by Duncan Kelly

Created on: June 08, 2010

How to Download YouTube Videos And Store Them on Your Computer

When we find that really cool YouTube video and we want to save it on our computer, we find that it's not so simple. In fact impossible, unless you know how to do it. So this article will explain exactly how to download that YouTube video, save it on your hard drive and view it whenever you want to.

It's also nice to put the video onto a flash drive so that you can show your friends, or even load it onto your phone or iPod.

First of all, you need to download two fairly small programs and install them on your computer.

[ Links to these programs can be found on the home page of the website address at the end of this article, and they will take you direct to the download page of their websites. ]

These programs are totally free !

The first program you need is YouTube Downloader. Download this file, install it on your computer, and let it put a shortcut on your desktop, so that you can access it easily later. While on the download page, make this webpage a favourite, as you will need to download updates, because YouTube keep changing their system, which causes this program to not work properly. It's a very painless exercise though, so don't worry.

The second program that you will more than likely need is the FLV player. The videos that are downloaded from YouTube have this as their default format. Download this file, install it, and also let it put a shortcut on your desktop. You can always move the shortcut later if it gets in the way.

Once you have these two programs installed, go to your favourite YouTube web page, or search for you video on Google, and once you have the video displayed, and BEFORE you click on the "Play" icon, right click in the still picture of the video that you want. In the menu that pops up, click on "Save embed html." Then double click on the YouTube Downloader icon on your desktop to start the program. Then click once in the box under "Enter video URL" and the shortcut should appear in the box. If it doesn't, hold your Ctrl key and press V on your keyboard to paste the url into the box. (make sure the box is clear before you start.) Make sure that "Download video from YouTube" is selected, and then click "Ok" There will be about a 5 to 30 second delay, and then a box will pop up; click OK and then the download will start after asking you where to save the file.

Once the file is downloaded, you can right click it and select "Open with..." and then select the FLV player, or you can open the FLV player from your desktop and browse to the file that you downloaded by clicking on the "File.." button in the FLV player.

TIP: If the video does not want to play, you can try the following: Open the YouTube Downloader, select "Convert video" and then click the ellipsis [ ... ] button to browse for the file. Once you have it loaded, click on the play > button, and it should play in one of your other video players.

You will also notice that the YouTube Downloader has the abiltity to convert to various formats, which makes it quite a useful little program.

[ Link location : www.infoguru.co.za ]

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