Google has a solid amount of cash in its pockets, but with all the recent lawsuits against YouTube one has to wonder if it’s time to salvage whatever videos you like from the service and save them somewhere where evil attorneys won’t look – your hard drive.
Luckily, there are literally dozens of tools for downloading videos from YouTube and/or converting those YouTube videos to some format other than .flv. It’s hard to pick the best one, as they all have pluses and minuses. Thus, we’ve chosen 23 YouTube downloader tools we’ve found to be actually working. Here they are, categorized according to the platform they work on:
Web based
1. VideoDownloader is very similar to KeepVid, but supports even more video sharing sites, and it’s also available as a Firefox extension. Just like with KeepVid, all downloads are in .flv format. We recommend MediaCoder for free conversion.
www.javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
2. YouTubeX doesn’t have a lot of options, but it’s simple, and it works. It also enables you to share the YouTube video with your friends via e-mail. Unfortunately, all the files are called get_video, and you have to add the .flv extension manually.
www.youtubex.com
3. KeepVid is another simple site. No hassle, works not only for YouTube movies but for a number of other sites, including Google Video, MySpace Video, DailyMotion and others. Again, you have to add the .flv extension by hand.
www.keepvid.com
4. YouTube Downloads takes the cake in the longest domain name contest. It also separates itself by using a proxy for downloading videos, which means that you might be able to get videos even if YouTube access is blocked at your workplace or in the country you live. Just search Google for YouTube videos, and copy/paste the URL into YouTube Downloads.
www.downloadandsaveyoutubevideos.info
5. Zamzar is an online file format conversion site which can do a lot more than just converting YouTube videos to another format and downloading them to your hard drive, but it’s doing a great job so we had to include it here. Thoroughly tested by us and highly recommended. See the video of it in action here.
www.zamzar.com
6. YouTubia separates itself from the crowd by enabling you to search as well as download YouTube files. Options are scarce, but it works.
www.youtubia.com
7. VidGrab is another simple site that works with YouTube, Google Video, MySpace and Break.com. Besides the download function, the site also sports a top list of most viewed videos.
www.vidgrab.com
8. Vixy offers both downloading videos and converting them into DivX avi, mov, mp4, 3gp, or mp3 (for audio only) formats. The conversion works well enough, but sometimes results in slightly choppy playback.
www.vixy.net
9. Hey! Watch is an ambitious video encoding service with a large number of options, especially when it comes to converting videos to portable media player formats (it even supports my trusty iRiver H340.) Most online video converters often produce crappy results, with video and audio being out of sync, and this problem is also present on Hey! Watch, but it happens rarely.
www.heywatch.com
10. Media Converter can be a little slow, but the results of the video conversion are quite good. We’ve converted some YouTube videos to avi (mpeg4 + mp3) format and it worked well. The tool is not limited to video conversion; it also supports several audio and document formats.
www.mediaconverter.org
11. KcoolOnline is a web-based converter which supports 98 video sharing web sites, including YouTube. It has literally zero options, so it’s recommended for those who like to keep it simple.
www.kcoolonline.com
Windows Applications
12. VDownloader is a desktop application that catches YouTube, Google Video, and Grinvi video links from your clipboard. Start it up, copy the video URL and click download. It automatically converts the videos to mpeg or avi formats.
www.softpedia.com/progDownload/VDownloader-Download-51327.html
13. YouTube Grabber downloads files from Youtube in .flv format. Copy and paste the URL of a video from YouTube into the program, press «grab», and the file will be downloaded into the same directory as the program.
www.download.com/Youtube-Grabber/3000-2071_4-10574801.html
14. Orbit Downloader is a desktop application which can download videos from a wide variety of sites. The download process is very simple, just hover your mouse over the video and you’ll get a button that says «Get It». The developers of the program claim that it’s very fast (up to 500% faster, they say) due to its P2P download technology.
www.orbitdownloader.com
15. My Video Downloader. With all these free tools, it’s actually funny to see a commercial one. It’s called My Video Downloader, and while it does look solid and offers a lot of conversion options (a free trial which enables you to download 10 videos is available), we’re not sure it offers enough to warrant a price tag.
www.myvideodownloader.com
16. KeepV is a desktop downloader as well as a converter, which can convert the downloaded videos from flv to avi, mov, mp4, or 3gp formats.
