Downloading YouTube Videos - Without Software

[mark.f]

This post will attempt to explain how to download a .FLV video off of YouTube. The video itself is not embedded in the video's page, but is linked to the page server-side. But, there is a simple way to obtain the .FLV video of the YouTube page you are watching.

First, go to the YouTube page. An example of the url of such a page is

Notice the sting in this URL, qY8c8iybpwA , this is the video ID. The actual embedded URL in the youtube page takes the form:


-or specifically-


Entering this URL into your address bar will redirect you to a very large YouTube player on a lone page. The redirect is done server side, and will redirect you to an address which looks a little like this:

http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?video_ ... pRdXsNb08W

Now, this URL contains the string you are looking for. Notice at the very end of this URL, the string is OEgsToPDskIU6iC8GFt0OIpRdXsNb08W . This is the ID used to get the .FLV video.

Simple enter it into the URL format below in your address bar to download the FLV video.

http://www.youtube.com/get_video.php?vi ... RECTSTRING

Where ID is the video ID found on the YouTube page, and REDIRECTSTRING is the STRING at the end of the redirected URL. To help illustrate this, here is the URL specific to our video page we've been working with:

http://www.youtube.com/get_video.php?vi ... pRdXsNb08W

Simply enter this into the address bar, and download the file. The file downloads as simple a file (with no file extension), but it is the FLV movie. Rename it to .FLV and you're set.

I hope this helps for those of you who like movie editing.

[Velocity]

Wow, this is really useful...thanks!

[Spuddin]

www.keepvid.com is really simple too. works on metacafe, dailymotion and a ton of other sites.

[CS]

Really nice guide. Great work!

I'd sticky it, but I don't know if it is very relevant.

BTW, nice signature buttons. Your on a roll!

[Darkside 6ix]

Just download Real Player and it does all that for you. As a matter of fact, it shows a button that says "download" for all internet videos.
Then after I download it, I use the Super video converter to convert the format to .mp4 for my PSP. Works like a charm

[mark.f]

All the software does is use a similar method to the one above to download or play the .FLV file. It all focuses around extrapolating the .FLV URL from YouTube, which the process for is outlined in the post.

I made this just for people who don't feel like downloading software to do it for them. I used to have Orbit downloader for YouTube videos, until it started acting up, then I looked around and came up with the method above.

There should be a similar method for finding the video file URL's on places like Metacafe etc., I'll just have to work on finding those later.

[MrCrowley]

Or you can use www.zamzar.com and convert the file to any format you want

They upload the file from YouTube then email you the file. Very reliable, i've downloaded over 150mb of videos in a little over an hour.

[psycix]

That awesome mark!
Ive always used programs and tools for me to do it but I always wondered how they did it.
Now I know how it works and how to get a clean download.

[SpudFarm]

thanks for the tip.

like game modding without a modmananger.. i like it

[Darkside 6ix]

You can also type in "kiss" before the whole URL\

For example
This is the video you want to download


To download it put the word "kiss" right before the "youtube"
So it would look like
http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=I0APr2Zo4oE

It should work and theres no software required unless you want to acually play the flash video files.

EDIT: Thats a really good song ^

[Spuddin]

i got this security certificate when i used the "kiss" method.

and i forgot to say if u want to convert the flv file into mp3 music only then use "Winff". its free and works great. u can convert multiple files "batch".