Q. Why do I get a "Error -2002: a bad public movie atom was found in the movie" from Quicktime when trying to play an MP4 downloaded from YouTube?
A. It appears YouTube has intentionally broken the MP4 format they use in order to make the video unplayable after being downloaded. We are investigating our options to resolve this.
In the meantime, you have several options.
- You can change your "Download Quality" to "Normal" which will download an flv version of the file which should play in any FLV video player including the one embedded in YouTube Downloader.
- You can play the downloaded MP4 video using the video player embedded in YouTube Downloader, or possibly other MP4 players besides Quicktime.
- You can convert the MP4 file into another format such as WMV, Iphone video, etc.
- There are reports of this problem being caused by an invalid ID3 tag in the file, so another option (this is untested by us) to to download an ID3 tag editor and modify/resave the ID3 tag for the file.
Q. Why do I get a "No Flash video found" error when trying to download video from Youtube?
A. This means Youtube Downloader could not find a video file on the web page you asked it to download from. The most common cause of this error is that you're using an old version of Youtube Downloader. Make sure you have the most recent version installed. The second most common problem is that you're trying to download video from a web page that is not a single video page such as a Channel. Check the URL, it should be in the format "youtube.com/watch/v=SQkcD8j4...". If you're watching a video in a channel, you can get to a single video page by right-clicking on the video while it is playing on Youtube and select "Watch on YouTube" which will open that video in a single video page in your web browser.
If you don't see the "Watch on YouTube" option, look for a link or button below the video window that will open the video in a single video page on YouTube.
This can also happen when downloading an age-restricted video. If you are trying to download a age-restricted video that requires login, see the "why am I being prompted to sign in" entry below.
NOTE: YouTube updated their web site at 5:30pm October 21, 2009 and broke downloading YouTube videos for YouTube Downloader 2.5.2 and lower. This has been fixed in version 2.5.3. Please download the latest version and try again.
Q. When I try to convert the video I receive the error message: "The conversion of your video file has failed, etc." Why?
A. The conversion could have failed for several reasons. First, check the file name that you see under "Select video file". This file name needs to be a full path to the file, not just the name of the file. For example, if you downloaded a video and saved it as "thisvideorocks.mp4" in your "C:\Videos" folder, the "Select video file" box should have "C:\Videos\thisvideorocks.mp4" in it not just "thisvideorocks.mp4" (no directory name) or "C:\Videos\thisvideorocks" (no file extension, e.g. ".mp4"). To get the entire file path in the "Select video file" box, click the "..." button next to the input box and find the file on your drive and select it and try the conversion again. In fact, if you are seeing this error, click the "..." button and reselect your file anyway, just to make sure the entire file and path is present.
Second, sometimes Youtube Downloader can get in a confused state (e.g. you have many downloads or conversions running at the same time), so if you see this error and the first situation above doesn't fix it, exit Youtube Downloader and restart it and try again.
If you are still seeing this error, you may be missing or conflicting codec. This is most likely to happen if you have an older version of Windows, or you have installed many video processing applications on your system. You'll need to figure out what codec is missing or corrupt and fix it. We recommend FFDShow MPEG-4 codecs.
Q. How do I download HD videos from YouTube?
A. Click the "Download Options" button and select "HD" or "Best available" from the "Youtube Download Quality" menu. If a HD version of the video is available, it will be downloaded.
Q. What do the different quality levels mean in the "Youtube Download Quality" menu?
A. Youtube typically offers the same video in multiple quality levels. "Best Available" first tries to download the HD version, then HQ, then Normal. "HD" tries HD, then HQ, then Normal. "HQ" tries HQ then Normal. "Normal" just tries to download the Normal quality. For details on the video formats used by Youtube, please see the Youtube entry on Wikipedia. "Best available" is the default setting for downloading videos.
Q. Why are some of my videos being downloaded in MP4 format now rather than FLV format?
A. Youtube now uses MP4 for their HD videos and some of their HQ ones. So when Youtube Downloader downloads one of these videos from Youtube, it will be downloaded and saved as an MP4 video file automatically. To play this file on your computer, you can use the video player built into Youtube Downloader or you will need to find a program that understands MP4 files automatically such as Apple's Quicktime player. You could also use Youtube Downloader to convert this file to a format your computer understands, such as WMV.
