HOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE VIDEOS USING VLC

 

Before starting 

 What do you need?

-       VLC Media Player (if you don’t have it, download it for free from here)

-       A Windows computer (this tutorial is made for Windows computers only, not other operative systems or mobile devices)

-       Obviously, an internet connection

What’s VLC?

VLC is a media player, so it's just a program which allows you to play videos and audios that you can’t play on your computer without, because of a “special” format.

 

Why VLC?

This is one of the must have programs you probably have in your computer (if not, just download it here) and it’s virus free, so you can stay safe using it, unlike unsecure sites that infect your computer.

 

Let’s start!

 

Copy your video URL

Start copying your YouTube video URL (the address of the video, the link). If you don’t know how to do it, you just need to look above the video page at  a text that starts with “youtube.com/watch?v=...”  click on it, right click on it (on your mouse, or your trackpad), then “Copy”.

  

 

Start watching the video on VLC

 

To continue, you need to open VLC. Now click “Media” from the up menu of the application and click “Open Network Stream”. You should now see a new window.

 

Paste the link copied on the input which says “Please enter a network URL” and click the play button below: the video should start in a while (this depends on your internet connection).

 

 Get download link

The video started! Before getting the link, pause the video by clicking on the pause button down or press the spacebar (space on your keyboard). Now, you can get the link: reopen the menu and click “Tools”, then “Media Information”.

 In the new window created, you need to find the “Location” field and then click on it three times to select all content (or right click, then “Select All”) and copy it by right click, then “Copy”.

 

(Finally) Download your video!

Open a new browser window and, from the same input you copied the video link, paste it by right click, then “Paste and go to…”.

 

 

Page loaded, can you see the video? Ok, two more clicks and you are done: click on the “three points button” and click “Download”.

(Watch out: sometimes, after download, you can receive an error message called “Network Error”. To fix this issue, just try to repeat the instructions in this paragraph).

 

Yahoo!!! You made it, you downloaded your video just using VLC! 

If this sounds a bit complicated, don’t worry, if you follow this guide step by step the first times, after a little while the procedure will become easy and automatic. 

Giorgio B., 3sc