#btw the video is not mine but the original version on youtube got taken down so i had to download this from the wayback machine lol

[monster-gender]

Putting aside everything else about me that would make it impossible for me to actually live in Yurgenschmidt, I think the funniest thing about imagining myself as Rozemyne is getting to the high beast creation part and realizing that I can't do proper magic because I'm an aphant.

Just imagining getting to the "now visualize a sphere" part of the instructions, being like "Oh yeah this is actually impossible for me" then getting put down like a dog just makes me laugh.

Btw for anyone that's gonna say like "Oh but it's magic so it could work" etc etc, please just think about how hilarious it would be. Exhibit A:

[illyria-and-her-pet]

My Favorite Video Downloaders (ALL FREE)

Download Managers/Software

The advantage of download managers is that they let you keep all your downloads in one place, download multiple things at once, and most importantly restart, pause, or resume downloads (this is super useful if your internet goes out because the download manager will usually be able to resume the progress from where you left off, while for example if your internet goes out while downloading from your browser it can sometimes mess up the download and make you restart the entire thing from the beginning).

JDownloader 2: THE GOAT

http://jdownloader.org/jdownloader2

This is my favorite video downloader for sure! It lets you choose the quality, frame rate, and format of your video download. It can load entire channels or playlists from YouTube. It combines and extracts ts part files (.ts.001, .ts.002, etc.). Many sites are supported besides YouTube like dailymotion, vimeo, facebook, vk, twitter, ok.ru, archive.org, etc. You can also paste the m3u8 links to download videos from sites like NBC Sports (video clips and full event replays/streams), NBC Gold, NBC Olympics, Olympic Channel, 1tv, FISU, eurovisionsports, radikal.ru, rutube, vs-mobi, etc. It works for managing downloads from sites like google drive, mediafire, sendspace, mega.nz, etc. too. You can even use a proxy to download geo-blocked videos.

You can find the m3u8 links to copy and paste using any of these browser extensions:

The Stream Detector (Firefox): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hls-stream-detector/

This only grabs links and doesn’t download. I use this to get m3u8 links on Firefox.

HLS Downloader (Chrome/Opera): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hls-downloader/apomkbibleomoihlhhdbeghnfioffbej

HLS Downloader can also download videos as mp4s, but you have to re-encode the video using avidemux for smooth playback, uploading, importing the video for gifing in photoshop, etc. so I prefer to just use it for copying the m3u8 links into JDownloader 2, where the videos download PERFECTLY. I use this to get m3u8 links on Opera and Chrome and I prefer this to Adobe HDS/HLS Video Saver in terms of user interface. The downside to this extension is that it makes videos unplayable on dailymotion and rutube. 

Adobe HDS/HLS Video Saver (Chrome/Opera): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adobe-hds-hls-video-saver/fkbfbopjoockkhmfnchmacgpmkofcfaj/

Adobe HDS/HLS Video Saver can also download videos as .ts files, but I prefer my files as mp4s so I didn’t use this to download videos, but only to get the m3u8 links to paste into JDownloader 2. I uninstalled this extension when I found HLS Downloader though because I prefer that one and don’t need two m3u8 link grabbers from Opera/Chrome. You have to clear your downloads or refresh your page a lot if you just want a link for a specific video because it captures a lot of m3u8 links and they sometimes stay in the url bar when it’s just videos from browsing and not ones you want to download.

Xtreme Download Manager

http://xdman.sourceforge.net

You use this along with downloading the XDM Browser Monitor extension for whatever browser you use to download videos. Many sites are supported (it doesn’t detect NBC Gold videos tho). The original files will usually be .ts files (and for YouTube MKV), but when downloading it lets you choose MP4 best quality to save/convert as. I use this to download videos from Disney Now and to download and convert 4K YouTube videos to MP4 (all the other downloaders only let you download 4K videos as MKV or WEBM).  

You can also click on file and then “download video” and enter URLs to download and those will actually be MP4 files already and not require conversion with the built in converter that takes a lot more time/cpu power. It doesn’t find downloads or work for as many sites as the XDM Browser Monitor though.

Megabasterd

https://github.com/tonikelope/megabasterd

A MEGA downloader that has no download limit. It also lets you get streaming links for MEGA that you can view in your browser. You can also upload to MEGA, split files, or combine files.