Q. But I want FLV files, how do I tell Youtube Downloader to only download FLV files?
A. Click the "Download Options" button and select "Normal" from the "Youtube Download Quality" menu. YouTube uses FLV to store "Normal" quality videos, so if you select Normal quality for download, you should receive FLV files. Keep in mind that HQ and HD videos YouTube sends down in MP4 format are higher quality, so you will end up with better videos if you select "Best available", "HD", or "HQ" as the download quality.
Q. Why is the new Youtube Downloader so much slower than the old one?
A. Youtube Downloader 2.5.x adds support for HQ and HD videos. This slows downloads for two reasons. First, it takes time for the application to detect if an HD or HQ version of the video is available. Then if it finds one, HD videos are larger files than HQ videos, and HQ videos are larger than the old "Normal" (FLV) videos. Larger files means it takes longer to download them. However, you have a much higher quality file to play on your computer once it's downloaded. If you don't care about the video quality, set your "Download Quality" to "Normal" and it will be as fast as older versions were.
Q. How do I tell what version of Youtube Downloader I have installed?
A. Click the Youtube Downloader logo in the main application screen to see the About page, including the version number of Youtube Downloader.
Q. I can't find my video files. Where are they?
A. YouTube Downloader will place the files in whatever directory you tell it in the "Save" dialog that appears after clicking "Download".
By default, this is your Windows Desktop. You can change this default by clicking the "..." button to the right of the URL input box.
Q. I can't install the new version. I keep getting "Abort, Retry, Ignore" errors from the installer. Why?
A. This error is most likely because the YouTube Downloader application is running while you are trying to install a new version, or it has locked a file on your computer. Find YouTube Downloader and close the program, and if that doesn't work, try restarting your computer and then running the installer again.
Q. All I see are "get_video" files and YouTube Downloader won't convert those.
A. YouTube Downloader attempts to name the video file automatically from the web page it is downloaded from.
If the automatic name fails, it uses the URL, which on YouTube typically ends in "get_video".
When Youtube Downloader prompts you to save the video file, you must rename it to something unique. Youtube Download can convert videos from
many different formats but assumes you are converting a FLV file. If you don't see your video file in the "Open" dialog, change the filter from "FLV files" to "All files" so that you
can see all your saved files regardless of the filename.
Q. Sometimes YouTube Downloader gets the correct file name and sometimes it's generic "video.mp4". What's going on?
A. YouTube Downloader attempts to retrieve the name of the video from YouTube and use that name when prompting you to save the file.
This takes time to process the web page depending on how fast your network connection is and how fast your computer is.
If you see the video is still named "video" in the save dialog, wait a few seconds and see if the file name changes to the name of the video.
If it doesn't, you can cancel the save, and try again. This usually works. If that doesn't work, you will need to name the video manually by typing the name of the video into the Save dialog before clicking Save.
Q. I'm being prompted to login by Youtube Downloader. What's going on?
A. YouTube lets their users flag videos for various reasons. This can result in them being restricted for access by people over 18 years of age.
When you attempt to view a video on YouTube that is restricted, YouTube requires to you to log in to verify your age.
When you attempt to download a video from YouTube using YouTube Downloader and it is restricted, YouTube Downloader will prompt you for your YouTube
username and password so that it can download the video for you. For security reasons, your username and password is only used for the current running instance of YouTube Downloader and will not be saved on your computer.
Once you exit YouTube Downloader, it will forget your account information and you will need to enter it again the next time.
If you do not have a YouTube user account, you can create one by going to YouTube and clicking the "Sign Up" link at the top of the page.
If you are seeing an error "No Flash video found" or having other problems downloading age-restricted videos from YouTube, please log into your YouTube account using Internet Explorer make sure you can watch the video in IE without any problems.
One common cause of this error is that YouTube has flagged your account and is requesting a "captcha" when you log in to YouTube. By logging into YouTube in Internet Explorer, you can respond to the "captcha" and should be able to use YouTube Downloader to download videos again.
Downloading age-restricted videos was broken by the YouTube update on August 12, 2009 and again on October 5, 2009. This is fixed in Youtube Downloader 2.5.2. If you are having problems downloading restricted videos from Youtube, make sure you are using version 2.5.2.
