How to Download and Save Youtube Videos
from breadwithcircus.com
I’ve done a little digging around, finding out how to collect good internet videos and figuring out ways to show them to friends who don’t or can’t spend so much time online. I’ve found a couple of free tools that help to make some of the quality videos posted to sites like youtube and google video far more accessible.
My problem with youtube, google video, and the like, has been that in order to view the videos on these sites, you have to be online, loading the page, and hoping that the video you want to see hasn’t been taken down. It is inefficient to have to reload the page if you want to watch the video again later, and it can really cost you in time and bandwidth.
Here is a way that you can download these videos to your own computer, and even burn them to disk.
First, get the Firefox browser. The Firefox browser is available online, for free here. Firefox works just like Internet Explorer, though I have found it to be more user friendly, and less vulnerable to spyware and viruses. After you have downloaded Firefox, open it up and look under “Tools.” Choose “AddOns.” A window will pop up, at the bottom of which is a link that says “Get Extensions.” Click that and a web page listing available extensions will open. There is a search bar at the top of the page. Type “Video Download Helper” into the search bar. The first result should be the “Video Download Helper” program. Click the link and install it. You will be prompted to restart the browser. Do so and go to your favourite online video site and start playing a video. You’ll notice a new button on the toolbar that lights up when a video is available for download. There is a little arrow on the right side of this button. If you click it, a menu listing the files available for download will open. If you choose one of these files, you can download it to your computer and save it on your hard-drive. It will save as an “FLV” file. Note that you have to start playing the video that you want to download in order to activate the Download Helper Program.
Now you’ll need a player to watch the FLV file, or a converter to change the FLV file into something else.
Click Here to get to a page where you can download the FLV player. Once you have installed this file, you can watch the videos that you have downloaded. If you want something more useful than an FLV file, you can get a program that will convert the FLV files to AVI or MPEG files. These formats are much more useful than the FLV’s, especially if you want to burn the videos to disk.
Click Here to get to a page where you can download a program that will convert the FLV files. Once you have converted them to MPEG or AVI format, you can burn them to disk, make dvd’s and distribute the videos yourself. I have passed lots of good documentaries on to people who might never have seen them otherwise. The less internet-savvy among us might never see an online streaming video, but would happily watch a dvd.
This is a good time to start archiving important material. Watch the video below to see why.
Big Media Working to Shut Down Internet Access
Click Here to watch – youtube video
The Internet is at risk of being taken over by giant media corporations.
The six big media companies are working to seize control of the internet.
They want to control content, just as they’ve done with tv radio, and newspapers.