"Everyone forgot Firefox with Download Helper? One click download AND conversion from ANY video site on the net. Oh, it’s free?
Comment by LtJackboot"

Just an FYI, I'm actually a really big fan of using Download Helper in Firefox, use it all the time. Just tried their conversion option last week for the first time though. Didn't care for how it only seems to like ONE converter program (it was late, and I didn't spend much time with it, so there may be other options available that I just didn't find yet), and that one, unless you pay for it, puts a watermark on each video it converts. So with them, the download is free but the conversion is not. I uninstalled the converter and went back to using Format Factory.

Will give the new offering here a try though, it would be nice to have one single program that actually works that both downloads and converts.

I love XVideo Service Thief. It's free and efficient, and does many more sites than just YouTube. It converts to mp3 and many other formats (both audio and video). It also has a built-in browser, so you can do everything from there. And if you don't want to convert anything, you can just download the video as it is and leave it that way. :)

XVideo Service Thief can be found here: http://xviservicethief.sourceforge.net/

OK First, This program has been free , available on cnet download, as long as I have known. I have downloaded it and installed it on SEVERAL computers over the last couple of years. It does work very well, and IT DOES WORK ON WINDOWS 7, without incident. It has worked on XP, Vista, and I believe even a case of windows 95? It is very easy to use for those with brains, uses little system resouces, and is relatively fast.

Seem to work fine under Windows 7.

YouTube Music Downloader - Standard Edition, is nothing special in terms of features or abilities, but what it does it does reasonably well [if/when it works] -- it allows you to search YouTube categories [Music, Artist, Album is the default], & opens the results in it's browser window. That part I had trouble with -- the page in the browser wouldn't scroll. When a YouTube page loads with a video, a large Download button appears, there's a big button to add to your download list, & there's a small, hideable window for you to drag files you want to download -- downloads started immediately. Rather than convert anything as a 2nd step, the dialog that opens with every addition to your list allows you to select the format you want the included ffmpeg-based converter to save your download in. As noted in earlier comments, the main window isn't sizeable, or closable on it's own -- this is done with the tray icon.

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#1: "Why would you buy this hulk when there’s a much quicker way to do this!
1. Get audacity
2. Set your default recording profile as your “Rec. Playback”.
3. Start recording (this works for ANYTHING)
The process is called ‘Line-in Streaming’"

The easiest high quality way is to just download/use flv as-is with something like the free VLAN player. To strip the audio out of the flv files YouTube Music Downloader points you to [when you use it's search or categories], the free FLV Extract is an extremely simple, drag/drop affair, & the audio remains unchanged. Converting the audio you'll lose some quality, & re-recording it you'll lose more, plus you'll introduce some noise from your PC's electronics.

Is using this illegal? I've always wondered.

NO, NO, NO, NO!!! you don't need software just to download the youtube audio of a video, ugh, just use Listen to youtube and you just submit the youtube URL and it will give you download links to the audio.. I've used it before and it works really great!

Just go to http://kickyoutube.com/

Downloads the audio from any youtube video in several formats, with nothing new to install on your computer. Free and easy.

Happy Person seems way to happy to me. All of their reviews are always positive and it's always "a great program" or "a keeper". If you're going to review something, you have to state the bad with the good and actually tell people if you actually like the program. They can't all be fantastic.

I usually use the MP4 YouTube Downloader add-on for Firefox or keepvid.com to download YouTube videos, then Any Video Converter to convert them to MP3. I used to use FormatFactory, but the quality wasn't good and it is on FFMPEG's Hall of Shame.

Everyone forgot Firefox with Download Helper? One click download AND conversion from ANY video site on the net. Oh, it's free?

Pros:
*Successful installation (using windows XP SP3)
*Successful download, loved the quality of both images and sound
*Was looking for this kind of tool. I know there are lots of freebies out there, but they never satisfied me.

Cons:
* Get the following message "We will be phasing out support for your browser soon. Please upgrade to one of these more modern browsers."
And even though I have Chrome, firefox and IE installed, the program is still asking to download the same programs again (confused!)
*Program window is fixed. (youtube video size are bigger)
*Loading page status(bottom right) never reaches 100%

Hi all

Thanks GOTD
This software was a giveaway on 29th August 2009 no here not three months later 8th November 2009 the exact same thing back I suppose GOTD had nothing else to give today all's identical even down to the passkey GOTD must be on a RDO today! I just checked the one on the 29th Aug. only change is this is 3 that was 2.8 & FUBAR one of the big reviewers made a comment on this then so I don't expect too see either of the big 2 today.

