Photo credit: ronen
We all watch videos online at sites such as YouTube, Google Video
and Metacafe. But how do you go about downloading those videos to your
computer?
Here is a short but useful guide of how to, detailing which sites
to use and some great hints and tips.
Video sharing sites are increasingly a resourceful destination
for entertainment, documentary, indie clips, music and a lot more.
The only drawback that video sharing sites have is that in
most cases there is no feature allowing the easy and immediate
downloading of your preferred clips so that you could actually watch
them even when not connected to the Internet.
But, unknown to many, there are indeed many easy ways to
download your favorite video clips without having to install any
particular software and independently of the operating system you are
using on your computer.
I am referring to web-based video downloading services that
not only let you download all the video clips you want but which also
convert the same video clips in any of the many video file formats that
you have a specific preference for.
In this mini-guide I am providing you with a short-list of
some of the most popular of such video downloading services.
If you wish to suggest other services for inclusion in this
mini-guide feel free to contribute as well by posting a comment at the
end of the article.
Here they are:
VideoDL
VideoDL is an Ajax application that allows you to download
online videos on your computer. VideoDL supports YouTube, Google Video
and Break.com.
In order to download the videos you like, you simply need to
copy the link of the page with video and paste it into the textbox.
Then, click “Get It!” and follow the instruction. After you have saved
the files into your hard drive, make sure the extension of the file is
.flv. VideoDL is free to use
Link: http://www.videodl.org/
Vixy
Vixy is a website that lets you download videos from popular
sites and allows you to convert the m into various video formats
(including iPod and PSP). You simply need to enter the URL of the video
and Vixy will do the rest.
This service is open source and developers interested in
making changes to it can freely download the source code. Vixy is
completely free to use.
Link: http://vixy.net/
KeepVid
KeepVid is a site that allows you to download videos from many
video sharing sites, including YouTube, Google Video, MySpace Video,
DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Revver and other popular sites.
Remember that once the video is downloaded on your computer,
you will have to add the .flv extension manually. KeepVid is free to
use.
Link: http://keepvid.com/
VideoDownloader
VideoDownloader is a site that supports a great list of video
sharing sites and more importantly, it’s also available as a
Firefox extension, allowing you to seamlessly integrate it within your
browser.
Like similar web services, all downloaded videos are in .flv
format; therefore, you will need to use a video converter in order to
watch the video (unless your video player doesn’t support
.flv). VideoDownloader is completely free to use.
Link: http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
YouTubeX
YouTubeX is a site that lets you download videos from YouTube.
It doesn’t have a lot of options in terms of video sites
among which you could choose, but in its simplicity it works fine.
It also enables you to share the YouTube video with your
friends via e-mail. All the downloaded files are called
“get_video”, and you will have to add the .flv
extension manually. YouTubeX is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.youtubex.com/
DownThisVideo
DownThisVideo is a website that lets you download videos from
YouTube, GoogleVideo, MetaCafe, Vimeo and other services. You simply
have to paste the link in the search box and the service will do all
the work for you.
Please note that AVI and MP4 formats are allowed for Google
Video only. DownThisVideo is free to use.
Link: http://downthisvideo.com/
KissYouTube
KissYouTube is a service that provides two interesting ways to
download videos from YouTube. The first is to go on the page where the
video is located and add the word “kiss” in front
of the youtube.com domain name; once you press Enter, the browser will
bring you to the KissYouTube site, where you will be able to download
the video.
Alternatively, you can simply go on the KissYouTube website,
enter the URL of the video and push “Get it”. The
video will be downloaded in .flv format. Free to use.
Link: http://www.kissyoutube.com/
YouTubeDownloads
YouTubeDownloads is an interesting service that lets you
download videos from YouTube (other sites are not supported). Once you
enter the link to the video you want to download, you will be able to
save it as a .flv file.
You will need to use a video player that supports this file
format in order to be able to watch it. YouTubeDownloads is completely
free to use.
Link: http://www.downloadandsaveyoutubevideos.info/
YouTubia
YouTubia.com is a YouTube clone that lets you download and
save YouTube videos within your IE or Firefox browser. YouTube videos
are downloaded in the new .flv (flash video) format, and you will need
a .flv Player to watch them.
You might have to rename the file extension of the downloaded
video file to be “.flv” before you can play it. Free to use.
Link: http://www.youtubia.com/
Kcoolonline
Kcoolonline is a site that lets you download videos on your
hard disk from more than 90 sites, including YouTube, Google Video,
Metacafe, iFilm and MySpace, Yahoo and many more.
Sometimes files come with name
“get_video”; on those occasions, you need to rename
it and add the .flv extension. Kcoolonline is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.kcoolonline.com/
Hey!Watch
Hey!Watch provides a simple way to download videos from video
sharing sites and encode. You can download videos from Google Video,
YouTube, Metacafé, Break, MySpace and many other video
sites. Videos can be encoded in iPod format, PSP, 3GP and other popular
formats.
The API of Hey!Watch can be easily integrated in any web or
desktop applications. The service is not free and 1 encode credit only
costs you $0.10 or 0.07€.
Link: http://heywatch.com/page/home
MediaConverter
MediaConverter is a platform that lets you download and
convert videos straight from YouTube. Among the supported file formats
there are .avi, .flv, .mov, 3GP and many others.
MediaConverter also enables you to upload your own videos and
convert them easily. MediaConverter is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.mediaconverter.org/
ZamZar
ZamZar works with almost all video sharing sites including: Youtube, Google Video, Myspace, Revver, PutFile, Break.com, Apple Trailers, Dailymotion, Metacafe, IFilm, Grouper and Blip.tv
File formats it can convert to include:
- 3gp – 3GPP Multimedia File
- aac – Advanced Audio Coding File
- ac3 – AC3 Audio File
- avi – Windows video file
- flac – Free Lossless Audio Codec
- gif – Graphic Interchange Format
- mov – Apple QuickTime Movie
- mp3 – Compressed audio file
- mp4 – MPEG-4 Video File
- mpg – Moving Picture Experts Group File
- ogg – Ogg Vorbis Compressed Audio File
- wav – Windows audio file
This is very simple to use but if you need a little point in the right direction then check out this ZamZar guide.
Livia Iacolare is a contributing author discussing broadband video tools and software. His work can be found on MasterNewMedia. Post has Some Rights Reserved.
