Make: Online : Howto: Download Youtube and Google Videos

Howto: Download Youtube and Google Videos

Sometimes you want to save the videos that you watch on Youtube or Google Video. Perhaps you want to watch them later. Maybe you are hoping to transcode a video for playback on a mobile device. Or maybe you want to edit a clip into a podcast you are making. Problem is, you can only download a subset of the videos from Google and Youtube doesn't even have a download feature.

There are a few different ways to get at the FLV file that the video player application is downloading. Safari users can use the Window->Activities feature to locate and download flv files as they are playing, and Joshua Kinberg put together a couple nice Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox that make downloading pretty simple.

I was looking for an easy solution that works cross-browser, and this is what's working for me: 2 javascript URLs, based on the original code from Joshua's Greasemonkey scripts, that you can add to your bookmarks list.

Google Video Download Bookmark (right-click, copy address and save to bookmarks)
Download Google Video

Youtube Download Bookmark (right-click, copy address and save to bookmarks)
Download Youtube Video

Don't click on those URLs here. Just get them into your browser's bookmarks. The next time you are watching a video on Google Video or Youtube, you can click the appropriate bookmark and a window will pop up that will begin downloading the FLV! The Youtube file will be named "get_video" after it is downloaded. Just rename it and add a ".flv" extension and you should be in good shape.

Related:

VLC - Video Lan Client (plays flvs nicely and it's cross-platform)
Youtube and Google Video Greasemonkey scripts for Firefox

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: eL_sTiKo on February 8, 2007 at 2:36 PM

I heartily endorse the Ook! plugin for firefox.

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Posted by: Steve_999 on April 24, 2007 at 5:29 PM

There is also a very easy way to save Youtube movies as flash videos, "TubeSucker - YouTube Video Downloader" Its easy, simple to use and best of all its FREE. I have tried heaps of ddl scripts, html source downloaders and "viewer-dowloader" programs.... All of them have given me nothing but headaches, hard time and wasted energy . TUBESUCKER is the one and only still remaining on my computer. Try it im sure you'll be impressed. http://www.newrad.com/software/tubesucker/

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Posted by: thomas55 on May 28, 2007 at 2:07 PM

I use SaveTube to save youtube videos.

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Posted by: damianbaba on August 4, 2007 at 12:15 PM

I download youtube videos http://www.youtubex.com is fast and simple to save youtube videos

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Posted by: reilly456 on August 5, 2007 at 12:44 AM

Hope this helps...........

There is a even simpler, easier, yet more features program called zillatube - it downloads youtube videos in seconds and converts them to good quality windows videos format, and more. You can easily set the size and quality of the conversion.

If you want it, it's here -> http://www.zillatube.com

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Posted by: cur53se on August 7, 2007 at 2:26 AM

A nice online youtube downloader is here: www.dltube.eu

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Posted by: Andrew87 on September 26, 2007 at 11:28 AM

I use Get2pc.com with multi download

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Posted by: james48 on October 24, 2007 at 9:53 PM

here is a great site i found to download youtube videos the url is:
http://www.vidmetro.com

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Posted by: Jack.Teom on November 13, 2007 at 9:26 PM

I think E.M. Youtube video download tool is the best way to search,download,convert,repair and play any yotube video to PC,PSP,PDA,IPOD,iPhone,mobile phone,dvd/cd/vcd player,MP3/MP4,etc.
Get it from: http://www.effectmatrix.com/Youtube_video_download_tool/index.htm

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Posted by: alx55 on November 25, 2007 at 5:28 PM

I use http://www.down-tube.com , simple, fast and works well

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Posted by: seashell on January 27, 2008 at 10:26 PM

I think if you Install the videodownloader extension. (which is a free plug-in for Firefox)
it will be easy to captrue stream video from internet like google youtube myspace
please check this way out here
http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/free-download-youtube-video.html

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Posted by: tadass on January 30, 2008 at 10:59 AM

www.extractvideo.com - great site where you can search, view and download videos from YouTube, MetaCafe and Break.com

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Posted by: steveking on April 21, 2008 at 9:00 PM

YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert it to various formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune.

YouTube Robot allows you to search for videos using keywords or browse video by category, author, channel, language, tags, etc. When you find something noteworthy, you can preview the video right in YouTube Robot and then download it onto the hard disk drive. The speed, at which you will be downloading, is very high: up to 5 times faster than other software when you download a single file and up to 4 times faster when you download multiple files at a time.

Manual download is not the only option with YouTube Robot. You may as well schedule the download and conversion tasks to be executed automatically, even when you are not around. Downloading is followed by conversion to the format of your choice and uploading videos to a mobile device (if needed). For example, you can plug in iPod, select the video, go to bed, and when you wake up next morning, your iPod will be ready to play new YouTube videos.

Product page: www.youtuberobot.com
Direct download link: www.youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe
Company web-site: www.youtuberobot.com

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Posted by: Rob on May 23, 2008 at 9:58 AM

A new graphical tool has become available for Linux to download youtube videos. It allows you to store as: avi, mpeg, mp4, flv etc... It also allows the user to specify preferred directory for videos to be stored. e.g. You can set it for your IPOD's video directory for the next time you synchronize with your IPOD video player.

Check it here:

http://yourtubedownloader.awardspace.com/

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Posted by: jerry on May 24, 2008 at 4:44 AM

ExtractYouTube.com - free, fast and easy to use YouTube downloader

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Posted by: bd on June 5, 2008 at 5:25 AM

Video DownloadHelper is a free firefox extension. Just click on the icon when at your youtube video page, name the file(or leave default), and click to download. It treats the video as any other download so you can then move on and watch the video at a later time. I also use the open source VLC media player to view these, it works with every type of video format I've run into.

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Posted by: adrain on August 5, 2008 at 2:58 PM

well seems like every one here advertising their own sites not dealing with wat this great post has ,,thought abt downloading without a third party.

I tried it but though for some reason it did not happen ..no pop up button came up for downloadin the Evanescence song for I know who killed me...

can u plz help with these..
this is the url of the vidoe I am talking abt:
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ol3Vy3lAs_k&feature=related

if u can figure out the bug do lemme some how my mail or sumthing...wud love to use a simple javascirpt instead of another software to downlaod videos..

If i havent mentioned it earlier i use Mozilla firefox 2

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Posted by: urbanvoodoo on August 29, 2008 at 10:15 AM

If you're using linux, then you can use this

http://ninjavoodoo.blogspot.com/2008/08/downloading-youtube-videos-in-linux.html

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Posted by: download youtube video on September 19, 2008 at 2:32 PM

im using www.savevid.com.its very usefull tool.

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Posted by: thanksgiving on November 27, 2008 at 11:34 PM

I find another easier way to download Youtube videos and convert it to any format files you want, use Nidesoft YouTube video ocnverter. free download it here :
http://www.nidesoft.com/youtube-video-converter.html
and I have find the step by step guide in this forum:
http://www.zune-online.com/forum/zune-software-and-marketplace/how-to-get-videos-from-youtube-and-use-it-in-ipod-iphone-psp-mobile-phone-and-t1738.0.html

maybe this information is helpful to u

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Posted by: thanksgiving on November 27, 2008 at 11:34 PM

maybe this information is helpful to u

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Posted by: steadyboy on February 11, 2009 at 1:21 AM

Web video downloader and converter-RipTiger, indeed an easy way to download your preferred videos, movies, tv shows, and much more from other popular video sharing sites, like YouTube, Dailymotion, MetaCafe, Veoh, Grouper, Google Video, MySpace Video, and so on.
http://www.mp4kits.com/Product/webvideodownloader/

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