Unfortunately would not work with Windows 7.

Downloaded and installed beautifully but after entering the URL of the 50-seconds YouTube clip I chose as a test the program stopped working totally. It began "analysing" the video but stopped and is now just hanging saying "Analysing HD Video URL 0%". Furthermore, the minimise symbol does not minimise the interface at all. I trust these errors are all just related to Windows 7 and after all it does not say that Windows 7 is supported but it would be great if the developer could address that as this is a program I would personally like to have.

I use the realplayer downloader plug-in to download videos that is much easier!And then convert it with Wondershare video converter!

#1 Hi I am new to audacity, so please be kind enough to explain how to "Set your default recording profile as your “Rec. Playback”. I am sure it is staring me in the face, but if you could.... Thanks

Goodness. There must eons of Freeware that would do this?
Real Player will download Videos with a simple plugin and convert to a range of formats and devices and play or burn as well..

I just downloaded the software that comment 1 recommends and it works really well on my little, low-powered machine.... thanks

Great, but I like this YouTube Mate:
* downloads YouTube videos
* supports unlimited simultaneous downloads (a real time saver!)
* automatically names the downloaded video the same as the YouTube title
* converts YouTube videos to various video formats, including avi, DivX, XviD, rm, rmvb, MOV, MPEG, and WMV
http://www.youtubetoipod.org/

Why don't you use Internet Download Manager to download and then use Format Factory to convert instead? It's easier, I think

PROS:

* Successful download, installation, activation, registration on Vista Home Premium x64 SP2 OS.
* Smooth program access without needing to use Admin Mode.
* relatively small file size of 4.22 MB.
* Attractive, simple, clean, easy-to-understand, easy-to-navigate GUI.
* Supports input music formats: FLV, MP3, AVI, WMV, MOV, MP4, 3GP.
* Supports output music formats: FLV, MP3, AVI, WMV, MOV, 3GP, HD-MP4, AVI, MPG, WMA, WAV, AAC, AMR.
* For proper formats, user may adjust: BitRate (kbps), Audio BitRate (kbps), Audio Rate (Hz), Frame Rate (FPS), Screen Size (wxh), Audio Channel(Stereo, Mono).
* Can Add new music download via: copy and paste feature.
* Can Auto Save as HQ when HD video is not available.
* Can designate location of output folder.
* Smooth, easy, intuitive program operation.
* Supports Drag & Drop - user may auto-hide the drag zone, if desired.

CONS:

* Program Window is fixed - cannot be maximized, minimized, adjusted.
* Price Point is high, compared with comparable, equally-capable freeware alternatives.
* One-trick pony - only supports YouTube Site video downloads.

SUMMARY: - Nice Program. A definite keeper for me. Thanks, GOTD and YouTubeMusicDownloader.

Freeware Options:

Orbit Downloader - CNET User Rating 4/5.

YouTube Downloader - CNET User Rating 3.5/5

Rediculous that this normally cost not less then $29.95, while with the 100% free Youtubedownload Altervista* eventually in combination with the also 100% free FormatFactory* you can do all this too, even not only for YouTube videos but all online videostreams. Beside that YTDA brings updates that run parallel with technical updates on YouTube. *Download YTDA and FF here: http:/24hr.nl/

I didn't like it... It seemed to hang up and use way to much ram...
If your looking for a product that does youtube --> MP3 use free youtube to mp3 converter.
I had been using it before getting this and now I think Ill stay with free youtube to mp3 converter.

On the plus side it did have a internet browser for youtube but well it didn't even have a back button...

It just seems to bulky to me.

I've never understood why so many developers design this sort of software (and charge for it), since there are so many free tools already in existence.

For me, I use either the online downloader <a href="http://clipnabber.com/"ClipNabber to download the video file, or, when using Firefox, I use the add-on Video DownloadHelper.

Then, to convert the video (or extract just the audio), I use XMedia Recode (in it's portable form) - see XMedia Recode (portable) for instructions on how to make it portable.

Why would you buy this hulk when there's a much quicker way to do this!

1. Get audacity
2. Set your default recording profile as your "Rec. Playback".
3. Start recording (this works for ANYTHING)

The process is called 'Line-in Streaming'