KeepVid Site No Longer Allows Users To 'Keep' Videos (torrentfreak.com) 73
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: For many years, KeepVid has been a prime destination for people who wanted to download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Vimeo, and dozens of other sites. The web application was free and worked without any hassle. This was still the case earlier this month when the site advertised itself as follows: "KeepVid Video Downloader is a free web application that allows you to download videos from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch.Tv, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more." However, a few days ago the site radically changed its course. While the motivation is unknown at the time, KeepVid took its popular video download service offline without prior notice. Today, people can no longer use the KeepVid site to download videos. On the contrary, the site warns that using video download and conversion tools might get people in trouble. "Video downloading from the Internet will become more and more difficult, and KeepVid encourages people to download videos via the correct and legal ways," the new KeepVid reads. The site now lists several alternative options to enjoy videos and music, including Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Pandora.
Re:Meh (Score:4, Informative)
Otherwise I can just as easily Inspect Element on video streams and get the direct URL of it to download.
No you can't. Most major platforms have layers and layers of obfuscating javascript, and the actual resource URL isn't exposed in the DOM, and neither is the key you need to get a working response from the server.
And many platforms have obnoxious DRM on top of that.
Re: (Score:2)
Why isn't there some driver that just grabs the video stream from the tcp connection? Something like ngrep but specialized for video.
Re: (Score:2)
These days it's usually sending the video over a HTTPS connection, so just snagging the TCP stream isn't quite enough.
Re: Meh (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
+1 for jdownloader. Works with a shitload of sites other than youtube, intuitive GUI and clipboard monitoring, and can be used as a generic download manager as well. Devs seem to do a good job updating it promptly when sites break it, too.
Only complaint is that it's a touch on the heavy side for what it does. Java's fault, I assume.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
youtube-dl works well for youtube and many other sites.
bye bye (Score:5, Informative)
I bet anything it was... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe they should consider releasing it in more countries... then I wouldn't have to constantly be using hacked apk's to get adblocking on YouTube.
Re: (Score:2)
This. I want it but it's unavailable in my country.
Re: (Score:2)
CBS All Access, YouTube Red, Disney's Whatever Service and what next? They need to accept that Netflix and Amazon are in charge with Hulu as the straggling little brother.
I'm actually interested in watching the Cobra Kai series but I'm NOT subscribing to YouTube Red. That shit is just not going to happen.
LK
Give up Vid (Score:3)
"Keepvid" becomes "Give up Vid"
Re: (Score:2)
"KeepVid" becomes "Gives Up Ass"
Well... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Try 4k Video Downloader. Works great for me.
Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
Just use youtube-dl or a browser extension.
was bound to happen eventually (Score:5, Insightful)
it really sounds like they got hit with a big threat from someone (like youtube) and were given the no-choice-choice of 100% compliance with their demands or facing a bankrupting lawsuit. The typical demand is:
1. take down your service immediately
2. never come back
3. don't tell anyone who we are
"in exchange, we won't sue you into oblivion"
Re: was bound to happen eventually (Score:1)
He can fix it, unlike your iphone.
Re: (Score:2)
what happens when your gramophone breaks gramps?
Gramophone? - What's wrong with the good old wax cylinders?
Re:was bound to happen eventually (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In my experience, sites break youtube-dl frequently. It often fails the first time I use it in a day. But it's almost always already been fixed; all I need to do is check for an update and it's working again.
Re: (Score:2)
Can't wait for the Ctr / Print Scrn key combo to be disabled.
I'll keep my old boxen around as long as I can. The internet is a cable TV system now.
Thought control continues... (Score:1, Funny)
Because downloading the videos keeps facts alive that YouTube et al would rather make disappear and be forgotten.
Re: (Score:1)
No, not at all. You are still allowed to download them, they just "encourage people to download videos via the correct and legal ways".
Now all we need to figure out is how to actually do that.
Use youtube-dl (Score:5, Informative)
It can download from most major sites and even a few of the smaller ones. It let's you pick what format the video is (or only the audio from YouTube videos if you prefer to listen to them as podcasts).
