Download YouTube videos

Alexa writes:

I downloaded some videos from youtube and they are currently in flv format. I’d like to put them into a powerpoint, and I think I need to convert them to mpeg, or something. But I don’t know how to do that or what program to use.
Thanks!

I get asked this question all the time. YouTube is an amazing resource until you need to use one if its videos offline or in a presentation.

And that’s where vixy.net saves the day.

Vixy converts flash videos to a few different formats, including .avi and .mov. It’s super straight forward to use:

1. Copy the URL (web address) of the page where the original video is
2. Paste the URL into the appropriate field, pick a format, then hit start.
When Vixy is finished converting the file, it will allow you to download the video!
A few quick tips:
-I recommend using .avi if you’re a Windows user and .mov if you’re a Mac user.
-Don’t expect perfection; YouTube’s videos aren’t that high of quality to start with, and you will lose more quality when you convert the video to a downloadable form.
-This works with any flash site that uses streaming flash videos, like Daily Motion, MetaCafe, etc.
-Depending on the length of your video and how busy Vixy is, conversion and downloads may take a while.
-This won’t work if you copy the address of a page where the video is embedded. You have to go straight from the source!
-Vixy can get a little glitchy; if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

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3 Comments

Greg  on April 20th, 2008

Good call, Daryl! I didn’t even know that!

cflat  on June 28th, 2008

If you want to use your youtube videos in imovie 2008 you’ll want to convert it to a m4v. The best and fastest way is to use Mpeg streamclip (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html) I think it supports flv files as well.

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