How to download YouTube videos, free YouTube downloader and converter
Preface
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by members of the public, although media organizations including CBS and the BBC offer some of their material via the site.Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users over the age of 18. The uploading of videos containing defamation, commercial advertisements, copyright violations, and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited by YouTube's terms of service.
Download YouTube Videos from Website or Free Grabber Software
taken from mashable.com by Stan Schroeder
Youtube video download tool and Youtube converter, it has the complete functions and easy to use to download YouTube video, archive Youtube video, and convert YouTube video to iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV, Zune, Pocket PC and a lot of other mobile devices.
We’ve chosen any YouTube downloader tools we’ve found to be actually working. Here they are, categorized according to the platform they work on:
From Website
1. Videodownloadx.com 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.
videodownloadx.com
2. 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.
javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
3. 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
4. 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.
www.zamzar.com
5. 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
6. 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
7. 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.
vixy.net
8. 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
9. 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
From Windows Applications
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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.
myvideodownloader.com
13. 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.
keepv.com
14. 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.
nuclear-coffee.com/php/products.php
15. 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/
From Mac OS X
16. Get Tube is an OS X application which lets you download video or audio files from YouTube, DailyMotion and Kewego.web.mac.com/simonvrel/iWeb/software/v.1.0.html
From Linux
17. 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
18. 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.
nlindblad.org/2007/04/08/youtube-ripper-collectors-edition/
From Browser Plugins
19. Vidtaker is a Firefox-only plugin that can download videos from most streaming websites: Google Video, YouTube, MySpace, etc. It automatically converts the video to a DivX avi.
www.vidtaker.com
20. 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
