YouTube Tests Video Downloads for Your Desktop Browser (theverge.com) 37
YouTube is testing an official way to download videos on your desktop web browser. From a report: If you want to see if you're eligible for the test, which runs through October 19th, check out YouTube's experimental features page, which lists tests available for Premium subscribers. If you're opted-in and on a supported browser ("the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera," according to Google), when you're watching a video, you should see an option to download the video under the player. When you click it, YouTube will download the video, which you can then watch from the Downloads section that's accessible from the hamburger menu on the left side of the screen.
What is there to "test"? (Score:4, Insightful)
What is there to "test"?
They provide us we a download link, we click it, the file downloads.
(shrug)
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It's a test so it can be in beta for at least 10 years
This is not a true download (Score:5, Insightful)
This is only downloading the video to your browser's local storage. You can still only view it on YouTube's site, and if the video is taken down on YT you can't watch it anymore.
A true download would be an actual file that you can keep and view outside YouTube. But of course they'd never make that available because downloading your own copy of things is verboten on the modern streaming Internet.
Of course there's plenty of third-party tools to download YouTube videos. Remember, if you like it, download it. If you've been on YouTube a while and look at your favorites list there's a good chance much of the older stuff is already gone.
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I pretty much figured it would be a watered-down version of downloading the file, full of DRM-ly goodness to the brim. Any file that is encumbered or "disappears", or even has that possibility, is a total no-go here. You do not truly own the file if it can be remotely broken, deleted or otherwise invalidated.
That. and I abhor the new Chrome/Chromium based browsers, so this is a total non-starter for me for those reasons alone. No, I think I will stick to my 3rd-party downloaders, at least they are workin
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probably can't do it without Flash yet.
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Good old youtube-download. It's great. Doesn't count as a view and always ad free.
Re:This is not a true download (Score:5, Informative)
youtube-dl is the tool to use.
do not trust the network. the network is not your friend.
local storage FTW.
2021.06.06 (Score:2)
Does anyone know what's up with its lack of updates these days?
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Does anyone know what's up with its lack of updates these days?
It's a dead project; move to yt-dlp which seems to be an active fork.
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Not found by apt. What's up with that? youtube-dl still is.
Here's the link for yt-dlp, by the way: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-d... [github.com]
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If it's in your browser's local storage, why couldn't you just copy it from there to another directory and keep it "forever"?
Or is there some drm trickery involved to prevent that?
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This is basically an attempt to copy the "faux download" functionality of youtube app on android and ios. In it, it downloads a file to your device, but you can only view it from the youtube app on that phone and only for 30 days.
So yeah, just use your favourite youtube-dl front end instead.
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"your own copy" is the problem, the copyright belongs to the person who uploaded it. Youtube cannot just make another copy of it for you.
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This is more like using a DVR to record something on TV to watch later. As long as you don't share it or try to use it in a public performance, it should be allowed in current fair use of copyrighted items.
I can download a copy of a NYTimes article and save it to read later. As long as I don't re-post it or claim it as my own creation, it's also allowed.
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"your own copy" is the problem, the copyright belongs to the person who uploaded it.
I think that probably applies to about 1% of Youtube uploads. The rest already violate copyright in some way.
Not that Google gives a shit about copyright - they industrialised copyright violation and their entire business is based on it.
youtube-dl (Score:2)
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Find it here (Score:1)
NOT A DOWNLOAD (Score:3)
This is not a download! This just adds it to a local cache inside your browsers temporary files. Allows you to watch offline just like Netflix save.
But you have no access to the file or to save it or copy it anywhere else.
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Yes, it literally is a download. As all streaming by defintion is too. The data is transferred to a local storage. Be it RAM or your permanent storage, be it in one format or in another.
No access to the file?? Who the hell is in control of your computer? You or somebody else??
It's in a shit format, designed to dazzle those who can't tell a computer from an appliance, but come on... you're presumably a geek on a former geek site...
It should be easy for you to find a script that extracts LocalStorage or even
Amazing (Score:2)
In other words, so Youtube is offering a 'feature' which has been available from hundreds if not thousands of "youtube download" sites for years.
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Is that area encrypted, requiring us to use Chrome's key storage first, or can we read things directly from LocalStorage?
Asking for two friends named youtube-dl and Video DownloadHelper... ;)
Great for flaky internet connections (Score:5, Interesting)
Be it in rural parts of the USoA and europe, or third world countries like mine.
An official way to "download now-watch latter" videos in youtube, amazon, Crackle, Plex, plutoTV, animeonegay or crunchyroll would be fantastic.
Hope this experiment is sucessfull, so it catches on to sites beyond youtube and browsers beyond chrome
PS: Yes, I am well aware of alternatives, like Youtube-dl or video download helper, but the non-technical people would be better served by an officially sanctioned option.
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Yes, this! Not everyone *can* stream at acceptable quality, and it sorta destroys the viewing experience when it pauses, pixelates, etc.
There are several reasons that I use youtube-dl, ordered by increasing importance (or at least frequency of importance):
- Watch even if they yank it
- Easily find the video later
- Watch when I have *no* Internet connection
- See just the video, no distracting garbage
- Save bandwidth by not re-downloading for each view
- Watch full quality, and without glitches
This caching does
Who cares? (Score:1)
Wait a minute (Score:2)
Whose videos are they? Did the uploaded sign away the right to copy their work?
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PROTIP: A video is already copied dozens of times before it ends up on your computer for it to display it to your eyes.
Seriously, how the fuck is everybody here so utterly clueless at basic information technology things?
What the hell do you think streaming is? (Score:1)
An editor... on a freaking tech site... not knowing that "streaming" is the term for paying back something while it is still downloading . . .
WTF.
Why did you choose to tell your CPU to execute code that frees that storage for overwriting again, if you wanted to keep it?
You are the owner of your computer, aren't you?
"Download" (Score:3)