“How can I download YouTube videos to my computer? I want to watch the YouTube videos when I’m not connected to the Internet.”
Even with things like in-flight WiFi for watching YouTube videos on an airplane, there are plenty of times when it would be great to take YouTube videos with you. There are several ways you can download YouTube videos, but I will walk you through how to download YouTube videos using my favorite method.
The video format used by YouTube is Flash FLV files, which works great in your browser, but doesn’t playback well when you download YouTube videos. In addition to downloading YouTube videos, you will also need a way to play them locally on your computer. For this reason, I dislike many of the free online YouTube video downloaders.
Instead, I prefer some free software you can install on your computer. Specifically, I like RealPlayer SP for both downloading and watching YouTube videos. RealPlayer is great for downloading videos from YouTube and other sites because it automatically detects the video in your browser, requiring you to click once in the browser window to download the video you want. You can keep doing other things while the video downloads. When your YouTube download is complete, RealPlayer will play it back.
The other key advantage of RealPlayer for downloading YouTube videos is the ability to convert YouTube videos for playback on your iPhone, iPad, and a number of other portable devices. Many alternative solutions for downloading YouTube videos lack this key feature. Instead of needing three separate solutions to download, watch, and convert, RealPlayer lets you do all three from the same interface.
Download RealPlayer SP to start downloading YouTube videos.
