Guide to downloading YouTube videos onto your iPhone/iTouch

Tom Dunne

Here's a quick guide to getting YouTube videos downloaded and converted to play on your iPhone/ipod touch.

Ingredients:
1 x Firefox Browser
1 x Plugin called DownloadHelper
1 x Add-on for DownloadHelper called, cunningly enough, Converter
1 x iPhone or ipod Touch
1 x iTunes

Method:

Install Firefox and get the DownloadHelper plugin.

From the Tools menu of Firefox, go to DownloadHelper->Preferences.

Select the Conversion tab.

From there, download and install the converter software.

Once all of this is installed, still in the Conversion tab, click the "Configure Conversion Rules" button.

Delete the rule that is all ready there and create a new one.

In the Input box, set the "files with extension" to flv (if it isn't already set).

In the output, set it to iPod (note, MP4 doesn't work for some reason).

Click the "Details" button and change the extension to MP4

Browse to your favourite video on YouTube, and you will see a small icon that resembles three, um, balls (red, blue, yellow).

Click this, and your video will be downloaded and converted.

Once that is done, open iTunes, go to Movies.

Drag and drop your .mp4 video into iTunes, sync, and away you go.

Note: if the file does not appear in Movies after you drag and drop, iTunes doesn't like it, so it won't transfer to your iPhone/touch. Double-check your conversion settings.

whiterebel

Very handy, Tom. Ta very much for this.

nava

Another program to use is Vdownloader/ is a stand alone software similar to DownloadHelper, paste the url and select the Output Format.

List of website you can download from are here

theliam

or just use mxtube...

Creamy Goodness

iWoopie from the itunes store tbh and it is free no need for jailbreak either.

padolicious

theliam wrote: »

or just use mxtube...

+1
its a nice giude and very helpful but far too much effort involved!!!!!!!!!:D

Purple Gorilla

theliam wrote: »

or just use mxtube...

^ This

Why even bother going through all that when you can just download mxtube to the iPhone?

greglo23

If you want a simple way to get YouTube videos as mp4's then try this. Copy the following javascript

javascript:if%20(document.getElementById('download-youtube-video')==null%20&&%20!!(document.location.href.match(/http:%5C/%5C/%5Ba-zA-Z%5C.%5D*youtube%5C.com%5C/watch/)))%20%7Bvar%20yt_mp4_path='http://www.youtube.com/get_video?fmt=18&amp;video_id='+swfArgs['video_id']+'&amp;t='+swfArgs['t']; var div_embed=document.getElementById('watch-embed-div');div_embed.innerHTML=div_embed.innerHTML+'<br /> <span id=\'download-youtube-video\'><a href=\''+yt_mp4_path+'\'>Download as MP4</a> (right-click and select <i>Save '+ (navigator.appName=='Microsoft Internet Explorer'?'target':'link') +' as</i>)</span>';}void(0);

Create a new bookmark on your bookmarks bar called Youtube downloader or a shortened version of same. Edit the bookmark address and paste in the above script. When you have a video you want to download click on the bookmark and a small link will open on the page which will say download as mp4. Click this and away you go. You will have to rename it as it will be called video.mp4.

aleoga

I have tried lots of these things and none work - am i doing someyinhg worong or is it something YouTube has done since this posting?

Many thanks:D

Eire Go Brach

I was lucky to get MiTube before it was pulled from the App store. It did not last long up there. Works great and so simple

Tom Dunne

aleoga wrote: »

I have tried lots of these things and none work - am i doing someyinhg worong or is it something YouTube has done since this posting?

Many thanks:D

Nope, nothing has changed. I used it on Saturday to download a video (granted, I haven't tried the video on my iPhone, but it worked fine on my N900).

themacdaddy

Eire Go Brach wrote: »

I was lucky to get MiTube before it was pulled from the App store. It did not last long up there. Works great and so simple

Why was it pulled? I got it too!

StompToWork

I use the "Devices" tab in Vuze. Just drag your media into iTunes under Devices, select your apple device, and it will convert the media and add it into your iTunes library automatically for syncing to your device. Dead handy.