Re: (Score:1)
Youtube-dl will grab an entire playlist - it'll even snag a whole series off crunchyroll along with the subtitles. Occasionally it breaks... but then they fix it. 10/10.
Motivation (Score:2)
While the motivation is unknown at the time, KeepVid took its popular video download service offline without prior notice.
Probable motivation: they got a letter from a some company's attorney
Re: (Score:2)
Youtube were announcing that they were banning gun related videos. Presumably, they want to stop anyone from keeping and archiving these videos. Same with anything political sensitive.
What's a good web-based alternative? (Score:2)
I know all about the various client programs. but sometimes you're on someone else's computer and you don't have those, so what's a good web-based alternative to KeepVid?
Re: (Score:2)
clipconverter.cc
Re: (Score:2)
If they have Windows 10 you can always Win-G and use the built-in screen recorder. Not as convenient as downloading the clip directly but it gets the job done.
Pity (Score:1)
Just use youtube-dl or quvi (Score:5, Informative)
It is a bad idea to rely on web sites such as keepvid that are full of ads and incomprehensible scripts that do god-knows-what.
It is a much better idea to instead use a free and open-source video-downloader such as youtube-dl or quvi.
And if the maintainers/developers of youtube-dl or quvi decide to discontinue the project and "encourage people to download videos via the correct and legal ways", then you can always fork the code. That's the beauty of free/libre software.
This situation is a perfect example of why Richard Stallman warned about "Service as a Software Substitute (SASS)". i.e. websites that offer a "service", that should instead be done by a software program running locally on your computer, fully under your control.
ClipGrab or Youtube-dl (Score:2, Interesting)
Been using both of them for a while now. Highly recommended.
Download audio of talks and audiobooks on Youtube, and put it on the phone to listen in my car during my commute.
I know how this war ends (Score:3)
I don't know how WW3 will be fought, but video war X will be fought with a vintage analog video recorder aimed at a monitor.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know how WW3 will be fought, but video war X will be fought with a vintage analog video recorder aimed at a monitor.
Yeow, I just did that the other day. I wanted to make a small video clip (90 seconds) of an episode of Kolchak The Night Stalker where he talks with an exterminator about rats.
Instead of camera aimed at monitor, I fed HDMI output to a HDMI to composite converter. Composite routed to a Firestore DVR.
Clip is for a safety manager to highlight PPE not used in 1974. Also to show where exterminator eating a sandwich while spraying bushes. Kolchak commented concern of poison on the sandwich but exterminator r
Re: (Score:2)
Good luck, because HDMI has replaced VGA ports [computerhope.com] on every computer and any VGA converter reduces the display resolution. That's by design to prevent piracy - recording a low resolution VGA display with a video recorder results in grainy video.
The least they can do (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl [github.com]
It's not KeepVid, but it's pretty darn good if you like command line interfaces.
Re:I like this guy (Score:1)
They also broke their desktop downloader (Score:2)
You know, the one they wanted you to buy. It still does conversion, but downloading has been downloaded and it won't download from youtube at all anymore.
It's still up. Literally fake news. (Score:1)
I don't understand anything at all here. THE KEEPVID SITE IS STILL ONLINE AND WORKING. Just to be sure, I used it to download two different videos from youtube. Both worked perfectly. For some reason the site only offered 720p download, not 1080, though, but other than that it works perfectly fine.
Oh wait. You guys aren't using keepvid.com, right? You are using the actual keepvid site? Right?
Alternative (Score:1)
I've found this https://hooktube.com/ [hooktube.com], which not only has a better interface than youtube but also allows bypassing restrictions.
Sharing Mine (Score:1)
program name is new. "long live the program.. (Score:1)
google "keepvid alternative" (Score:1)
And that's all, folks. (Score:2)
Dad da da da da daaaaaa da.
RIP Internet.
Can I have my 1990s Internet back (Score:1)