4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net

  • June 27, 2008

  • By

YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.

So if you are a YouTube fan and would love to download some of the videos to your computer so that you may watch them again, without the need to visit the site again, then here are 4 quick ways to do that.

1. Add a ‘ Kiss ‘

Yes, you heard me right :) You just need to add the word ‘kiss’ to the YouTube video URL and then it directs you to a website where you can download it as a .flv video or convert it other formats as well.

Let’s take the most viewed video of all time – ‘ Evolution Of Dance ‘.

Its URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Now in order to download it, just replace it with this – http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg . Then when you press enter, you’re directed to the website where you can download it. (see the screenshot)

kiss-youtube

2. YouTubeLoader Firefox Plugin

The youtubeloader firefox plugin is a Greasemonkey script, which adds a Download MP4 link below the YouTube video (as seen in Firefox 3)

youtube-loader

Now, after you click on that Download MP4 link, it takes you to a separate page where it gives you more download options. From there, you can finally download it in the desired format.

youtube-loader2

3. YouTube Catcher

YouTube Catcher allows you to copy paste the YouTube video link and then download it. It also offers an FLV player to watch the videos on the PC.

youtubecatcher

4. Tube Leecher

Tube Leecher is a very simple, no-frills YouTube videos download site, which allows you to download the videos in flv format through the YouTube video link. It’s probably the simplest of all the tools mentioned.

tubeleecher

I’m sure there are many more such tools available. If you know about any other tool which you think is better than the above, then mention them in the comments!

Abhijeet Mukherjee is addicted to the internet and loves blogging and freelance writing. He blogs about tech tweaks, blogging tips, productivity hacks at Jeet Blog

Tagged: • • • • • • • •

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If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

  • carlgc

    http://www.vixy.net

    the only downside is that it adds a balck screen with the leyend vixy at the end of the video. but u can choose to download avi, mp4, mp3, 3gp

    • http://vidimonkey.uni.cc VidiMonkey Bulk Saving

      ahhh..you didn’t include us!

      VidiiMonkey http://www.vidimonkey.uni.cc lets you enter a whole list of videos (one per a line) and lets you save videos in bulk. You enter a huge list, and we’ll get the link to each and present it to you so you can download a whole bunch.

      You can do a whole bunch all at once, rather then putting them in one at a time. We support several hosts, but we still are working on it to fix a few and support more.

      • http://www.free-music-downloader.com/ Tom Jackson

        A smart tool for you to download free music/a>. Free Music Downloader is a professional and efficient tool to help you search and downloads free music, MP3 from online resources.Just type the keywords of music you want to download and click search, you will get thousands of related music and artist.

    • henry

      But I am now using Apowersoft YouTube Downloader which was recommend by james..
      I would like to recommend it too.
      Because you can download High Quality FLV videos from YouTube.
      Then You can crop and trim YouTube video, choose the output format as anything you want.,like MP4, AVI, MP3, AAC, VOB………
      Beside, There is a Built-in Media Player + FLV Converter + Video Converter

      That’s what I want to say.
      Enjoy your YouTube videos. and thanks for this nice article~

      • Rolf Gockel

        Ok, but, we need something free, and with free we mean if is software, we need a crack or a hack or a serial number included

    • useof

      recommend this free video downloader for mac tool

  • Sounf Of Vision

    I use http://www.vixy.net too. Just, sometimes gets overloaded, so you must try several times…And I like that it has option for more formats.

  • http://masontechbeat.blogspot.com Jimmy Rogers

    Nice list Abhijeet! I like the Kiss one.

  • Andrew

    i saw this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUxfXa0EruI) which gives a bookmarklet that you just click on while watching a video, and then a link appears on the youtube page and it downloads it in .mp4

  • emilia

    I prefer tubezoid.com .. easy to use and supports alot of video services… youtubecatcher seems not bad too

  • Dan

    1-There are lots of ways to “RE-DOWNLOAD” clips from Youtube etc, after you have watched them.
    2-There are even freeware applications that will do it.
    3-What woulld be more usefull is an app that will can easily copy it from the TEMPORARY files to PERMANENT STORAGE.

