.

I tried to read through the "getting started" section, and it seems too involved to learn/set-up (considering my basic computer skills) since I just want to download two videos. Thank you anyway.


edit: I think I'm gonna give up on this. I've already looked at a bunch of programs and videos on how to do it, and haven't gotten anywhere. Just seems like a waste of time now.

[ameretrifle]

If you haven't, you might try searching for browser extensions. There are a number of extensions/plugins for the major browsers that support video downloads from various sites, which should give you some measure of assurance as to safety. Look for "plugins" or "addons" or something similar in your browser menu, search the official site, and there should be a number of user-reviewed options you can install with a click. I can't vouch for quality or anything, but, I kind of think being Youtube would impose a few restrictions on that inherently anyway.

I know this for totally legit reasons, of course.

(they actually were totally legit reasons)

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

Okay, I'll try that since that's totally different from what I was looking for on my own. Thank you.

The quality doesn't have to be perfect. Just have been waiting to show someone in Afghanistan two videos I thought he'd love for a while now and I didn't want to have to wait another seven months.

edit- Bleh. I seem to have some sort redirect virus now, so I can't look for plugins anyway. Guess trying to download the videos was a bad idea. Can a mod close this thread?

[poochyena]

http://www.any-video-converter.com/prod ... ideo_free/

lets you download videos and then convert the videos to any format you want!
been using it for over a year and its safe and easy!

your welcome =D

[Jorpho]

I have yet to be dissatisfied with the one and only Video DownloadHelper for Firefox. Almost nothing else is worth dealing with. (Tragically, there seems to be no equivalent for Chrome.)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... oadhelper/

One alternative are the various Cache view utilities from http://www.nirsoft.net , which will let you find the precise URL of an embedded video file and download it as you see fit. (In theory, it can be used to copy files out of the cache that have finished buffering completely, too, but I haven't had much luck with that.)

But the tricky things that cannot be downloaded with DownloadHelper and its ilk are those videos that stream directly off a website and are not stored in a browser cache. For these, Nirsoft offers WebVideoCap, which basically reconstructs the video from network packets. It does not support RTMP, however; I'm pretty sure there's some other utility that does – I just keep forgetting what it is.

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

poochyena: Worked. T__T <--- Tears of joy. Going to put the videos on a disc or flashdrive and send them to him in a care package. Might add more since it seemed so easy.

Jorpho: I tried to copy files out of my cache that had buffered a few days ago, but I ended up not being able to find the videos for some reason (even though I was following instructions from a how-to video--I'm technologically challenged, apparently). I'll try Video DownloadHelper if the videos converted from poochyena's program don't work out for some reason.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Sorry for being so childish and moody. Just having a bad few weeks and getting frustrated very easily lately.

[Jorpho]

Jorpho: I tried to copy files out of my cache that had buffered a few days ago, but I ended up not being able to find the videos for some reason (even though I was following instructions from a how-to video--I'm technologically challenged, apparently).

It's a lot easier with Internet Explorer, or at least it used to be. That's why I find those cache-viewing utilities to be so handy; it takes out a lot of the guesswork.

[Shivahn]

I think a lot of the browsers have changed recently? I know all of a sudden nothing's in my /tmp folder anymore.

[zed0]

The really easy way to do this is to go to the YouTube page and prepend "pwn" to the "youtube" in the url.
So if the url was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3R95VNL4Q
You would change it to:
http://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=0v3R95VNL4Q
This will take you to a page with various links to download the video.

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

Any-Video Converter worked well with one video, but it changed the sound (in a bad way) in the other, so I'll try some of the other suggestions in this thread. Thank you very much. So helpful. <3

@Shivahn: I'm not sure how old the The How-To video I was watching on getting videos from your cache was. Maybe, like you said, my browser changed and the video was obsolete.

[Jorpho]

Unfortunately these things tend to change very quickly. (It was only a couple of months ago that HTML5 videos started popping up, wasn't it?)

Pwnyoutube looks pretty cool now, but it's only a matter of time before it goes the same way as kickyoutube and kissyoutube (which both seem to redirect to saveyoutube now, which tries to make you download a creepy-looking Java applet).

[ajd007]

There's a really nice software called JDownloader that's normally used as a download manager for links from rapidshare, etc., but it also works on youtube videos. It can extract any quality that is available and can even extract just the audio (in mp3 format) if you want.

[Jorpho]

Speaking of "quality", I notice Video DownloadHelper often gives me a choice between a 720p .mp4 and a "Medium" .mp4. Which one is actually of better quality?

[Hofstadter'sLaw]

Unfortunately these things tend to change very quickly. (It was only a couple of months ago that HTML5 videos started popping up, wasn't it?)

Pwnyoutube looks pretty cool now, but it's only a matter of time before it goes the same way as kickyoutube and kissyoutube (which both seem to redirect to saveyoutube now, which tries to make you download a creepy-looking Java applet).

I looked at similar things before posting here, and kept reading that you were given the option of downloading some sort of tool bar, and even if you unselected it, it downloaded anyway. Unless I'm getting it mixed up with something else (I looked at a lot of different things, could be misremembering).

I think it was when I tried kickYouTube that I got the Google redirect virus.

[Dropzone]

Speaking of "quality", I notice Video DownloadHelper often gives me a choice between a 720p .mp4 and a "Medium" .mp4. Which one is actually of better quality?

Well, "Medium" seems to be 360p, so I think it's safe to say that "720p" is the higher quality one. I can't remember for sure, but I think maybe the "Medium" format was introduced for some reason related to mobile devices?

[EvanED]

I suspect "medium" stems from the time when the options were 240, 320, and 480p.

[poochyena]

Any-Video Converter worked well with one video, but it changed the sound (in a bad way) in the other, so I'll try some of the other suggestions in this thread. Thank you very much. So helpful. <3

really? hmm

anyways, theres this site http://keepvid.com/ its very good

This thread seems to have run its course, and it's a massive spam magnet, so I'm locking it. If you have anything you want to add to the thread, send me a PM and I'll unlock it. - phlip