I just received a question from a reader asking me which is the easiest way to get YouTube videos to the iPod using (of course) a Mac. Fortunately, one of the easiest and most effective ways is by just using Safari and iSquint.
The first thing to do is to go directly to the video within YouTube’s website, and wait patiently for the video to load.
After it has finished loading, go to Safari’s menu bar and click on the “Window” tab — inside it, now click on “Activity”. The Activity window should pop up. Now you have to search for the video file — it’s normally the biggest file from the YouTube web address.
Once you’ve found it, just double-click it, and a .flv file should start downloading automatically to the desktop.
After the download is complete, just open iSquint, drag-and-drop the .flv file into it, and choose your preferred settings to the video — such as video quality (the video won’t get a higher quality than that on YouTube, though).
You may want to check the “Add to iTunes” box so that it’s automatically added once it’s finished converting.
Now, just hit the “Start” button — and you’re on the way to getting the videos into your iPod! When the conversion is finished, you’ll get a .mp4 file as a result — which is now compatible with the iPod.
There! Much easier for all Mac users who use Safari.
UPDATE -
Another reader pointed out an even easier way: KeepVid. Check it out — but you still need iSquint to convert the file.
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usmediaweb - » The easy way to get YouTube videos into the iPod on July 28th, 2006 at 11:41 am says:
[...] by fcodc [...]
big.brother.1984 on July 28th, 2006 at 12:44 pm says:
I did not know it was possible to get them trough Safari. Thanks!
leptisuisse on August 4th, 2006 at 10:15 am says:
… and how do you do it using Firefox ?
fcodc on August 4th, 2006 at 10:24 am says:
There are some Firefox extensions available on the web that allow you to do the job. An example may be VideoDownloader.
leptisuisse on August 5th, 2006 at 3:42 am says:
Thank you fcodc.
Mac Recon :: an operative mac blog » Blog Archive » Free app for downloading YouTube videos on August 16th, 2006 at 3:30 pm says:
[...] Does anyone remember the YouTube downloading guide I made a while back? [...]
simulacra on August 26th, 2006 at 7:20 am says:
some files on youtube are now named as “get_video” instead of “.flv”. iSquint cannot convert them anymore. what do do?
simulacra on August 26th, 2006 at 7:48 am says:
got it, forgot to turn on “H.264 Encoding” in iSquint, I am using it for the first time ; ) thank you anyway, it’s working smoothly now…
fcodc on August 26th, 2006 at 7:51 am says:
Another possible solution could have been to just add the .flv extension to the file’s name. Also, you might want to check out a fairly new (free) app that does all of this job automatically for you: PodTube.
The Ultimate iPod Video Guide for Mac OS X - Mac Recon on August 28th, 2006 at 6:09 am says:
[...] Once again, YouTube. I already made a guide for it, which can be found here. Also, I checked out a new app called PodTube, which does everything by itself. [...]