Thursday, June 26, 2008

Save YouTube videos

First, you need a way to download and save the file to your hard drive. Second, because youtube videos are in "flash video" format, you typically need to convert the downloaded file into a common format, such as AVI or MP3.

There are several Web sites that allow folks to download YouTube videos. These include keepvid.com, savevideodownload.com, or savetube.com. These are all straightforward and simple to use, and best of all, free.

Converting the saved file is also fairly simple and there are a number of free programs available. We've used Pazera (www.pazera-software.com), Freez (www.smallvideosoft.com/flv-to-mp3), Prism (http://www.nbxsoft.com/flv-converter.php), all of which are free and straightforward to use. They all have optional settings for bitrate, framerat and size, but we've found that for most folks, the default settings provide the best combination of ease and quality.

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