How to download online videos from any website!

Although downloading videos from youtube is a shady activity, sometimes youtube videos have great content that are useful in presentations and other videos. So, point in mind, here's how you can download youtube videos.

There are primarily two ways of downloading youtube videos or videos from any other such website like metacafe, google, iFilm and pretty much any website that has videos in the FLV format, not just youtube. 

The first is to use a website that'll provide a link to the video download and the second is to use an application or extension that was meant to download youtube videos. If you use a mac then you can also use Safari to download youtube videos. If you want to convert the videos into AVI, WMV or MP3 files then you might want to take a look at this post.

Method 1: Download videos from Youtube using online websites

Keepvid.com - A great site that allows you to download videos from any online video website.



Vixy.com - A service that not only downloads the videos but also changes the format to a much more widely accepted format like a .AVI file or a .WMV file and so on. This take a longer time though, and I much prefer downloading the video first and using this method to convert the files.

Method 2: Using applications and extensions to download the video

Magic's Video Downloader - a great extension for Firefox that allows you to download from all different kinds of online video sites, all without leaving the webpage.



Youtube Downloader - A nice little tool to help you download videos from Youtube, Google Video, MyspaceTV etc.



In order to view these videos though you will have to convert them into some other formats, unless you have something like VLC which can play .FLV files and VLC can also convert it into something else for you.