Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Audio, Video, Photography Downloading youtube videos

I've been experiementing with downloading YouTube videos.

MacTubes 3.1.6 is a nice little program. It gives the option to download the video in flv, mp4, and hd. I assume that some kind of conversion is taking place given that YouTube videos are in flv (or is this incorrect?)

I know that mp4 takes up the most space. Do you see any advantage to using one format over the other (flv, mp4), e.g. video quality, audio quality?

Then there's playing the video. I can use MacTubes, Quicktime Player, or VLC. A lot of people think VLC is the best, but I'm not sure I see a difference in playback between the three, the exception being that Quicktime Player cannot play flv.

Any comments about ease of use, interface, quality, and so on?

If a movie file plays at all, there usually is little if any image quality difference between players, although certain options may or may not be available. The main difference is in whether or not a particular player can play certain movie files at all, and that depends entirely on the codecs available to the player. That's probably where your current QuickTime problem with Flash video lies.

QuickTime's default codec set doesn't include .flv, but you can add it (with a bunch of others) by installing the Perian System Prefs panel. While you're at it, you might also want to add Flip4Mac (scroll down to the 'Download Free Player' button), assuming a Tiger compatible version is still available (the web site will automatically determine that for you). Flip4Mac will give you Windows Media playback capability. Both Perian and Flip4Mac are free and known OK. Apple provides links to even more 3rd party codecs HERE. Once the installations are done, try dragging the .flv clip onto the QT icon.

As to what's best: personally, I still use QT with those extra codec sets installed, but I also have VLC. I start out with QT, which works well and is very stable, but occasionally (have to) resort to VLC. And that's mainly because my default iMac is getting long in the tooth, and VLC playback of certain movies may be smoother, albeit not always perfectly so. YMMV.

Why the big size difference in files (flv v. mp4)? What am I gaining or losing?

YouTube's native format used to be .flv (Flash video), but it's not any more. In late 2008, they changed over to .mp4/.m4v and H.264.

These videos are larger because they're higher quality. A .flv Flash file was created back when Flash was the best way to play video on the Web and most computers were running Pentium processors, so couldn't handle complex CODECs or large image sizes.

I'm getting nothing but unexpected quits with VLC. Doesn't work at all now. I'll try to download an earlier version.

MacTubes is doing ok, but it often drops the download and doesn't download the file completely. Frustrating

Yes, definitely consider an earlier version of VLC. If I recall, when I did the latest upgrade, the notes indicated that this version broke support for some earlier versions of OS X, and I see you are using 10.4.x.

Most FLV are drawn animations, not frames. Think vector images. It often takes much less space to store animation frames (draw some lines, do a flood fill. do a filled in circle, etc)

so some of those flash animations are fit in very small space.

I've been quite happy with MacTubes. The mp4 file is much bigger than an flv file. I don't know if there is a difference (better sound or picture?) but that's what I've been doing, and the file plays well in Quicktime player or the Mactube player.

One thing about VLC. Every time you start it, VLC gives this small window player to playback the file. I always have to enlarge the window or click on "double size" or something like that whenever I open a file or double click on one. With MacTubes I get a bigger window every time I start up unless the original itself is small, which is fairly rare. It's such a small thing to fix. I am surprised VLC does this.

The only problem I have encountered with MacTubes is a tendency to drop the connection if I try to do something else on the web while the file is downloading. Then it doesn't continue from a partial download. It downloads from the beginning (zero). These files are usually around the 15-20 MB, so it takes a while.

Also, there is no queue. I have to download one at a time manually, without being able to do anything else. This is really a hassle. I'd like it to be more like Speed Download, if you know what I mean. Queue, multiple files, multiple downloads, resume download, and so on.

I might even pay for a video version of Speed Download, given that I paid for Speed Download.