Quickly Download Videos From YouTube and Convert Them for iPod for Free
For many people, the internet equals YouTube. The range and quantity of video posted daily to YouTube allows the majority of people to find something that will entertain them, and hardcore users revel in the endlessness of viewing options. With the iPhone and iPod Touch’s amazing screen, as well as the built in YouTube player, viewing YouTube videos on the go has become common place. Here is a way to download and convert YouTube videos for your iPod so that you can view them even if you aren’t connected to the internet.
First off, have a YouTube video playing and open up Safari’s Activity window (to open the Activity window, look under Safari’s Window menu or press Cmd + Opt + A). If you have multiple tabs open, find the tab with your YouTube video and expand it by clicking on the grey triangle beside its name. You’ll see a bunch of strangely named elements, but just find the largest file loading in the page by looking under the status column:
Once you’ve found the file (look to the image above for an example) double click it to begin downloading. A nondescript file will download to your downloads folder called ‘get_video.’ This is a Flash version of the video you were watching (if you want to test this, add the extension ‘.flv’ to the video’s title and open it in VLC Media Player, which plays Flash files natively). By default, iTunes (and therefore your iPod) can’t handle Flash videos, so you’ll have to convert the get_video file to an mp4.
The easiest way to convert Flash video (and many other kinds, too) is by using Techspansion’s free iSquint utility. Rename the ‘get_video’ file to something more memorable and then drag it onto iSquint. Select ‘Convert to iPod’ and check the ‘Add to iTunes’ check box. With your video in the queue, hit ‘Start’ and iSquint will convert your video and add it to your iTunes Movies folder. At this point, I like to change some of the meta information – adding song title and album name if it’s a music video – but it’s not necessary. Drag your video onto your iPod then next time you sync it and you’ll have your YouTube video ready to watch on the go.