  • http://www.free-download-youtube.com James

    Download and Convert YouTube Videos , You need a Powerful YouTube Downloader:
    Which can make settings when you decided to convert it to other video formats.

    • henry

      Yea, that’s true,
      Thank you so much.

      really help me a lot~

      .
      .
      .
      .
      ..
      .

  • Atul

    I use this site http://www.keepvid.com. It can download from various popular video sites and it gives you 2 options viz. a low-res flv version or an high res mp4.

  • nostalgia

    I’ve been using YouTube Download & Convert by CubedLabs: http://www.cubedlabs.com/youtube_downloadconvert.php
    I don’t know how it compares in speed to the others, as I haven’t tried them out (yet), but I thought this was worth a mention as well. =) It’s really easy to use and does exactly what it says.

  • http://www.supersubconscious.com Jeffry Thurana

    Definitely not faster, but I think this method is far more powerful. Not only for YouTube but (almost) all multimedia files; even from inside membership sites that open in new window – which usually uncatchable.

    (Shameless self promotion :) )

  • Kevin

    I like to use a Firefox Add-on called Video DownloadHelper ( http://www.downloadhelper.net/ ). It’s good for downloading any media file that’s on a flash player.

  • Declan

    I use Zamzar.

  • monkey

    Safari has an Window -> Activity menu item built right in.

    Look for FLV (or WMV, or MOV, whatever) files under there.

    No plugin or third party site need apply.

    Woot! Go Apple.

    • gittenlucky

      Safari is the way to go!

      Another win for Apple.

  • Em

    http://keepvid.com !

    Lets you choose between High Quality download or streaming file. I’ve tried a lot of downloaders and this one is the best for me.

    It offers downloads for other sites as well.

    • http://keepvid.com! IGotTheVid

      This One really worked for me.
      Thanks

  • http://uronimo.com Mark

    Check this out… watch YouTube videos on any cell phone, uronimo.com

  • http://fulchiero.blogspot.com Frank Fulchiero
    • Rolf Gockel

      yes but, there is one thing you’re all missing here, most of the youtube videos can be watched in high quality in a .flv file, some of the videos have bellow a direct link to watch it in a high quality version, even higher than .mp4, http://www.keepvid.com allows you to download it in .flv high quality but only if the video has that option active, this means that bellow the video you’re watching appears as it follows: “watch in high quality”, if it don’t then you could download only on mp4 or .flv regular quality

      flv in high quality is a heavy file, like for example a video that I download it first was in .flv regular size 8 mb, in mp4 like 11 mb, but in flv high quality was like 26.5 mb and the quality looks amazing. but again, I most remind you all, only if the option is active bellow the video, if you don’t see the direct link, you will not be able to download it in high quality even if you use the high quality code that is &fmt=18.

  • http://www.sound-expert.pl vst

    #monkey – I wouldn’t spend 800 quid just for safari – it’s not argument.

    Thanks for that list – now I understand all. Is there any online tool that enable to download them movies as a *.mov or any “non flash” format ?

    Cheers.

  • http://torley.com Torley Lives

    There are many ways to do this — many variations on the same theme. One of the easiest and most elegant, monkey’s Safari mention notwithstanding, is the Firefox DownloadHelper add-on:

    » https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

    Quicker than the refresh-and-wait of many Web forms. And if you need conversion from FLV, there’s the slick, visually-driven http://idesktop.tv

    Both come highly recommended from me.

  • http://www.siriusxmnews.com SXN

    Or you can use the best FF plugin out there
    http://www.downloadhelper.net/

    Works on any Video site, Flash, Images and more. Try it out.

  • http://WWW.ZAMZAR.COM SINSIO

    I use keepvid and Zamzar for my video downloads. Keepvid has three video versions that it makes available for most vids: low and high quality flv files, and a mp4 version. Zamzar also has an option to download flv and mp4, but you can download the videos in many other versions such as MP3 (for audio only) and avi.

  • teachernz

    Downloadhelper addin for firefox. It’s quick and regularly updated.

