| A couple of times a week, I like to browse through | | | | from their site. And if you convert the video to MP4 |
| YouTube and download a handful of the latest "must | | | | format, you can transfer it to your iPod as well. |
| see" clips onto my iPod to share with my wife (who | | | | Doing this appears to be in compliance with YouTube's |
| just doesn't have the patience to wade through all the | | | | Terms of Use, as long as you do not distribute the |
| skateboard tricks, playground fights, and "teen" diaries). | | | | videos to others, and you retain any copyright notices |
| It used to be a bit of a chore to download and convert | | | | on the files (see sections 2A and 4). |
| those videos, but over the past few months, a flood of | | | | There are two excellent free services that take |
| little helper applications have hit the Internet. | | | | YouTube videos, download them to your hard drive, |
| I've actually been meaning to get around to | | | | convert them to MP4 format and add them to iTunes. |
| recommending a few of the YouTube download | | | | For Windows users, try iTube, available here. Mac |
| programs here, but every time I sit down to start | | | | users should use PodTube, although it requires the use |
| writing I realize that as a Mac user, it's difficult for me | | | | of Safari. |
| to recommend a program for the majority of my | | | | If you just want to get access to the file and view it |
| readers, who are Windows users. Yesterday, | | | | directly (the VLC media player will play flash-format |
| Lifehacker recommended a website that not only | | | | video files) and/or convert it to another file format, you |
| downloads any YouTube Flash video file, but also | | | | can download any YouTube video using Oyoom, or |
| converts it into your choice of five different formats, | | | | try the Firefox extension called Video Downloader. |
| including iPod mp4. Vixi.net's FLV Online Converter is | | | | We've also written our own tool to download |
| amazingly simple to use, and works directly from your | | | | YouTube videos, available on this page, and it's also |
| browser. Just enter the URL of the video's webpage, | | | | embedded below. Just enter any YouTube video URL |
| select the format you want it converted to, and press | | | | and hit the "Get Video" button. |
| the start button. The download and conversion are | | | | Once you have the .flv video on your hard drive, view |
| surprisingly quick, and once it's finished Vixi | | | | it with VLC, or convert it to another format. For |
| automatically downloads it to your computer. Simple. | | | | Windows users, try Replay Converter. For Mac users |
| There is a ton of good content on YouTube, but | | | | we recommend iSquint. There are also a few online |
| copyright infringement claims and DMCA take-down | | | | file conversion services, but they are not as reliable as |
| notices mean that any given video can disappear at | | | | desktop software and you have to wait for both the |
| any time. Having a local copy of the video means you | | | | upload and the download. |
| won't lose access if YouTube removes the video | | | | |