Nearly of today's net traffic is spent streaming online video, with YouTube taking up a massive clamper. Over 400 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and YouTube has a greater achieve in the 18-49 demographic than even cablevision TV.

Then you have to consider other video streaming sites like Vimeo, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Twitch, and so on. That'due south a lot of data flowing effectually—and if your Internet service provider caps your monthly information allowance, then all this video streaming can be expensive.

The solution is to capture or download online videos to picket offline, allowing you to re-sentinel as many times as you want without wasting data.

Hither are some of the best tools for capturing and downloading streaming video from websites online so yous can watch them offline.

1. Video DownloadHelper

Available on: Chrome, Firefox.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Lynda, Twitter, Udemy, and hundreds of other sites.

Video DownloadHelper is hands ane of the most useful browser extensions for downloading streaming video that you'll ever install. The downside (sort of) is that you accept to install it on your browser; if you lot already run a lot of extensions, the last affair you need is another 1 making Chrome even slower. Simply if you download a lot of videos on a day-to-solar day basis, Video DownloadHelper is definitely worth it.

The extension adds a push button next to your browser'due south address bar. Whenever you see an online video, just click the button to download any video on the current page. Use the pop-up box to decide where to save information technology on your computer.

2. 4K Video Downloader

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Dailymotion, and several other sites.

4K Video Downloader is the simplest and about straightforward tool to capture video from a website. Nosotros recommend it if y'all want a no-hassle option that requires close to nix attempt on your role. It works extremely quickly and doesn't throttle your download, plus it'southward actually piece of cake to get to grips with.

Just copy the URL of an online video and paste it into 4K Video Downloader. You tin can paste links to YouTube playlists or YouTube channels to download every video bachelor, and you can even subscribe to YouTube channels and auto-download new videos as they're made bachelor. You tin besides download the annotations and subtitles in YouTube videos.

Video downloads are available in 8K, 4K, 1080p, or 720p (equally long as the source video was uploaded at that resolution, of course). Videos can be downloaded in MP4, MKV, and FLV formats. Or you can download just the audio portion in MP3 or M4A formats.

3. Freemake Video Downloader

Available on: Windows.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Liveleak, Veoh, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and dozens of other sites.

Freemake Video Downloader is one of the near popular video downloading tools out there. It'due south completely free, easy to use, and relatively flexible as far as quality and format options are concerned. The ane big downside is that it's only available on Windows.

Videos can be downloaded in a handful of formats, including AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, and WMV. Videos tin also exist downloaded in MP3 format if y'all just want the audio portion. The actual process only requires the URL of the video—but copy and paste it in.

4. JDownloader

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: Nigh any site with streaming video.

JDownloader is similar Freemake Video Downloader simply with a twist. You take the URL of whatsoever folio that has a streamed video on information technology, paste it into the app, and it will scan the folio for all the videos it can detect. You go to pick which of the detected videos you want to download.

The overnice thing about JDownloader is that y'all don't need the straight URL of a specific video. Take a MakeUseOf commodity with five embedded videos, for example, and all of them volition be detected. No need to fumble around finding out the direct URL of the video. This makes it very easy to capture several videos at once.

However, be aware that the installer comes with bundleware, which is where other programs are pushed on you that you lot don't need. When you run the installer, you lot'll come across a page that offers to install "Bing Search" or something else. On this page, the buttons volition change to Reject and Have. Ensure yous click Decline, because this will prevent bundleware from beingness installed on your system.

v. youtube-dl

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, HBO, Metacafe, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and thousands of other sites.

youtube-dl is a tool for advanced users who are comfortable using the control line. If you prefer graphical interfaces, save yourself the headache and simply utilise one of the ones listed above.

But if y'all're okay with command line utilities, then youtube-dl offers the most flexibility of any video downloading tool. It's complicated enough to take a non-picayune learning curve though, and then prepare to read the documentation, or else y'all'll be lost.

You could also try youtube-dl-gui, which is an unofficial front-cease user interface that'south available for Windows and Linux.

Features include several video selection and quality parameters, playlist processing, download rate limit, batch video downloading, automatic naming of files, inclusion of ads, and downloading subtitles (for sites like YouTube).

The following formats are supported: 3GP, AAC, FLV, M4A, MP3, MP4, OGG, WAV, and WEBM.

The Last Resort for Capturing Online Videos

If you lot encounter a video that isn't supported by any of the above tools, the last resort is to play the video in full screen way and record your screen as it plays.

It's not a perfect solution, but it normally works when nothing else does. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that some sites and apps (specially Television set streaming services) volition not let a screen recorder capture the footage. When you get to play the video back over again, yous will just be faced with a bare screen.

If you can get the direct URL of an online video, yous tin can also use VLC to play and tape online videos as a kind of streaming video recorder.

How to Record Your Screen Using VLC

VLC Media Player has many uses, but did you know that information technology tin record your screen besides? Here's how to easily record your desktop with VLC.

Read Next

About The Author

Dan Toll (1609 Articles Published)

Dan joined MakeUseOf in 2014 and has been Partnerships Director since July 2020. Attain out to him for inquires about sponsored content, affiliate agreements, promotions, and any other forms of partnership. You tin can also find him roaming the show flooring at CES in Las Vegas every yr, say hello if you're going. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.

More From Dan Price