  • Wayne

    To get the video file, I use youtube-dl (http://www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl/) which is a Python script. As for conversion, I use ffmpeg.
    Both are command line programs, just so you know :P

  • nighthunter

    I like to use Orbit Downloader. It adds a small transparent icon above the video windows. Just click it and it let’s you download the FLV file. Plus it’s got a secondary sniffing program, much like Safari’s activity menu, called Grab++ if for some reason you have trouble getting the file the regular way. Plus you can pause and resume, great if something interupts the download. Hasn’t failed me yet.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3EifK3pL48 anon

    Or you could just double click the file name in Safari’s activity monitor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3EifK3pL48

  • Phil

    Miro FTW!

  • http://www.1st-kohsamui.com Rose

    I never try to download any video from YouTube yet as I seem to have some problem, cannot view any video. Every time I click, it’s always show “Sorry this video is no longer available”. I am from Thailand, not sure if that’s will be the case. The same happened to my friend.

  • Jimmy Dean

    Wow, very informitive article. thanks for the ideas.

    JT
    http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

  • Jimmy Dean

    Wow, very informitive article. thanks for the ideas.

    JT
    http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

  • http://www.applian.com Replay Media Catcher

    Try Replay Media Catcher. It’s free for downloading YouTube videos, and unlike the other tools, it will also save them with the real name of the video, not some random sequence of characters. It even snags videos from sites that the tools mentioned in this article won’t grab.

    http://www.applian.com

  • http://www.catonmat.net Peteris Krumins

    Download with a Perl one-liner:


    perl -MWWW::Mechanize -e '$_ = shift; ($y, $i) = m#(http://www\.youtube\.com)/watch\?v=(.+)#; $m = WWW::Mechanize->new; ($t = $m->get("$y/v/$i")->request->uri) =~ s/.*&t=(.+)/$1/; $m->get("$y/get_video?video_id=$i&t=$t", ":content_file" => "$i.flv")'

    Read how this line was coined here:
    Downloading YouTube videos with a Perl one-liner

  • http://qtp.blogspot.com Sachin

    This is the only useful post I have seen in the last couple of months. Thanks.

  • http://www.toptentoptenlists.com/article/?c=Video Top Ten Youtube lists

    [...]YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.[...]

  • Steve

    You forgot DownloadHelper plugin for Firefox. It’s better than all the ones you mentioned.

  • Todd
  • Mike

    The newer versions of realplayer come with a program that can download flash-based vidoes off the web–a little pop-up window appears next to the video player asking if you want to download what you’re viewing. It usually works, I’ve used it a few times. It’s a good program as you already have to use realplayer to view most .rmvb video files anyways.

  • http://tooble.tv/ tooble
  • dave

    Mac users might also want to check out TubeSock from http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock/

    /dave

  • Smumdax

    You know… technically, every videos you see in YouTube is ALREADY downloaded into your computer. With IE, it’s in the “temporary internet files” folder, and I suppose most major browser have a similar folder… I simply go ther and take it out to some permanent folder of mine. It really ain’t that hard…

    But I rarely download any videos from YouTube because if I want to look at it again, I just go back to YouTube. So unless the video gets removed from the website, I don’t personnaly need to download it… The internet is one big happy virtual hard drive!

  • http://readerszone.com/ ajay

    JUST INSTALL REAL PLAYER IT WILL do all the task for you
    like downloading video files from any website

  • http://nuclear-coffee.com Nuclear Coffee

    Try VideoGet. It downloads from YouTube, GoogleVideo, MetaCafe, MySpase, Photobucket and other 500+ video websites.
    Full List of supported videos websites:
    http://nuclear-coffee.com/php/supported_services.php?id=VideoGet

    VideoGet also providing you with ability to convert each video in most popular formats for more comfortable video playback. VideoGet supports AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats, so you will be able not only to view it, but also put it into your iPod, mobile phone or any other portable device
    http://nuclear-coffee.com/php/products.php?id=VideoGet

  • http://piju.fakap.net/ piju

    on ubuntu,
    u can also save it manually.
    just copy Flash* from your /tmp/ to *.flv
    and use vlc to play it
    ;)

  • seashell

    Tks, and Here is another detailed guide which told two easy ways to download free video from youtube
    http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/free-download-youtube-video.html

  • Rob

    Try this website: http://www.flvresources.com/ . Works for quite a few sites.

  • John Smith

    is there a way to just download the audio, or a program that lets me extract the audio.