www.keepv.com
17. VideoGet boasts being able to download video clips from more than 100 video sharing websites. We haven’t tested all of them, so we’re just going to take their word for it. It’s a deskop application with a nice, simple interface, and a solid number of options.
www.nuclear-coffee.com/php/products.php
18. TubeSucker is a desktop YouTube video downloader with some interesting options, including batch downloading large amounts of videos from a certain user. See the video tour on the site.
www.newrad.com/software/tubesucker/
OS X
19. Get Tube is an OS X application which lets you download video or audio files from YouTube, DailyMotion and Kewego.
www.web.mac.com/simonvrel/iWeb/software/v.1.0.html
Linux
20. Youtube-dl. Here’s some love for Linux users. Youtube-dl is a program that lets you download YouTube clips in flv format, which both mplayer and VLC can easily chew up.
www.nuxified.org/blog/download_youtube_video_files_with_youtube_dl
21. YouTube Ripper is not actually an application; it’s a simple script that rips all videos that match a keyword, uploaded by a specific YouTube user. We don’t really have ideas on what to use this for, but maybe you do! PHP port is also available.
www.nlindblad.org/2007/04/08/youtube-ripper-collectors-edition/
Plugins
22. Vidtaker is a Firefox-only plugin that can download videos from most streaming websites: Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, as well as a number of nasty adult SomethingTube spinoffs (Pornotube, YouPorn etc). It automatically converts the video to a DivX avi.
www.vidtaker.com
23. Ook? Video Ook! Yes, that’s the full name of this Firefox plugin, which enables you to download videos from YouTube and several other video sharing web sites. It features one click downloading and integration with the popular DownThemAll Firefox plugin.
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2584
13 comments:
TUBESUCKER WINS!!!
It simply does a lot more than all the rest.
http://www.newrad.com/software/tubesucker/
TubeSucker - YouTube Video Downloader is the most powerful YouTube Video Downloader and Media Player System on the planet. It includes a built-in Batch Converter to convert FLV files to MP4, AVI, MOV, MP3, or WAV format.
Tube Sucker lets you batch download 1000's of videos of your favorite artist from youtube.com.
Batch Download All videos for a given search. Click and go. TubeSucker will crawl through YouTube and retrieve all the videos for your search, one right after the other.
Download Videos of all your MP3's with one click. And then run it again for live in concert versions of your MP3's (or other type of music file).
Simultaneously Download up to 8 videos at a time for super fast downloading with just one instance of TubeSucker running.
Run multiple copies on your PC at the same time, each running different searches, giving you the ability to download 8, 16, 24, even 32 videos at a time.
Download Videos From ANY WebSite
Batch Download list of YouTube URL's
Ability to filter out search results and retrieve only videos that less than and/or greater than a given time length. For example, you can retrieve all videos less than 20 seconds long.
Send Voice Emails with your youtube links.
Includes an easy-to-use built-in media player that lets you watch videos, listen to music, and browse through pictures, and easily email the links or files to friends. Includes many cool and novel features.
The most simple and elegant download tool available is at Youtube Player. You can embed this on your blog or webpage. It is also available as Google gadget.
Here is a nice site where you can search, watch and download any YouTube video.
http://www.ilikeyoutube.com/
Enjoy.
It's really a good info especially for me. As I have been trying to master this craft since long and it helped me in that. Thank you very much.
Gee thanks man. That was very helpful.
But do you know where can i download hong kong drama? I need it..PM me if got..Thanks.
REGARD
http://varietiesinside.blogspot.com
http://treasuresurfers.com/?refid=6523
http://www.mylot.com/frankliew
Huh, I thought I was the only one who knew about these. *shifty eyes*
I didn't know that there were so many though. I'll have to check them out...
Great we have these many websites but the simple thing to so is install real player in your system and open youtube with IE and you will get an option to download the video. :)
Check out Fembolly.com
Enjoy!
That really helped me !
I could download some of my favourites now. Cheers
Here is the javascript algorithm to download Youtube Videos. Script to download.
Or Visit - http://youtubeplayer.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-download-youtube-videos-using.html.
Good post.
cool thanks. fav+
Learn to love mistakes
Thanks for this nice post.
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