Downloading YouTube Videos

Gary North

I find great, ancient, and economically worthless videos on YouTube and other video sites. I especially like old TV appearances: brief performances. If they are musical, so much the better.

The problem is, these videos are copyrighted. When the copyright holder finds out that a video has been posted, he often contacts the site and demands that the video be removed. This is really stupid, but it's common. The site by law must remove it.

So, I save these YouTube files, just in case they get removed later, as has happened all too often. I can then view them anytime.

To view downloaded videos, you need a free FLV viewer. I have tried several. This is the one I like best.

http://www.flvplayer4free.com

When I downloaded it and then installed it onto my hard drive, I opened it. Then I right-clicked the screen. A lot of options popped up. I left-clicked this one: Make FLVPlayer4Free your default FLV player.

It is ready to play a downloaded video file.

Here's how I download video files.

1. I use cut & paste to extract the YouTube (or Google or whatever) URL from my browser's Address Box.

Here is an example: a duet by a very young Linda Ronstadt and a then merely chunky Hoyt Axton, "Lion in the Winter."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQAORUYe1U

2. I post this URL in the URL box on this site:

http://www.videodl.org
[Note: The URL ends in .org.]
3. I click Get It!
Under the URL box, a link pops up: download link.
4. I click it.
Up pops a pair of buttons: Save and Cancel.
5. I click Save.
6. A box pops up: File name. It has get_video in it. I change this to: Axton_Ronstadt.flv
[Note: you must insert the .flv extension.]
7. In the Save in box at the top of the screen, I change to My Documents.
This takes me to My Documents.
8. I then click a folder: Videos.
9. I then click Save. This saves the file in my Videos folder.

Now I am ready to view it. I click the link, and the FLV viewer automatically begins playing the video.

That's all there is to it.

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