Q. I can't play my downloaded video file. Why not?
A. YouTube Downloader downloads Flash videos from popular video sharing sites such as YouTube. Typically these files end in ".flv" although newer HD or HQ videos may end in ".mp4".
Windows does not have a program to play FLV or MP4 files installed by default. You need to convert them to a format Windows understands
or install a program that knows how to play the files. You can use Youtube Downloader to convert the files by clicking the "Convert" button
and selecting "Windows Media Video" as the type to convert the file to. Youtube Downloader also has a built in video player that you can use to play flv or mp4 files by clicking the "Convert" radio button, selecting a video file and pressing the ">" button.
Q. I'm getting a "file not found" error when I try to run YouTube Downloader and it doesn't start. What's going on?
A. YouTube Downloader requires the Visual Basic Runtime in order to work. If you do not have this installed on your computer, you will likely see an error such as
"A required file, MSVBVM60.DLL was not found" or "Class not registered, MSSTDFM.DLL needs to be installed on your machine."
Download and install the Visual Basic Runtime from Microsoft and restart your computer and that should take care of the problem.
Q. I can download the video file into my computer, is legal?
A. Yes, when you watch a video in flash from a website (like YouTube) the video is downloaded into your computer, in the folder "Temporary Internet Files" of your browser. The program does the same thing, allowing you to select the destination folder. This means that the file is saved on your computer while you watch the video and there remains until you do not delete.
Q. What kind of use I can do of video file?
A. You can use the video saved for personal use only. We do not assume any responsibility to content you are attempting to download and strongly recommend that you do not download copyrighted material.
Q. I am unable to download videos from YouTube or other sites. Why?
A. You're probably using an older version of YouTube Downloader. Download and install the latest version!
Some sites, especially adult sites, require the user to log into the site, or confirm they are old enough to access the site, and use browser cookies to track this. YouTube Downloader uses the cookies of Internet Explorer when attempting to download videos.
If you are having trouble downloading videos from a specific site, try viewing the video using Internet Explorer, then attempt to download the video while IE is still running.
Q. How can I remove the video and only save the audio so I can play it on my mp3 player?
A. After downloading the video you want to convert, select "Convert video from file". Enter the file you want to convert in the "Select video file" box or by clicking the "..." button and navigating to it. Click the "Convert to" drop down and select "MPEG Audio Layer 3 (mp3)". Click Ok. In the "Choose Quality" dialog, select what quality mp3 file you want (high=256kbps bitrate / 48 kHz sampling rate, optimal=192 / 48, medium=128 / 44, low=96 / 22). Higher quality means a larger mp3 file. Click "Ok" and wait for the conversion to complete. When it's done, the mp3 file should be in the same folder as the original video file and can be added to your music library.
Q. When I downloaded the video and I play it, is incomplete, the duration is only 10/15 seconds, even when I try to re-download it, what can I do?
A. Youtube Downloader uses Internet Explorer to download files. If your download was interrupted, IE may have saved a corrupt copy in its cache that you will need to delete so you can get a clean copy. Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools, click on Internet Options and on the General Tab, in the middle of the screen, click on Delete Files. Now try downloading the video again.
Q. After converting the video I hear the audio but there is no video. Why?
A. You must install or update the codec on your PC!
Q. What is the command line syntax for converting the video manually to the .mpg format?
A. ffmpeg -i %1 -s 320x240 -sameq -b 500 -ar 22050 -ab 56 -ac 2 %1.mpg
Q. Can I use a proxy server to download?
A. YouTube Downloader uses the default proxy server defined in Internet Explorer Options.
Q. My proxy server requires me to use a password. Where do I enter it?
A. Currently YouTube Downloader does not allow you to enter a password for HTTP proxy.
Q. Is there a way to queue multiple files for downloading?
A. No, but you can download multiple files at the same time. Just enter the next URL you want to download in the URL box and click OK and it should start another download process.
Q. How do I uninstall YouTube Downloader?
A. You can uninstall using the Add or Remove Programs function in the Windows Control Panel. Or you can click "Uninstall" from the "YouTube Downloader" folder in the "Programs" section of the Windows "Start" menu.
Q. It's still not working, now what?
A. Send us feedback and we'll take a look at it.