It’s not difficult to grab a video from Youtube. It’s simplest, I think, in Safari. Just load the video’s page (completely), then choose “Activity” from the “Window” menu. There you’ll see a list of files that loaded to create that page. Select the largest one (that’s the video), copy it’s location, paste it into the address bar of your browser and the video will download to your computer. BUT – and it’s a big but – the file will be a .flv file. That’s a flash movie and it’s pretty useless for most of us.
Flv files can be converted to more usable file formats like .mov or .avi but that takes time and another program. You’re too lazy…I mean busy for that right?
You could try Podtube, which works for my friend Brody…when he needs to swipe someone else’s video, make a few strategic and highly sarcastic edits and repost it to his blog, generating thousands of hits. But, for me, and maybe for you, it won’t work so well. I even paid to upgrade from the demo to the full version and still can’t get a single video to download.
Never fear video rippers. Now there’s Vixy.net. In a few seconds you can rip video from a site (not just Youtube) in one of several formats you choose. And it’s easy. Just go to Vixy.net, paste in the url of the page containing the video you want, select the format you want the video in and Vixy.net does the ripping and converting for you…for free.
Got a better way? Please share it.
Paul J. says:
Well, free is pretty dang good.
I use TubeSock, which costs $15 and it works great. Here’s the link…
http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock/index.html
brody says:
4,662 views…. yeah I will be apologizing forever.
euphrony says:
Well, thats as handy as a pocket on a shirt. I just used it to grab a music video to put on my iPod.
Thanks for the tip.
euphrony says:
Wait, was that wrong? The artists put the video on YouTube themselves.
Sorry, you have sparked a moral dilemma in me.
Zach says:
Here’s my solution (for Windows). In Firefox, go to the mozilla addons page to download the DownloadHelper add on to the browser. Then, when you watch a youtube video (and others are supported) you can download the video from Tools -> DownloadHelper. This saves it to an flv file, so I downloaded this free converter from download.com. It works when you convert the files to .mov.
I like it and it works well for me, but it sounds like vixy.net will be worth checking out if it does all that for you, eh?
Chris says:
iSquint is one that has worked well for me. you can upgrade to visualhub for $, but if you just want to change .flv to .mov, the free one works great.
Fay says:
I use a program called TubeTV. It’s free but I think it may be Mac-only. Not sure.
euphrony says:
Never mind. Moral conundrum solved. I’ve tried six times to convert and download and it has crashed every time. Either it won’t connect, won’t convert, or won’t let me download.
euphrony says:
Dilemma back on. The KeepV converter that Zach recommended works fine when going to mov. If you try to go to mp4 you get video but no sound.
Shaun Groves says:
Yes, definitely don’t rip copywritten material but for me, well, I was ripping my own videos because I accidentally deleted the original. Doh!
Zach says:
Yeah, vixy didn’t run for me, said it was busy. It’s definitely a bit of moral dilemma, yes. But what else can you do?..
Sorry if I have caused you to stumble..
euphrony says:
Shaun,
I would actually consider it minor brilliance – the internet is your backup! It never goes down (totally) and it won’t get lost in a move, either.
I think a lot about the copyright problem of items offered on the internet by artists. Most of the time, of course, they opt to not allow downloads, presenting the reasonable expectation that the material will be for temporary use and not personal ownership (thus protecting the copyright by not putting the item in the public domain). For the review I did on my blog of Sara Groves’ upcoming album, they specifically asked that the song clips I used be streaming only, for this reason.
But, at the same time, this is only a restriction on a portion of the public (increasingly a minority as more tech-savvy add on programs and services like these arise). Like it or not, the material is still in the public forum, just as surely as if it were broadcast over airwaves; and just as people have long made tapes of music off the radio, there are a myriad of ways to record/save internet-presented data. Are the mix tapes illegal? My understanding is they are not. By the same token, this would seem to make music “recorded” off of streaming netcasts legal. But I’m not sure that current law reads this way.
Personally, I will err on the side of personal integrity and for the hard-working artists who made the music. But, at the same time I’m frustrated with the unreasonable demands for copyright protection that some artists claim inherent to the law, often treading on fair use of purchased materials. Like I said, for me it can be a conundrum as to what is legally and morally right (not always the same thing).
Zach says:
Yeah, I really don’t know ‘the rules’ when it comes to this, but I will actually be hearing from an attorney speaking on this issue next Monday, so I’m glad I’ll be more informed.
Kat says:
Shaun,
If you want to convert .flv to .mov or another format you can use Quicktime Pro (if you have it on your Mac – it costs $29).
You can also use RooVid which will allow you to convert it to a number of different formats and is a Universal Binary app. Oh, and it’s free.
I used to use podtube, but it hasn’t worked for me in months. Not sure what’s up with it.
Kat says:
FYI – the reason I mentioned RooVid (as opposed to Vixy.net) is that you can translate the .flv in to a wide variety of predefined formats, so if you wanted to make it fit a certain specification (other than the 4 listed on vixy.net) you don’t need to re-rip it.