YouTube Video Tricks

Posted by Greg Laden on November 16, 2008
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I. Find only higher quality videos when you do your searches. First, search for the key terms in a regular google search. Then, add this phrase to the end of the search query:

site:youtube.com “watch in normal quality watch in high quality”

II. Select the “watch in high res” option and copy the URL from the little URL box to the right of the video.

III. Get yourself over to Kepvid, enter the URL and pick the appropriate option to download or convert the video. Note that there will probably be an obnoxious advertizement that will try to trick you into clicking it to download the video. Don’t be fooled. Find the download link that is not inside the sponsored ad. If you want the high quality video, pick “mp4 – high quality” and save the file to your hard drive.

IV. Convert the video to any other format that works for you, depending on what you are doing to do with it.

V. Tweak the quality of the video when you decide to embed it somewhere else, by following these instructions.

See THIS for more info on steps I, II and III.

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Comments

  1. #1 The Science Pundit
    November 16, 2008

    I use the “DownloadHelper” plug-in for Firefox. When I want to download a YouTube video, the drop down menu gives me the option to download either the normal quality or the high quality version (assuming a high quality version is available).

  2. #2 Aerik
    November 16, 2008

    OR…

    You can go to youtube.com/account then click “playback setup” and click the one about having a fast connection and always lay hi quality when available.

    Saves time and dignity.

  3. #3 Aerik
    November 16, 2008

    Oh also, you could also use the extension Unplug. It can query both keepvid.com and javimoya.com (which authored videodownloader) simultaneously while also using it’s own method.

    But personally I like using adblock plus. When on a youtube page, right-click the statusbar icon and open the “open blockable items” frame. Query “object subrequest” and any .flv file being played by a flash player is detected, as well as other things. On youtube just query “get_” and the file being played will instantly come up.

  4. #4 Notagod
    November 16, 2008

    youtube-dl works. New version has high-quality support.

  5. #5 386sx
    November 17, 2008

    http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=XXXXXX&t=XXXXXX

    Go to a youtube video. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

    Take the part after ?v= and replace the first XXXXXX with that. http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=zlfKdbWwruY&t=XXXXXX

    View the source of the video and search for this (including the quotes): “t”:

    Take the string after “t”: and replace the second XXXXXX with that. (Remove any quotes first). http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=zlfKdbWwruY&t=OEgsToPDskK5xQmr237Mux7iQALA6ps3

    For high quality, put %fmt=18 after it. http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=zlfKdbWwruY&t=OEgsToPDskK5xQmr237Mux7iQALA6ps3&fmt=18

    For even higher quality, put &fmt=22 instead of &fmt=18.

    For high quality, put %fmt=18 after it. http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=zlfKdbWwruY&t=OEgsToPDskK5xQmr237Mux7iQALA6ps3&fmt=22

    The &fmt=18 or &fmt=22 might not work for all videos.

  6. #6 BobbyEarle
    November 17, 2008

    I need a trick to help find YouTube vids that don’t have nimrod comments.

    Too much to ask for, no doubt.

  7. #7 Sven
    November 17, 2008

    I use the greasemonkey script called “yousabletubefix”, it allows you to choose the default format for youtube videos, and makes the video title a direct link to the file so you can download it with one click.
    @BobbyEarle: It also allows you to hide all youtube comments.

    I also wrote a greasemonkey script a few weeks ago that replaces the entire flash player with an embedded version of the mp4 video that plays using the quicktime plugin in firefox on my mac, and the mozilla mplayer plugin on ubuntu.