Download YouTube & Google Video clips via bookmarklets

Save video clips from YouTube, Google Video and others hassle-free

In March 2006 a digg.com frontpage story promoted KeepVid.com, a web site targeted at helping people with downloading files from popular video publishing services such as Google Video or YouTube. The service instantly appealed to many video clip aficionados, but I considered visiting the Keepvid.com website for each and every video download uncomfortable and undesirable with regard to privacy. Hence I built my own scripts.

The All-In-One Video Bookmarklet

The all-in-one bookmarklet supports YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Myspace, Break.com, Putfile, Dailymotion, Sevenload, MyVideo.de and Clipfish.de. Bookmark the link below and access the bookmark when looking at videos on any of the supported websites. The bookmarklet will give you the download-link(s) for the video you were looking at.

Bookmark this link:

All-In-One Video Bookmarklet (2009-09-01, YouTube fixed)

Please notice: I am no longer updating the bookmarklet or scripts. As regards YouTube future problems that may arise may be fixed, provided I find the time. Support for all other video services is no longer maintained.

How does it work?

Have a look at the following video in order to see the bookmarklet in action:

(XviD video, 4,45MB)

The bookmarklet has been tested successfully with Seamonkey (1.1), Firefox (2.0.0.4) and Opera (9.01). It will not work with Internet Explorer due to IE's limitation of URL length (some of the old links will).

Greasemonkey-Script

Firefox users with the greasemonkey-extension installed may prefer to install this greasemonkey-script which will show a small notice-bar at the top of supported video clip pages when a video is found. If the bar is clicked upon, video download links are given on a small results page.

Install user script:

All-In-One Video Script

The script has been tested successfully with Firefox (2.0.0.4) and Greasemonkey (0.6.9) and with Opera (9.01).

Alternative Greasemonkey-Scripts

If you dislike the notice-bar of the All-In-One Greasemonkey script have a look at these unobtrusive alternative scripts for Google Video, YouTube and Sevenload:

Google Video Script (allows Windows users to directly download the AVI file)
YouTube Video Script (replaces "Share video" with "Save to File")
Sevenload Video Script (adds a Download button to Sevenload's video pages.)

The scripts have been tested successfully with Firefox (2.0.0.4) and Greasemonkey (0.6.9) and with Opera (9.01)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why not use Google Video's download links?

Google Video provides download links but depending on your operating system you may get varying content. When using "Download for Windows/Mac" users of Microsoft Windows will be offered the setup file for Google Video Player instead of an AVI video file. An option to "Manually download the video" provides the user with a GVP file.

Is GVP not just AVI with a different name?

No. GVP (Google Video Pointer) files are playlist files for Google Video Player. A GVP file can be opened in a texteditor and contains a link to the respective AVI file. Do not mistake GVP for GVI (Google Video files). GVI clips are AVI files with additional header information. They are usually composed of a video stream encoded in DivX alongside an MP3 audio stream, with AVI being the container format. Renaming GVI files to AVI can help with getting a video player to render the video.

I can't get the GVI/AVI files to play.

Google adds addtional header information to the AVI files (more precisely a list of type "goog"). Some video players (such as Media Player Classic or VLC media player) will ignore the extra information and play the files fine, others however (like Windows Media Player or Winamp) will fail. One can "fix" the AVI files by removing the "goog" list, which can easily be done with a hexeditor or several tools and scripts:

JLR Software Concepts, gVideoFIX (donationware)
kultiras.net, GVI2AVI (freeware, open source, requires .Net framework)
jra's thoughts, Google Video hacking (article about Google Video files with Perl script)
Naevius GVI Converter (commercial tool, price: $20, that is pretty expensive...)

How can I play Flash Video (FLV) files on Windows?

Combining current CVS builds of Media Player Classic with the latest daily builds of ffdshow provides thorough FLV support. While ffdshow is capable of rendering FLV1, the FLV splitter/decoder incorporated in the CVS builds of Media Player Classic adds support for On2's VP6 codec (Flash8).

The FLV splitter/decoder can also be downloaded as a standalone DirectShow filter (source filter + splitter + decoder) to be combined with Media Player Classic's official stable builds or other DirectShow video players including Windows Media Player.

Another full-fledged video player with native (yet limited) FLV support is VLC media player. Designated Flash Video players like FLVPlayer by Martijn de Visser or Riva FLV Player handle FLV files (FLV1 & On2 VP6) fine, but are otherwise limited in functionality.

How do I convert FLV files into other video formats?

Riva FLV Encoder and SUPER are two popular freeware applications capable of converting FLV video. Both are based on ffmpeg and therefore natively support FLV1 but lack support for On2's VP6 codec.

SUPER's capabilites can be extended by installing an FLV DirectShow filter with VP6 support. This will not only provide SUPER with VP6 functions but enhance all video applications that support DirectShow, which opens up endless opportunities such as loading VP6 encoded FLV files into popular open source applications like VirtualDub with the help of AviSynth.

How do I install the FLV DirectShow filter?

Download the packed binary file (build by "Celtic Druid")
Extract the filter file (flvsplitter.ax) from the archive
Copy the file to your "windows/system32" directory
From the Start menu choose "Run" and enter: regsvr32 flvsplitter.ax

If you intend to uninstall the filter at any time run regsvr32 -u flvsplitter.ax and remove the file.

What about Keepvid.com & Videodownloader.net?

Keepvid.com and Javimoya are server-based solutions while my scripts are client-based. Both concepts have pros and cons. Keepvid.com and Videodownloader.net also offer bookmarklets and Greasemonkey scripts, but those just refer to their webpage and will let them know about any video download done through them. None of my scripts involve third party interaction. It's all between you and the video publisher.

Where do the scripts load the images from?

The images are embedded in the source code of the scripts (encoded in Base64). Thus the images do not have to be loaded remotely and do not allow for tracking the use of the scripts. While embedding the images increases the size of the scripts, users I talked to prefered this over my former approach of removing all images by default and offering instructions on how to embedd custom images.

Are you aware of other people stealing your idea?

I am fine with other people providing similar bookmarklets or scripts. It doesn't require a genius to have the idea or to create the code and I appreciate variety. Choose the solution you like best.

Can you add support for my favourite video website?

Due to lack of time I currently have no intention of adding further websites to the list. Sorry.

I like the scripts. How can I thank you?

If you feel inclined to reciprocate you can link back to this page from your blog or homepage. If you want to be really nice you can send me a postcard (my personal favourite) or a small gift from your local area (see imprint for shipping address). You can also make a paypal donation at your discretion.

Thank you very much to everyone who has made a donation in whatever form or amount!
Special thanks to Joni Keller for sending a postcard.

Addendum: various links

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