Most of us like to watch YouTube, right? (Hope so). And it's surprisingly simple and easy to download those YouTube videos. Do you want to know? Follow next three steps.
Step 1. Open YouTube
No need further explanation for this step. But only need to remember this: use Safari!
Step 2. Open Activity Window
To open activity window, you can use either keystrokes Command-Option-A or paths Safari: Window ▸ Activity.
Look at activity from YouTube.com and then search for the biggest file size which is obviously the video file. Found it already? Try to double-click it.
Step 3. Renaming to FLV
Soon you will realize that a file named get_video is downloaded. This is the YouTube video you want to download. Rename it to something.flv (you can replace something with anything).
Finally, you got the video file. Open it with FLV Player to watch the video.
24 COMMENTS (RSS)
macuser
May 31st, 2008 Time: 02:21 AM
Use this bookmarklet: javascript:if%20(document.getElementById('download-youtube-video')==null%20&&%20!!(document.location.href.match(/http:\/\/[a-zA-Z\.]*youtube\.com\/watch/)))%20{var%20yt_mp4_path='http://www.youtube.com/get_video?fmt=18&video_id='+swfArgs['video_id']+'&t='+swfArgs['t'];%20var%20div_embed=document.getElementById('watch-embed-div');div_embed.innerHTML=div_embed.innerHTML+'%3Cbr%20/%3E%20%3Cspan%20id=\'download-youtube-video\'%3E%3Ca%20href=\''+yt_mp4_path+'\'%3EDownload%20as%20MP4%3C/a%3E%20(right-click%20and%20select%20%3Ci%3ESave%20'+%20(navigator.appName=='Microsoft%20Internet%20Explorer'?'target':'link')%20+'%20as%3C/i%3E)%3C/span%3E';}void(0); Should be one line. A new link will appear to the left of the YouTube video, which lets you download the vid in mp4. Have a great weekend!
Richard
May 31st, 2008 Time: 05:50 AM
Awesome tip!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried doing this with Youtube Sock but it was only a demo. This is much better!
Andrew
May 31st, 2008 Time: 09:48 PM
You can also use an application called isquint. its free and only 5.5MB. all you do is drag the file download thats on your desktop or in a folder into the isquint window and there you go!
Evan
May 31st, 2008 Time: 11:16 PM
That's a great tip, thanks! Much easier than downloading YouTube videos on Windows.
kelly
June 1st, 2008 Time: 09:51 AM
wow cool!
Mark B
June 1st, 2008 Time: 03:37 PM
macuser: I don't understand how to use your script as a "bookmarklet" Can you give me a tep-by-step of what to do?
TiBo
June 1st, 2008 Time: 10:41 PM
This tip works for quite every multimedia content on any website : Dailymotion, Myspace for MP3s, etc...
macuser
June 2nd, 2008 Time: 04:30 PM
@ Mark B: Ooops, sorry, I was offline but now you have this: http://www.usingmac.com/2008/6/1/bookmarklets-for-mac-safari :-)
nomi
June 11th, 2008 Time: 05:38 PM
I tried to do this and it kept coming up with forbidden, in downloads and in speed download.... any suggestions?
Wendy
June 11th, 2008 Time: 08:40 PM
Most probably your access has been blocked by the source of the video. Is there any problem in download any other youtube videos?
If you really want to download that video, you can try the bookmarklet (simple javascript) suggested by macuser on the #1 comment above.
fdg
June 16th, 2008 Time: 01:00 AM
how do you change it to a .flv file
Wendy
June 16th, 2008 Time: 01:21 AM
Rename a file and put .flv extension, it will be converted :D
???
June 22nd, 2008 Time: 08:27 AM
When i click on the one i want it doesn't download it goes and refresh youtube on the video
steveking
July 10th, 2008 Time: 03:41 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: ww w.youtuberobot.com Direct download link: w ww.youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe web-site: ww w.youtuberobot.com E-mail: support@youtuberobot.com
Bi11
August 4th, 2008 Time: 12:23 AM
WinAVI FLV converter does better then youTubeRobot. The convert is much more faster.
^ () ^
August 16th, 2008 Time: 01:14 AM
Can you get safari to work on youtube without having to download anything?
leah
August 19th, 2008 Time: 09:41 AM
once you change it to .flv, what do you use to open it? i ried quicktime but that didnt work.
nita
August 22nd, 2008 Time: 01:00 PM
great tip! tried it out, works very well. Thank you
wft
August 31st, 2008 Time: 12:08 AM
try zamzar.com it takes a much longer time than the javascript but you can choose what format you want (also converts files so click on download video option) ;)
Heléne
September 5th, 2008 Time: 10:10 PM
AWESOME!!!!!
rafael reynoso
September 6th, 2008 Time: 09:23 PM
thanks! these tip was very useful....
download youtube video
September 20th, 2008 Time: 05:08 AM
nice article thanks.
karolr41
October 5th, 2008 Time: 12:19 AM
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! YOU SAVED MY DAY!!!! IS EASIER THAN DOWNLOADING THEM ON WINDOW!!!!! THANK YOU!!!
Patrick94FR
October 11th, 2008 Time: 08:12 PM
I use VLC to watch videos from youtube now! Simply drag severals url or link from safari into the vlc icon in the dock. Play it. Save your favorites videos in playlists! Another great app is MacTubes…
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