    • Kevin

      John, vixy.net should do the trick.

  • zaki

    download video from youtube redtube myspace google dailymotion metacafe ifilm break and all video sites on:

    http://downloadvideo.ch

  • Rolf Gockel

    I think the best for downloads is http://www.keepvid.com because it allows you tou choose different servers not only youtube.com, there is also an extra option in this website, we know by hand that you can watch most of the youtube videos in a higher quality, but not all the youtube.com videos have the high quality link but, when you find on the bottom of the video an option that says “watch in high quality” then copy the url and paste it on keepvid.com, you will see an option that says “download” in different formats as it follows:

    download as .flv
    download as .mp4 high quality
    download as .flv high quality

    just choose the last one, is a heavier file but with a very good quality and you can transform it into another video format by using Total Video Converter or Super Video Converter, you can find this two excellente converters on the web by doing a search on google.com

    Enjoy it

  • http://bambarduwittruth.com bambarduwittruth

    All you need is… Video Downloadhelper

    Plus sides: Speed: Requires no external website (which is akin to becoming slow and going down from time to time, Privacy: (duh!), the videos are downloaded from your cache.

    Downsides: None. Oh wait.. You have to have Firefox because it is a Firefox Extension! and who doesn’t use Firefox, so actually I take that back. The downside is non existent.

    :)

  • http://www.youtubeclipextractor.com youtube downloader

    try this addon to IE: http://www.youtubeclipextractor.com.
    Downloads from youtube and converts to avi, mp3,mp4

  • http://innovasitio.com/video NORMAN ABEL

    in
    http://innovasitio.com/video

    is another alternative for downloading videos
    youtube, it’s easy to search allows the database youtube, after clicking and ready to download

  • malinna

    Wow……

    BUt i think E.M. Youtube video download tool works better.

    u can download video from any browser, and download any flv video, mp4, high quality flv video.

    download from any websites like youtube, dailymotion,veoh,….. any video websites.

    then also convert to any format for any audio include mp3, wma,wav,ac3,mmf,amr,ogg,aac…, to any video formats include 3gp,avi,wmv, mpg,mpg4,asf,swf,h264,mov,jpg, that can be supported by PSP,iPod,iPhone,Apple TV video,iTune,mp3,mp4,Zune,Cellphone,Digital camera,DV,CD/DVD/VCD/SVCD.

  • Herman

    You can download youtube video from grabyoutube.com

  • Video Lover

    Here is a great site to download videos from youtube , simply search videos and click on download button to download (FLV link to download low quality videos and MP4 link to download High Quality Videos), no need to copy and paste video urls, a great, simple and easy tool for video down loaders.

    http://www.vidmaza.com

  • kris

    I have selected a bunch of videos in “playlists”: … Howcan I download all these ? Most of the tools I have seen so far allows me to know the video link, and cut and paste them to download … to do this for hundreds of video as in a playlist is a bit difficult and hence the query.

  • Bryan Fleming

    I use http://www.captureyoutube.net – I think it’s better than Kiss YouTube because it also converts the video into the format you need. No need for a Video Converter. Just thought some of the readers might want to know.

    - Bryan

  • http://deleted Bombastic

    Have you tried Videoraptor from Audials? http://audials.com
    Works quite nice

  • http://metatuber.com Adam

    I discovered another great YouTube video downloader MetaTuber.com

  • sdf
  • maccolar

    Nice guide, you can also use media-convert to download and convert youtube video for free, and here is a guide about how to use it
    http://www.mac-dvd.com/mac-guide/how-to-download-youtube-video-on-mac-for-free.html

  • http://www.kucus.com Youtube Downloader

    Just access the website http://www.kucus.com and input the Youtube RUL then click the “Submit” button to download.

  • Larsan

    don’t know how to download video from facebook.com, Youtube.com, etc., as convert video for iPod, iPhone and the phone?
    http://softtelecom.ru/en/mb.htm

  • http://www.programs-world.com Anas

    Hello guys i found this site that made my youtube video very famous lol

    my youtube video is:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otp8kvv2o7U

    155 Full Ratings – Views: 28,454

    This is the site that made my youtube videos famous:
    http://www.viewtube.ws/

    I hope this helps as it did help me so much :)

    Anas

  • Brown-Sound

    hey guys, i also found that http://www.keepvid.com is a great way to download off youtube
    check it out!

