Save YouTube Videos
Image via CrunchBase
The amount of videos on YouTube is amazing. Entertainment, “how-to’s”, music – it’s all there, available to watch anytime over your Internet connection.
But at some point, you might want to save a YouTube video. Here is how I save YouTube Videos on my computer and move them to mobile devices.
Why would anyone want to save YouTube videos? Well, many Internet service providers are now providing caps on how much bandwidth you can view in a month. So if you watch some videos repeatedly, you might want to download them so they only take up bandwidth the first time. Or, if you have a slow Internet connection, you can download them once and then watch them much faster on your computer.
In my case, as a professional speaker, I sometimes show a YouTube video to a group I am speaking to. Downloading them makes sure I can still do my presentation even if I can’t get Internet where I am presenting. Or so I don’t get lag on the videos if the Internet is slow.
It is also to download YouTube videos to put them on mobile devices like my Android tablet. It does have WiFi, but saving the videos means I can view them without an Internet connection.
The tool I use to download YouTube videos is Download Helper, an free add-on for Firefox. With Download Helper installed, you will see the Download Helper logo next to the title of the video along with a menu you pull down to save your videos. You are given a range of formats you can save the video in including MP4 and .avi.
The free version will add a small watermark logo to the upper left corner. You can remove this by upgrading.
After you install Download Helper, you just go to your favorite YouTube video and click on pause. Change the video size to the highest available and then click on the Download Helper icon. 
I find this tool works excellently. Quick and simple to use, but with advanced controls over bitrate and frames per second if you want them.
Let me know how it works for you, or if you use a different tool, let me know.