Browser Extensions

Flash Video Downloader

NOTE: DO NOT USE THE VERSION CURRENTLY IN THE FIREFOX ADD-ON STORE (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-videodownloader/) IT IS A KNOCK OFF OF THE ORIGINAL THAT WAS TAKEN OFF THE STORE AND DOES NOT WORK WITH THE FVD DOWNLOADER MODULE

This was my favorite Firefox extension, but Firefox disabled it after the latest update. There’s still a way to get it though! This is very easy to use since it’s a browser extension and can download from nearly every site. This can download from NBC Gold and is the only add-on that can do so. Other sites it works on are NBC Sports (both videos clips and full event replays/streams), Olympic Channel, vimeo, dailymotion, archive.org, niconico, rutube, vs-mobi, youku, 1tv, ok.ru, vk, radikal.ru, etc.

Download this folder:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-dcatnY2BHN6Ryt4dwHOTdIMP2LXCovh/view

Download the FVD Downloader Module from here:

http://fvdmedia.com/fvd-welcome-ff/

Go to Firefox add-ons

Click install Add-on From File 

Choose the file artur.dubovoy@gmail.com.xpi (835 KB) from the ValidLatest-v16.2.9 folder, which will be in the google drive folder you downloaded. 

You should have the extension downloaded and now just go to options and click off from automatic updates!

Stream Video Downloader

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stream-video-downloader/imkngaibigegepnlckfcbecjoilcjbhf

Basically the Chrome extension equivalent of Firefox’s Flash Video Downloader. It can’t download from YouTube though because of chrome extension store rules. But it works for nearly every other site including NBC Sports videos, Olympic Channel, vimeo, dailymotion, archive.org, niconico, rutube, vs-mobi, youku, 1tv, ok.ru, vk, radikal.ru, etc. It also sometimes works on Disney Now. Sometimes it says network error and sometimes it works. On NBC Gold it’s similar... it sometimes says network error after downloading everything, it sometimes fails in the middle and downloads a part of the stream. I feel like NBC Gold videos are too large for this extension to download well in full, so I would just stick with JDownloader 2 or Flash Video Downloader for NBC Gold.  

Video DownloadHelper

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

You can see a lot of the supported sites here: https://www.downloadhelper.net/asites/f/standard/1

Note: there’s also a Chrome extension, but you should use the Firefox version since the Firefox version has no restrictions, while the Chrome version you have to log into your Chrome account to have no restrictions, while if you don’t you have to wait 2 hours between each video download.

I originally didn’t include this in my list because I didn’t like how this caused dropped frame rate or big lags in downloads from NBC Sports, Olympic Channel, youku, 1tv, vk, dailymotion, etc. I’m including it now though because it works for Disney Now (correct frame rate and no lags) and was able to download 720p of one Disney Now episode that XDM kept failing to download. XDM and Video DownloadHelper are the only downloaders that can consistently download from Disney Now. Disney Now is really the only site I use this for downloads (besides all the testing I did for this post lol) since it doesn’t need to convert from .ts to mp4 like XDM and therefore takes a lot less time/CPU power, even if it’s not as high quality as XDM MP4 best quality conversion setting. It also works without video lags or dropped frame rates in rutube and radikal.ru though I would just use JDownloader 2, FVD, or Stream Video Downloader for these since I prefer those downloaders. Don’t use Video DownloadHelper for YouTube or vimeo because any 480p, 1080p, or 60fps videos will need ADP conversion which takes a long time and also leaves an ugly watermark. 

Command Line

YouTube-DL 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fKe9rV-gl1c?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque

Really fast command line downloader. Guide on how to set up and use is here. Supported sites are here: https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html

This is the only downloader that works really well with bilbili (downloads entire video and in the best quality). Bilbili downloads are .flv files though, so you will have to use avidemux to convert to mp4 if that’s your preferred file format (it is mine). It’s also the best downloader for youku imo. 

It can also download entire YouTube channels and playlists. 

BTW for YouTube videos that are 480p or 1080p when you just enter the URL, it downloads mp4 video and webm audio and combines them into a MKV. I prefer mp4 files and to get mp4 just use this command:

-f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]

Some more command tips:

To choose or check the video download qualities available use --list-formats

To specify where you want your video downloaded use -o and then the file path (ie. C:/Users/user/Downloads/%(title)s.%(ext)s)

Websites (no software or extensions required)

DiStillVideo

distillvideo.com

An easy to use online video downloader! Imo the best online video downloader. It requires no program installation or extension or command line use. It can download from NBC Sports site and gives direct link you can either use to view or save video as. Afaik the only other website downloader that could do that was QDownloader, but that got taken down. :( The description on supported sites says these are all supported: 

Youtube, Twitter, Vimeo, Facebook, Dailymotion, SoundCloud, Instagram, Liveleak, Break, Imgur, TED, CNN, Mashable, 1TV, 9gag and 5000 more websites

9xbuddy

https://9xbuddy.com

A video downloader recommended by @decemberelegy. See supported sites here: https://9xbuddy.com/sites It supports downloads for YouTube, a lot of Russian sites, and a lot of the free TV streaming sites likes yesmovies. 

ddownr

https://ddownr.com

This is a site (no software required) that actually lets you download YouTube playlists (up to 250 videos). Your videos will be put together in a .zip file that you can download and extract to your computer.

