Download and convert YouTube video online and offline

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VideoDownloader is the a service that allows to download online video from YouTube, Google Video, iFilm and MANY other into FLV files. Saved files can be easily converted into different video formats by the following online video converters (some of them allows to save and convert online video in one step instead of two).

Online tools

Vixy.net: allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube’s videos, etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. It is using a compressed domain transcoder technology. It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.

Flvix: Free online video converter. Converts and downloads videos from YouTube, Google Video or directly from .FLV file. It also allows to play it on your PC, Mobile, iPod, PSP and enjoy!

ConvertTube: Video converter and downloader.

Convert Tube service

Media-Convert: Media-Convert is 100% free. No software is needed, and you don’t have to register. To convert a file located on your computer: Check File mode, click Browse and choose the file, select input format (if autodetection fails) and output format, submit the form.

Zamzar: Not only video converter, it can convert document, images and audio files. Convert files up to 100 MB. Zamzar will send output files to your email.

FLV2MP3: Converts FLV to MP3. One click converter.

Vconvert: This website is very similar with ConvertTube.

Vconvert service

Offline tools

To convert FLV into another video format you can use MPlayer’s MEncoder: MEncoder is an all-purpose encoder that is part of MPlayer, a movie player which runs on many systems. It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. MEncoder is command-line based with limited GUI. It supports wide range of file formats as MPlayer, and it also enable format conversion to be done in x86, Unix, Linux, Red Hat, Mac OS X and other non-x86 system.

Example of command line MEncode syntax:

mencoder input.flv -ofps 15 -vf scale=300:-2 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4v2:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64 -o output.avi

ffmpeg is a command line tool to convert one video file format to another. It also supports grabbing and encoding in real time from a TV card. Ubuntu users can install it by command apt-get install ffmpeg.

Example of command converting FLV into MPG:

ffmpeg -i jokes.flv -ab 56 -ar 22050 -b 500 -s 320×240 jokes.mpg

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18 Responses to “Download and convert YouTube video online and offline”


  1. 1 Daniel

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article o.us poetry, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

  2. 2 lx

    a nice, simple python script that and converts to mpg from the commandline.
    Thank you, Crouse!
    ——–

    #!/bin/bash
    # by Crouse
    # Program name ytr = YouTube.com Ripper
    baseurl=”http://youtube.com/get_video.php?”
    mkdir -p ~/YouTube ;
    mkdir -p ~/YouTube/tmp ;
    cd ~/YouTube/tmp ;
    read -p “What is the youtube.com url you want to rip ? ” urltorip ;
    read -p “What would you like to name the video (no spaces in the name) ? ” nameofvideo ;
    wget ${urltorip} -O urlsource.txt ;
    grep “watch_fullscreen” urlsource.txt > url.info;
    videourl=`sed “s;.*\(video_id.\+\)&title.*;\1;” url.info`;
    fullurl=${baseurl}${videourl};
    echo ${fullurl};
    rm *;
    wget ${fullurl};
    mv * *.flv;
    echo “Now converting the file to mpeg … this can take awhile, please be patient” ;
    ffmpeg -i *.flv -ab 56 -ar 22050 -b 500 -s 320×240 ${nameofvideo}.mpg;
    mv *.mpg ../;
    rm -Rf ~/YouTube/tmp;
    exit

  3. 3 artiomix

    Thanks, lx! Nice BASH script :)

  4. 4 oliver

    Hi
    How do i use the script above what programming language is it in
    Thanks

  5. 5 artiomix

    Hi Oliver,

    To use this script you should create executable file by commands:

    touch /tmp/script.sh
    chmod +x /tmp/script.sh

    then edit this file with your favourite text editor:

    nano /tmp/script.sh

    and insert above mentioned code into it (see lx’s comment).
    Once it’s saved it’s time to start it by executing command:

    /tmp/script.sh

    Hope it helps!

  6. 6 Paul

    Thanks for the script!

  7. 7 Larry

    I was able to run script successfully…but could not located where the file saved to

  8. 8 Paul

    You should have a ‘You Tube’ folder within your home folder that was created when you ran the script.

  9. 9 Paul

    I had an issue with the audio when I used ffmpeg, but Kino converts these .flv files to mpeg just fine.

  10. 10 antonio ramirez

    Hi there, I have recently created an online tool to search among best video providers all at once. It has also an option where they can download the videos… your opinion would be highly appreciated.

    The site is http://www.antcut.com

  11. 11 Yannvolt

    Very helpful indeed. I have known vixy.net only and this article helped me find an array of other similar tools. Thanks.

  12. 12 OffismGof

    I am unable to understand this post. But well some points are useful for me.

  13. 13 mike

    Try Online Video Converter

    http://vids.eu.com

    Supports many sites and is easy to use!
    You can download directly the flv or convert it into:
    mp4, avi, mov, wmv, 3gp, aiff, mp3, wav, wma, ogg

  14. 14 Rafferty

    well said, finally a good report on this stuff

  15. 15 Johnathan

    Please, can you PM me and tell me few more thinks about this, I am really fan of your blog…gets solved properly asap.

  16. 16 How to Get Six Pack Fast

    After reading this article, I just feel that I need more information on the topic. Can you share some more resources ?

  17. 17 Scott

    Hey.. u ve a wonderful site out here…. i’m reading all ur posts…

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