  • qaz

    there is another software can do this : E.M. Youtube Video Download Tool, Which helps you “Download, Convert, Burn, Search, Manage, Repair and Play YouTube videos Capture RTMP Video Streams.” and it’s very easy to use. If you’re a YouTube fan, you’ll love E.M. Youtube Video Download Tool!

    E.M. Youtube Video Download Tool Key Functions:
    1.Support download “&fmt=18″ video from YouTube on high
    qualityï¼›
    2.Open movie sites in URL list of movie multi-search by
    doubleclickingï¼›
    3.Update Total video player。

    here:
    http://www.effectmatrix.com/Youtube_video_download_tool/index.htm
    I hope this may help you.

  • Sarah

    KeepHD.com and Keepvid.com are my favs imo

  • sabnext

    How to download video from YouTube Easy?
    No How. You already have it! Just read this article “Video in Your Cache” at
    http://realwindfall.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-in-your-cache-or-how-to-download.html

    No software need. Free of charge!
    Relax and enjoy!
    By this way you may download ANY video from ANY video service!

  • Jemma

    Well, I used the “YouTubeLoder Firefox Plugin” and all the picture of the monkey apeared and everything. But then when I went to open a youtube video it goes to an screen that either says “Http/1.1 Internal Server Error” or “this page contains no data”. This has never happened before and I think it may have been the downloader since it happened straight after i downloaded it. Could someone please help me fix this.

  • Josef

    I think the best is http://www.vid2pc.com
    Fast and simple.

  • Santos26

    Yea. http://www.vid2pc.com is great.

  • http://getvideo.comxa.com Getvideo

    You can download youtube video at http://getvideo.comxa.com.
    It supports HD version.

  • VideoAmateur

    Hey. http://www.vid2pc.com is very coooooooool

  • DavidLi

    I’m using another software : Flash Video Capture , which can download these videos on any website.

    Here, you can download it from http://www.flashvideocapture.com

  • tom

    useful guide, i like…
    ************************
    Wondershare FLV converter – convert YouTube video to all the other vids format avi,mpeg\mpg,mov,wmv,mp4…

  • http://ansblog.com nitendra

    Hi thanks for your amazing tips. Its good , we can also download it you using real player 11.

  • jennifer

    just type ABC before youtube video link, and enter.
    like http://www.abcyoutube.com/watch?v=X3vB5XJnm5A
    download youtube video as mp3 and mp4 and flv…

  • http://www.youtubevdl.110mb.com rs.Rojer

    best and simple way to download youtube video is
    http://www.youtubevdl.110mb.com

    which provides live preview of the video you are going to download and offers multiple format to download video.

  • EricW

    http://soundtaxi.org offers different downloaders and converters – just choose one

  • http://www.idesktop.tv/ pixy

    Another awesome website for downloading YouTube videos is iDesktop.tv. It supports many formats and has a variety of other options for YouTube maniacs!

  • EricW

    Very useful! And her you can find some YouTube downloaders and converters yet http://soundtaxi.org/

  • frogger81

    The website and url copy paste systems are kind of a nag. Live Downloader is much easier to use and free, it automatically detects music and video while you surf the web.

  • http://www.icyvideo.com/ jacobtres
  • Salvio

    I like to use this 2 sites for convert video in youtube in many formats.

    http://www.freefileconvert.com and
    http://www.convertvideotoaudio.com

    They are fast and easy to use.

  • http://www.health4fitness.com health4fitness

    I just download with IDM…

  • ccc

    is it safe to download?

  • http://www.financial-methods.com financial methods

    what is the fastest for download?

  • Colonel Toe Punt

    http://www.kissyoutube.com is a malicious website. DO NOT USE IT.

  • http://www.vncoastal.com/ coastal travel tips

    really good one…
    but, who’s the best and fastest???

  • http://www.fyretr.com Health and Body Care

    thanks for sharing
    it’s very helpful for me

  • http://www.jeberhorloger.com/ Horloge Swiss

    thx, i’ve download it..