Download Tools: Videos from YouTube

YouTube is quite popular nowadays, and some people love to download videos from there to show their friends/relatives or for their own enjoyment. Although the quality of past videos was far more worse, nowadays there are some videos in YouTube are available either in HQ (High Quality - sharper .flv videos) or HD (High Definition - Bigger and Better .mp4 videos, near DVD quality) versions. So, do you know how to download the videos? You have three options:

1. Via Internet Video Downloader sites

• Go to Keepvid.com
• Enter the URL of the video you want to download in the box given.
• Two links would appear beneath it: .flv version and .mp4 version (There are no difference to me!)
  
• Save either one you like.
• Other sites: KissYouTube.com, Vid-Dl.net, DownloadYouTubeVideos.com, VideoDL.org, and Toshichan Green Tube.
  

2. Via Video DownloadHelper Add-on Tool (for Mozilla Firefox users)

• For those who had Mozilla Firefox, go to here and press "Add to Firefox" to download the add-on.
• Firefox would automatically downloads the tool and integrates it within the Firefox itself.
• Firefox would request to restart so you could use the tool after Firefox restarts.
• If successful, an icon consisting of three orbs would appear next to Firefox's URL box. A new tab would appear too to thank you for using the tool.
• Now, if you want to download a video from YouTube, open the video you want and then press the little button next to the logo and choose the video type you want to download. (Notice the icon may become coloured and animated if the video is available)
  
• More options/configuration available at Firefox's Tools > DownloadHelper > Preferences menu.
  

3. Via YouTube Downloader program.

• Download the program here.
• Not only easy, it actually have file conversion features!
  

Among the three options, I prefer the second one and mostly recommended because:

• You can actually download HQ/HD version of YouTube videos (if the video had the HQ or HD button) if you know the trick.
• Not only limited to YouTube, but also any videos from other sites (GoogleVideo, Vimeo, etc) and other file formats (.swf, .mov, etc...)

File Compression: 7-Zip

Do you want to make a file smaller in size?
Do you want to get more space in your pen drive?
Do you want to make your files safe from virus infections?

You absolutely needed a ZIP utility to work online. My recommendation is 7-Zip, which is an open source ZIP utility software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip - It's free!

http://www.7-zip.org/

Why I did not recommend WinZip and WinRAR? Well, although both of them are popular, they're actually a shareware, which means you need to BUY it, unless you've got some money to buy the software, or got some better alternatives...

Also, other reasons why I recommend this software...

• It could compress files into a .7z (by default) or .zip format file.
• .7z files are rare, and it would get rare chances for viruses to infect the file.
• Could decompress ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, RAR, RPM, UDF, etc...
• Integrate into right-click menu for quick archiving/de-archiving.