Streamable

streamable.com

This lets you paste the link of youtube videos and then it will upload and save it to it’s server! You don’t even have to download anything yourself. But you can download it easily from the site too. You can also upload and host videos from your computer too. And it lets you choose time stamps to upload or download only a clip of a video. There is a 10 minute and 1 GB max limit though per video.

ClipConverter 

clipconverter.cc

This lets you download only clips (you can still download the entire video though) from YouTube, vimeo, facebook, and dailymotion. It also lets you choose video quality and format and sometimes frame rate. The downside is that it doesn’t work for YouTube videos that include copyrighted music. This is really useful for downloading only clips instead of the whole video when you want to make gifs.  

Media Players

KMPlayer 

http://www.kmplayer.com/home

The latest version of KMPlayer is suuuuuuuch an improvement from the older versions. It no longer has annoying ads in the box. And it can play a lot of media m3u8 links (you can get the links from the extensions I mentioned in my JDownloader 2 description earlier) and it can play sooooo many video formats and subtitle files (.sub and .idx both work on KMPlayer, but not other media players afaik). Also it has an option to download videos. You can go to file and then download URL. You can download from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, NBC Sports, dailymotion, nicovideo, v-s mobi, etc. Usually if you paste actual URL and it finds a download, it can download it. m3u8 links usually don’t download though with download URL option even though they can be played through play url/youtube.

PotPlayer

https://potplayer.daum.net

PotPlayer is my new favorite media player. It can basically play all the files and links KMPlayer can. It has much better color quality than KMPlayer though and better default aspect ratio detection. Another cool feature it has over KMPlayer is that when you play TV episodes in the same folder it will create an ordered playlist, which makes things easy to watch. It doesn’t have a URL download option like KMPlayer, but this isn’t an issue for me because anything that can be downloaded in URL download from KMPlayer, I can download with a different downloader on this list. PotPlayer has an even more useful feature that sets it apart from everything else on this list, which is video recording that records directly from the source video (much better than screen recording). This works on things KMPlayer URL Download can’t work on like playable m3u8 links or playable live-streams. There is a guide on how to use the function here: https://www.journeybytes.com/2018/01/how-to-use-potplayer-to-record-videos-from-different-sources.html

Userscripts

Userscripts can be easily downloaded via the browser extension userscript managers Tampermonkey or ViolentMonkey

Local YouTube Downloader

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/369400-local-youtube-downloader

This shows you the direct audio and video links under YouTube videos. You can click on the links to simply view or click “save video as” and download. That’s all you need to do if you want 360p or 720p streams. For 480p or 1080p quality you have to download the audio and video streams separately and combine them with ffmpeg. I don’t do this since it’s easier to just have them download and combined with JDownloader 2 or YouTube-DL. I love this script mostly for having direct links I can view in new tab instead of on YouTube site or downloading geo-blocked YouTube videos with just browser (instead of computer wide) extension VPN.

VK Media Player

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/38614-vk-media-downloader

This puts a download button on VK videos where you can click and download to your computer or open the link in a new tab and show/view the direct video. I find this really useful since VK’s video playing layout can be annoying with the playlists and slowish loading times.

Torrents

qBittorent

https://www.qbittorrent.org

This is what I use to download torrents and the best torrent download manager imo. It’s open source and has no ads or malware. You can also use the search engine (it will download with python) and add search plugins to search from torrent sites. It’s better than uTorrent which I tried and would always open on start up even when I put not to in my options and would be stuck at 0% when trying to download magnet links. 

Screen Recording

If you’re a windows user, Windows 10 has a built in screen recorder in it’s game center that is very high quality. Here is a guide to how to use it: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-video-screen-capture-windows-10

OBS Studio

https://obsproject.com/download

OBS lets you record and/or stream your entire screen/display capture, specific windows (browser, media player, game, etc.), media files, and even has a built in browser capture you can interact with.