How to download YouTube videos

Download online videos, Convert videos to MP3, Avi, iPod, iPhone, iPad, XBOX, PS3, 100% FREE

The Internet lets us find many things like never before. Take video for example. It used to be that when our parents wanted to watch a movie, they had to go to the shop to purchase a VHS cassette or DVD. Now things have become different. YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and other video sharing sites have literally changed our habits by making it a lot easier to find and watch favorite movies, cartoons, documentaries and music video without ever leaving the comfort of the home chair. Besides, watching video on YouTube does not require any payment and that's awesome!

For all the advantages of YouTube, there is one feature it lacks, however. YouTube and other video sharing sites only let you watch video online, without the ability to download it for offline enjoyment. This is not convenient, because you have to wait until the video is loaded, and it cannot be downloaded to portable devices like iPhone or PSP for watching on a long journey, or during the wait time in the office. But now RealPlayer is making it a lot easier to download YouTube video with one click and the best thing is that it's free.

Let's say, for example, you want to download the Stalker Game Trailer. To get started, you need to download and install RealPlayer from here. Now when you find the trailer on you YouTube and move the mouse over the video during its playback, you'll see the "Download This Video" button on top of it.

Click the "Download This Video" button to download the video.

This opens the downloader dialog below and the download begins.

Once the video is downloaded, you can make some manipulations with it. For example, you can play the trailer in the built-in player. If there are some unnecessary parts in the beginning or the end of the video, you can cut them out in the built-in trimmer. For this, click the Trim button right below the title of the trailer in the downloader.

Now in the trimmer set the start and end time for the video and play this part to make sure it looks exactly as you want, and then click the "Save Trim..." button to save the trimmed part to disk. Additionally, you can capture a snapshot of any scene in the video using the Save Picture button.

Now comes the time for conversion. RealPlayer offers the Converter tool that lets you export video to many formats using presets for cell phones, portable media players, TV connected devices, video and audio formats. To open the converter, you need to click the "Convert to..." button below the title of the video.

Now use the Convert to drop-down menu and the Start button to export video to the format of your choice that is compatible with your iPod, mobile phone, Xbox, PS3 or other favorite device.

There is also an option to burn video to CD / DVD, but this tool is available only in the Premium version.

RealPlayer also has one more interesting feature for making your video go social. You can share the movie with friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other websites – all this with a click of a button.

If you are looking for a free and easy tool to download YouTube video, give RealPlayer a try.