How to download and watch YouTube videos on your PC

I love YouTube but I do not love my browser experience. My internet connection is too slow. Sometimes when I try to watch YouTube videos I give up because it takes too long to buffer and play the videos.

Finally, I found the answer. I download the videos to my PC to watch offline. Downloading takes much less time then buffering. I do not know about the legal issues about downloading YouTube videos but common sense tells me that if it is for personal use and not copyright materials it should be fine.

Let me share my “secret”. I am using Cucusoft YouTube Mate free version. It is a downloader, player and converter. The free version only allows you to download and playback but not convert video files. Most YouTube video files are flash videos with the extension .flv so if you want to watch these videos offline, you will need a special .flv player. The thing I like best about this downloader and player is the fact that it allows you to download several files at one go saving a lot of time.

Right. So now I have downloaded the downloader and player, I have another problem. Most .flv videos are short around 5 to 10 minutes. I also cannot watch it on any other player on my pc, like the windows media player for example. My free version does not allow me to convert the video formats. So what next?

Stay tuned. In my next post, I will share with you how I merge and convert the videos so I can watch the flash videos one after another back to back.

Related Posts:

1. How to merge flash (.flv) videos and watch them one after another

2. I managed to download mini YouTube clips, merge them and convert them into dvd format to watch on TV. Yeah!