It’s a common question: “I love watching YouTube videos, and would like to save some to my computer. Is that even possible? If so, how?” The answer is yes. There are a couple options I’d recommend.
ZAMZAR
First, while you are watching the YouTube video you’d like to download, look in the right hand column below the video description for a little box named “URL:”. Copy the contents of that box by either right clicking and selecting “Copy” or just doing CTRL-V.
Then, head to http://www.zamzar.com/url and paste the URL into the box. Select the format you want to save it as (go with MP4 if you want it for your iPod, WMV for just watching it on a Windows computer, MP3 if you just want the sound, or AVI for editing). Enter your email address and hit “Convert”.
In a few minutes (or up to an hour depend on the queue) you’ll get an email with a link to download your video.
KEEPVID
This one is even easier, but the quality is sometimes sketchy and you can’t choose from many file formats. First, head to http://keepvid.com and paste the URL of the YouTube video into the box at the top. Then, hit “Download”.
On the next page it will display 2-5 download links for the file at various qualities. You don’t want to download the FLV files unless you want to you it in a Flash project, so click on an MP4 link, make sure you save it as “video.mp4″ (you can change the name once it is done downloading but must be saved as that file name to work) and you’re done.
Former entrepreneur now a 9-5'er (by choice), I'm a web marketer, blogger, designer, and lover of all things outdoors. Happily married, living in the mountains of Colorado.