That’s all there is to download a YouTube video by using VLC player to pull the URL. In the browser, the video will always have the same name, “videoplayback,” so you’ll have to rename it yourself if you want to keep track of what was downloaded. To download it open the menu and click “Save page as…” or press CTRL+S. If pasting the URL into Chrome the browser will begin playing the video. Note: This direct video link is temporary and will expire after a certain number of hours. To quickly select it, click in the box and then press Ctrl + A (select all) on your keyboard, and then press Ctrl + C (copy) to copy it.

You can copy this URL and paste it into your web browser to directly download the video. Once the YouTube video is playing, visit the Tools menu in VLC and click “Media Information” (Ctrl/CMD + I hotkey).Īt the bottom of the window is the direct URL to the video. Tip: VLC also has a convert option here however it can be unreliable and usually glitched out when I was testing it.

It should start streaming as soon as you press Play. Stream the video to VLC player by pressing Ctrl + N (Cmd + N on Mac) and then paste the link to the video in the “network URL” box.

But because it’s free and takes 5 seconds, it’s certainly still worth a shot. Occasionally, you get an error “Your input can’t be opened: VLC is unable to open the MRL.” It’s hit or miss, and we haven’t figured out exactly what the X factor is. We revisited it with the latest versions of Chrome and VLC, and it still works most of the time.

Update: This post was originally written in 2013.

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