Avi is worth the size if it is a choice of losing quality, but in this case you'd be better off with the original flv unless you were editing brightness/contrast etc on every video and taking ages.
Flv is becoming more and more supported now and mediaplayerclassic or vlc player (both freeware and very good) handle them fine, plus they are seekable. Depending on the avi codec you may have just as many problems playing it back on some devices as an flv
The real question is did you manage to get the HQ or maybe even HD versions of the clips downloaded by adding the fmt=18 etc to the download links?
avi. please. why? honestly, i use the good ones as filler when i burn dvds. besides, i can't skip ahead with flvs on anything i have and that pisses me off.
It seems a couple of people asking for avi think the resolution is bigger not the file size.
Many years back I had a lot of wmv files but they couldn't be edited/played by anything else because MS didn't let other software use the codec. A couple years later all my old wmv files could be edited and played on most things, so it was worth being patient.
Youtube's going nowhere and the demand for flv support is only growing so I'm sure VLC have ppl working on it for the next release. You can transcode and make avis yourself using VLC or whatever software David uses.
If AVI are just bigger files with no better quality then there is no point. I can't believe you don't use Real Player with the Download option enabled! I use it all the time to save Youtube videos in HQ. Here are some samples -
RealPlayer is also notorious for being a spyware magnet, a resource hog, and generally just a shoddy piece of software.
And while some other anonymous poster may have gotten some mileage off those WMVs, they're still a sub-standard format (just like .avi, .wmv isn't really a codec; it's a container format that could contain AV files encoded in any number of ways) that really only gets used because MS has such huge market share. Almost none of the playback software (including VLC, MPlayer, and Microsoft's own player) are resource efficient when playing back files on OS X. H.264 is really the best quality/size bang for your buck right now, and that usually comes in a .avi wrapper.
RealPlayer is also notorious for being a spyware magnet, a resource hog, and generally just a shoddy piece of software.
I can safely say that's nonsense. It could be easily said about any software per se and fools would fall for it. I've been using real player for 9 years and never ever had a problem!
Then I can safely say you haven't been paying much attention to the AV community for those nine years. Hell, RealPlayer itself was named badware/spyware only a year ago by StopBadware.org because it "'fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user's computer'. And RealPlayer 11, it claims, 'does not disclose the fact that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled'". In 2006 PC World named it #2 on their "Top 25 Worst Products of All Time" list, and in 2007 #5 in it's "20 Most Annoying Tech Products" list.
RealJukebox used to send information about the listening habits of users (including track information and the time they were listened to) back to RealNetwor without the user's permission.
It also used to bundle Gator as part of its install, a malicious little piece of software known primarily for monitoring web browsing habits without disclosing that it was doing so, and then reporting that information back to the company so it could serve targeted ads, sometimes even overwriting the ads on websites (they were sued by the New York Post, the New York Times, and Dow Jones & Co. for that very thing).
Actually, I'm not that keen on Realplayer either. I avoid installing it until I really need it. Then I usually remove it from my computer. And I agree, it does take a whole lot of unnecessary resources from the OS..
For some odd reason, it doesn't work downloading HQ FLV-files from Youtube anymore, it just says "unable to record" every time. Annoying.
I think I'll stick with a neat little program called "Youtube Downloader", the javascript someone here provided me with and keepvid.com instead.
either one. although i like avi better
ReplyDeletei vote avi, worth the size
ReplyDeleteEither one, although avi would be nice:)
ReplyDeleteI vote flv.
ReplyDeleteAvi is worth the size if it is a choice of losing quality, but in this case you'd be better off with the original flv unless you were editing brightness/contrast etc on every video and taking ages.
Flv is becoming more and more supported now and mediaplayerclassic or vlc player (both freeware and very good) handle them fine, plus they are seekable. Depending on the avi codec you may have just as many problems playing it back on some devices as an flv
The real question is did you manage to get the HQ or maybe even HD versions of the clips downloaded by adding the fmt=18 etc to the download links?
if the video quality is the same either wil do. you may want to use this bookmarklet to download the hq (mp4) version:
ReplyDeletejavascript:if(document.location.href.match(/http:\/\/[a-zA-Z\.]*youtube\.com\/watch/)){document.location.href='http://www.youtube.com/get_video?fmt='+(isHDAvailable?'22':'18')+'&video_id='+swfArgs['video_id']+'&t='+swfArgs['t']}
Better Size please.
