6.29.2006

YouTube-ery

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of YouTube. The quality of the movies suck. I can't stand that compressed crap, especially if it's of some hard-to-find animated short that I've been dying to see since, like, forever. I know, at least I am finally getting to see it, but still. Just wish there was something better for a video sharing site.

Another peeve I have of YouTube is that you can't download the videos to your desktop because they use Flash in their programming. Again, this is the animator speaking in me but if I want to look at said animated short, you're telling me that I have to go online each time I want to view it? No. Not for me. I need to study it, pick it apart, learn from it, and I want to do this on my own spare time. I can't do that with YouTube. Plus, how will I know that the person who put up the film will still have it up days, months, even years from now? I've already seen some YouTube links disappear, and that can be very frustrating for the one who wants to see something that is already rare and hard-to-find in the first place.

Welp, the tide is turning for me. I found out how to download videos off of YouTube and save them to my desktop. It wasn't easy, though. In fact, being a Mac user, it was downright frustrating for me to find a way to view the videos. Here's what I found:

1. When you find a movie on YouTube that you like, copy the url address of that page.
2. Go to KeepVid and paste the url address in the window near the top. Choose "YouTube" in the choices on the right (as you can see, there are many sites where you can choose from) and press "Select."
3. Just below, under the "Download" section, right-click on the download link (that's command-click for you Mac people).
4. The file will be titled "get_video" but you need to add ".flv" for the extension.

Okay, at this point you have your file, right? Well, in order to view it, you need an flv player. It's different between PC and Mac users, so here are the options for each:

For PC users, go HERE for the latest version of FLV Player, and you should be all set.

Mac users, it gets kinda odd. You have to go to this Japanese site and go over to that light blue boxed area and click on the link that is written in dark blue. Once you unstuff it, you have your FLV player (with a nifty icon image)! The great thing about this player is that you can scrub back and forth with no problem.

Okay, so the quality is still kinda crappy, but at least I can now be at peace with YouTube. Maybe I'll put up my two animated shorts someday. Ummm... nah. I'd rather make a DVD for ya. I hear DVD's have better quality.

11 comments:

  1. I've been similarly frustrated with YouTube's quality issues, so I've started posting my videos on blip.tv instead. They'll store your video in whatever original format you uploaded, and allow people to download that as well as a lower-quality Flash video version. Plus they don't put a bug in the corner of every frickin' video!

    I've only been using it for a few days, but so far, I love it. My only qualm is that the site is a lot harder to navigate. It's a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. But once you find your way around, it's way cool!

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  2. i understand youtube frustrations. i find that alot of times i try to watch a video and the audio doesn't match the speed of the visual. super annoying. also, i wanted to check something on it while using my own personal laptop at panera the other day and they had it blocked like it was a bad site. i thought that was odd.

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  3. You've expressed my thoughts exactly re YouTube. I find it hard to watch anything longer than a minute; I just don't have the patience for the bad visual quality and would rather not watch.
    Thankyou Cassidy for the link to blip.tv; it's a significant improvement. Maybe the number of films there will increase.

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  4. Do NOT put your animated shorts on YouTube! If you read their contract carefully, you retain your copyrights to the shorts, but they also have a license to sell your videos to whomever they want without reimbursing you.

    Keep your copyrights. Email me and I'll tell you how to upload your videos without giving away the cow.

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  5. Long time reader, first time poster.
    thanks for the YouTube tips...downloading the Family Dog for my sis-in-law and my number 1 hon (that'd be my wife).
    Now we can watch them at our leisure.

    Love the site. Glad your back from your break.

    DAK

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  6. If you use Firefox there's always the Videodownloader: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2390/

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  7. I'm a fan of YouTube, mainly for the rare wrestling stuff that pops up on that site. Good fun.

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  8. Actually, there's an easier way:

    If you're using a Mac, and Safari, open the "Activity" window. (Apple, Option A). The FLV will be the largest file shown. Double click it, and it'll start to download automatically. Once it's on the desktop, give it the FLV extension, and run it through iSquint. That little gem of a program will kick out any format you want, and retain all the quality.

    Once you're used to this process, it's really, really simple to bulk download from YouTube.

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  9. btw, Jodix has a free ipod video convertor that lets you convert your videos to mp3

    flash to mp4, It works great and is completely free.

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  10. as an alternative to keepvid.com you could use GetVideoOnline.com. It is a handy service to download video from YouTube.

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