problems downloading youtube clips?

[SneezeDoc4u]

Is anyone else having problems downloading youtube clips?

[hilsbilly]

Is anyone else having problems downloading youtube clips?

Yes. Me!

[heavyrocer]

Me also, it seems to impliy that it does not have the right format

[ilikesneezes2000]

Maybe it depends on what media converter you use? I haven't had a problem.

[pluto]

Here are a few notes on my experiences with YouTube. I use the Firefox extension DownloadHelper 4.7.4 with Firefox 3.5.9 under GNU/Linux. When viewing a YouTube page video (e.g., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<clipID>), you can invoke DownloadHelper from the Firefox menu via:

Tools > DownloadHelper > Media

In the past, this presented you with the following list of downloadable files from which to select:

<name of clip>

<name of clip>.flv

<name of clip>18

<name of clip>22

<name of clip>35

(I forget the exact format for the last three since it no longer does this.) Selecting either of the first two got you a low-resolution FLV file. The others (of which all, some, or none may be listed for a given clip) got you higher-resolution MPEG or FLV files. "18" and "22" were .mp4 files and "35" was the highest resolution in a .flv file.

Recently, the "18", "22", and "35" were replaced by "medium", "480p", and 720p" (not necessarily respectively), where "medium" was an .mp4 file, "480p" was an .flv file, and "720p" was either a .mp4 or .flv file (I forget which). The "720p" file was the biggest display format, as you would expect (and bigger in terms of display area than any previously available formats).

A few days ago, things changed again. Now the only options DownloadHelper presents are:

<name of clip>

<name of clip>.flv

Both of these appear to be .flv files, although I am pretty sure that some recent downloads were .mp4 files.

I don't know if the problem is that YouTube changed what files are accessible from the page (i.e., what DownloadHelper reads in order to build the list) or if YouTube changed something so that DownloadHelper no longer recognizes links to the other size/ format files. It is most aggravating if you cannot download files at all, but it is also aggravating if you cannot download files having the greatest resolution for viewing and archiving purposes.

I hate it when stuff that works all of a sudden gets broken.

[gryffin]

Recent versions of RealPlayer come with a web downloader utility. I use that, and it's been working fine so far.