Download 720p high definition videos from YouTube

Dec 03, '08 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Slinkwyde

YouTube just added a new quality level, in addition to normal quality and high quality: 720p high definition! As such, I've modified another bookmarklet previously posted as a hint here so that it now downloads these 720p HD versions in H.264 QuickTime .mp4 glory, ready for use with iTunes, Apple TV, with no transcoding required.

To use it, just drag the bookmarklet from this page to your Bookmarks bar, then click it while viewing a YouTube 720p HD video.

[robg adds: For those interested, here's the source code of the bookmarklet:

javascript:if%20(document.getElementById('download-youtube-video')==null%20&&%20!!(document.location.href.match(/http:%5C/%5C/%5Ba-zA-Z%5C.%5D*youtube%5C.com%5C/watch/)))%20%7Bvar%20yt_mp4_path='http://www.youtube.com/get_video?fmt=22&video_id='+swfArgs%5B'video_id'%5D+'&t='+swfArgs%5B't'%5D;%20var%20div_embed=document.getElementById('watch-embed-div');div_embed.innerHTML=div_embed.innerHTML+'%3Cbr%20/%3E%20%3Cspan%20id=%5C'download-youtube-video%5C'%3E%3Ca%20href=%5C''+yt_mp4_path+'%5C'%3EDownload%20as%20720p%20HD%20MP4%3C/a%3E%20'+%20%20((navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Safari')!=-1)?'(control-click%20and%20select%20%3Ci%3EDownload%20linked%20file%20as%3C/i%3E)':('(right-click%20and%20select%20%3Ci%3ESave%20'+%20(navigator.appName=='Microsoft%20Internet%20Explorer'?'target':'link')%20+'%20as)%3C/i%3E'))+'%3C/span%3E';%7Dvoid(0);
When clicked, the bookmarklet will place a new download link into the gray box on the right-hand side of the YouTube page. Depending on your browser, you can Control-click the link and save the target of the link. In Firefox, I just Option-clicked the link, and it worked. I did have to rename the downloaded file, as it was originally named get_video.htm. After renaming with an mp4 extension, the video played perfectly. (I used this video for testing.)]

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