by GJ

Created on: March 08, 2009

Having just mastered the art myself, I will share with you the methods and secrets of downloading Youtube videos. I have made a youtube video which you may find helpful, entitle 'How to make an Abridged Movie', by gems106, (see the bottom of this page to find a link) which offers a step to step guide with screen shots if you find some of these instructions hard to carry out. So, here is a quick guide on how to download them:

1) Find the Youtube video that you wish to download, whether it's a music video or part of a film, and copy to URL of the video, (for those of you who don't know, this is the web address for the video which you can find at the top of your browser screen, or next to the video there is a small section labelled URL).

2) Open a new internet page. Go to the website www.downloadyoutubevideos.com (or Google search DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE VIDEOS).

3) On the page, there will be a box in which you will be able to paste the URL of your selected Youtube video. Do this, and click 'Download'.

4) You should download the video as an FLV file (which is a video format). Make sure you download it to a place where you will remember to find it.

5) OK, now you've got your video saved somewhere on your computer, you will want to watch it! However, in order to do this, you will have to convert the video. THE NEXT FEW STEPS ARE ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO PLAN TO EDIT THE VIDEO, OR DO NOT HAVE AN FLV PLAYER ON THEIR COMPUTER.

5) Now, if you don't already have a video converter, you must download one from the internet. I will recommend that you choose the 'Any Video Converter' which you can find on Google, having searched it. You don't have to pay for converting programmes, a lot of them are free and just as good.

6) Assuming you are comfortable downloading things, (if not you may want to look up 'How to download programmes' on the internet), you should have been able to download a video editing programme.

7) >IF YOU ONLY WANT TO WATCH THE VIDEO: Make sure you convert your video to a format which can be played on your computer. (WMV is most likely to be able to played on your computer, as long as you have a PC instead of a Mac, in which case you may have to download it to a different format.

8)> IF YOU WANT TO EDIT OR INCORPORATE VIDEOS INTO YOUR OWN CREATIONS USING VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE: Take a look at your video editing software package, and see what sort of formats it will take. Your software will most probably accept WMV formats, again assuming you have a PC.

9) Once you have selected the format, the conversion could take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, depending on the file size. Save it, again, to somewhere you will definately find it.

10) You should now be able to use the videos in any way you wish. I usually use clips from Youtube to make my own music videos, or to put on my iPod. You can even download films from Youtube and convert them to DVD files, so the sky is the limit, really.

Hope you have fun downloading and playing with your new Youtube Videos. Happy Youtubing!

Click here find the link to my Youtube video which could also help.

Learn more about this author, GJ.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.