Daily Slice

Lately, YouTube has been offering videos in two resolutions – normal and high quality. While the normal resolution videos are encoded in flash .flv format, the higher resolution videos are encoded in MP4 format. We’ve seen enough tools like DoenloadHelper which saves YouTube videos in .flv format. Now, if you want to download high quality YouTube videos in MP4 format, there are two methods:

The first method is a browser bookmarklet, which can be added into your bookmarks toolbar. Drag and drop this link into your bookmark or links toolbar (FireFox, Opera) or right-click the link and add it to your favorites (IE). Some people find Bookmarklet to be a little annoying to use, if that’s the case then skip down to the next method.

The second method involves a Greasemonkey script (install now). The script automatically adds the "Download as MP4" link under the video information box on the right side of the video page. Just right click that link and select "Save As" from the right-click context menu. Remember, you’ll need to add .mp4 extension to the filename manually.

iPods and some new mobile phones (including N95) support MP4 video format. This means you no longer have to reformat YouTube videos to fill them in your iPod. Of course, the above mentioned trick violates YouTube’s Terms of Service, but the same file is stored in your browser cache when you watch that video. Technically, watching the video on YouTube and downloading it to your computer does the same thing.