ReplyDeleteavi. please. why? honestly, i use the good ones as filler when i burn dvds. besides, i can't skip ahead with flvs on anything i have and that pisses me off.
ReplyDeleteavi
ReplyDeleteseeking is broken for flv in the mac version of vlc
Avi please, thank you on all your hard work david love the site :)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that AVI it is then.. or maybe I could do both :) The quality is the same, but the file size gets much bigger with AVI's.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I didn't manage to get the HQ versions.. I used Tubehunter before but it doesn't work anymore, so this time I mostly used keepvid.com instead.
I did not know about that javascript-code.. would you mind if some are in mp4-format then?
It seems a couple of people asking for avi think the resolution is bigger not the file size.
ReplyDeleteMany years back I had a lot of wmv files but they couldn't be edited/played by anything else because MS didn't let other software use the codec. A couple years later all my old wmv files could be edited and played on most things, so it was worth being patient.
Youtube's going nowhere and the demand for flv support is only growing so I'm sure VLC have ppl working on it for the next release. You can transcode and make avis yourself using VLC or whatever software David uses.
I like avi much better, thank you David!
ReplyDeleteI've gotta ask, where did you find this set? =)
ReplyDeleteIf AVI are just bigger files with no better quality then there is no point. I can't believe you don't use Real Player with the Download option enabled! I use it all the time to save Youtube videos in HQ. Here are some samples -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.megaupload.com/?d=C2VS94UW
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HVUHV96N
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AY9JRGL9
Anonymous: I found it on flickr.com :)
ReplyDeleteARTHUR: I did not know that! Thank you :) It works bloody great! Realplayer huh.. I wish I knew that earlier.
So.. I haven't decided quite yet. I might go with both.
RealPlayer is also notorious for being a spyware magnet, a resource hog, and generally just a shoddy piece of software.
ReplyDeleteAnd while some other anonymous poster may have gotten some mileage off those WMVs, they're still a sub-standard format (just like .avi, .wmv isn't really a codec; it's a container format that could contain AV files encoded in any number of ways) that really only gets used because MS has such huge market share. Almost none of the playback software (including VLC, MPlayer, and Microsoft's own player) are resource efficient when playing back files on OS X. H.264 is really the best quality/size bang for your buck right now, and that usually comes in a .avi wrapper.
RealPlayer is also notorious for being a spyware magnet, a resource hog, and generally just a shoddy piece of software.
ReplyDeleteI can safely say that's nonsense. It could be easily said about any software per se and fools would fall for it. I've been using real player for 9 years and never ever had a problem!
Then I can safely say you haven't been paying much attention to the AV community for those nine years. Hell, RealPlayer itself was named badware/spyware only a year ago by StopBadware.org because it "'fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user's computer'. And RealPlayer 11, it claims, 'does not disclose the fact that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled'". In 2006 PC World named it #2 on their "Top 25 Worst Products of All Time" list, and in 2007 #5 in it's "20 Most Annoying Tech Products" list.
ReplyDeleteRealJukebox used to send information about the listening habits of users (including track information and the time they were listened to) back to RealNetwor without the user's permission.
It also used to bundle Gator as part of its install, a malicious little piece of software known primarily for monitoring web browsing habits without disclosing that it was doing so, and then reporting that information back to the company so it could serve targeted ads, sometimes even overwriting the ads on websites (they were sued by the New York Post, the New York Times, and Dow Jones & Co. for that very thing).
Actually, I'm not that keen on Realplayer either. I avoid installing it until I really need it. Then I usually remove it from my computer. And I agree, it does take a whole lot of unnecessary resources from the OS..
ReplyDeleteFor some odd reason, it doesn't work downloading HQ FLV-files from Youtube anymore, it just says "unable to record" every time. Annoying.
I think I'll stick with a neat little program called "Youtube Downloader", the javascript someone here provided me with and keepvid.com instead.