Almost of today's cyberspace traffic is spent streaming online video, with YouTube taking up a massive chunk. Over 400 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and YouTube has a greater reach in the xviii-49 demographic than even cablevision TV.

And so you lot accept to consider other video streaming sites like Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch, and so on. That's a lot of data flowing effectually—and if your ISP caps your monthly data allowance, then all this video streaming tin be expensive.

The solution is to capture or download online videos to picket offline, allowing y'all to re-watch videos as many times as you want without wasting information.

Here are some of the best tools for capturing and downloading streaming video from websites online, so you can sentinel them offline.

1. Video DownloadHelper

videodownloadhelper

Bachelor on: Chrome, Firefox.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Lynda, Twitter, Udemy, and hundreds of other sites.

Video DownloadHelper is easily one of the most useful browser extensions for downloading streaming video that y'all'll ever install. The downside (sort of) is that y'all have to install it on your browser; if you already run numerous extensions, the last affair you need is another one making Chrome even slower. Only, if you download numerous videos on a day-to-solar day basis, Video DownloadHelper is definitely worth it.

The extension adds a button next to your browser's address bar. Whenever you come across an online video, just click the button to download any video on the current page. Use the pop-up box to make up one's mind where to relieve information technology on your computer.

2. 4K Video Downloader

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Dailymotion, and several other sites.

4K Video Downloader is the simplest and most straightforward tool to capture video from a website. We recommend it if you want a no-hassle selection that requires close to nothing effort on your part. It works quickly and doesn't throttle your download, plus it's straightforward to get to grips with.

Just copy the URL of an online video and paste information technology into 4K Video Downloader. Y'all tin can paste links to YouTube playlists or YouTube channels to download every video available. In fact, you can even subscribe to YouTube channels and motorcar-download new videos every bit they're fabricated available. You can also download the annotations and subtitles in YouTube videos.

Video downloads are available in 8K, 4K, 1080p, or 720p (equally long as the source video was uploaded at that resolution, of course). In addition, videos can also be downloaded in MP4, MKV, and FLV formats. Or, you can download but the audio portion in MP3 or M4A formats.

3. Freemake Video Downloader

Freemake Video Downloader interface

Available on: Windows.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Liveleak, Veoh, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and dozens of other sites.

Freemake Video Downloader is i of the most popular video downloading tools out there. Indeed, it is 1 of the best online video downloaders for any site.

Information technology's completely free, easy to utilise, and relatively flexible as far as quality and format options are concerned. Yet, the one big downside is that it'due south only available on Windows.

Videos tin be downloaded in a scattering of formats, including AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, and WMV. If you simply want the audio portion, videos tin can also be downloaded in MP3 format. The actual process only requires the URL of the video—merely copy and paste it in.

iv. JDownloader

JDownloader 2 interface

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: Nearly whatever site with streaming video.

JDownloader is a stream downloader, but with a twist. Yous take the URL of any folio that has a streamed video on it, paste it into the app, and it will scan the page for all the videos it tin can detect. Yous get to pick which of the detected videos y'all desire to download.

The squeamish thing well-nigh JDownloader is that you don't need the directly URL of a specific video. For example, have a MakeUseOf article with v embedded videos and all of them volition be detected. No need to fumble effectually finding out the direct URL of the video. This makes it effortless to capture several videos at once.

However, be aware that the installer comes with bundleware, which is where other programs are pushed to you that you don't need. When you run the installer, you'll come across a page that offers to install "Bing Search" or something else. On this page, the buttons will change to Decline and Accept. Ensure you click Decline considering this volition forestall bundleware from being installed on your system.

v. youtube-dl

youtube dl

Bachelor on: Windows, Mac, Linux.

Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, HBO, Metacafe, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and thousands of other sites.

youtube-dl is a tool for advanced users who are comfortable using the control line. If you prefer graphical interfaces, save yourself the headache and but use one of the ones listed above.

But if you're okay with control line utilities, then youtube-dl offers the most flexibility of any video downloading tool. It's complicated enough to have a non-trivial learning curve though, so set up to read the documentation, or else you'll be lost.

You could also try youtube-dl-gui, which is an unofficial front-end user interface that's available for Windows and Linux.

Features include several video pick and quality parameters, playlist processing, download rate limit, batch video downloading, automatic naming of files, inclusion of ads, and downloading subtitles (for sites like YouTube).

The post-obit formats are supported: 3GP, AAC, FLV, M4A, MP3, MP4, OGG, WAV, and WEBM.

The Last Resort for Capturing Online Videos

If yous see a video that isn't supported by any of the above tools, the last resort is to play the video in total-screen manner and record your screen as it plays.

It'southward not a perfect solution, but it normally works when nothing else does. Keep in mind, all the same, that some sites and apps (especially TV streaming services) will non allow a screen recorder capture the footage. When you go to play the video dorsum once more, you will but be faced with a bare screen.

If you tin get the straight URL of an online video, you lot can likewise use VLC to play and tape online videos as a kind of streaming video recorder.

How to Tape Your Screen Using VLC

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