YouTube FreeLoader

YouTube FreeLoader is a simple, intuitive, Windows^® YouTube video downloading utility that you can use for FREE. It is designed to sit in the background, minimized to the system tray, downloading youtube.com flv videos automatically.

Features..

• Extremely simple to operate - input a youtube.com URL, and go..
• As well as the URL input, URLs can come from the command-line, the clipboard, internet shortcuts.
• Video files are saved with their proper YouTube titles, not the file ID (though you can have that inserted automatically, if you wish).
• YouTube FreeLoader can watch the clipboard for youtube.com links, and download your videos in the background, automatically.
• Optional, configurable audio alert when download completes.
• Queue up your next download during the current download - simply copy a youtube link to your clipboard.
• YouTube FreeLoader can automatically search for the biggest version and download only that one - perfect for all those Hi-Def/HD/HQ videos.
• YouTube FreeLoader logs all its activity inside the main GUI, and optionally, to a file.
• Batch Operation: Send YouTube FreeLoader a text file full of youtube links, it will grab the videos from them all.
• Recent URLs are remembered in a drop-down list (right-click it to wipe).
• YouTube FreeLoader can send your downloaded videos directly to your media player or converter, or any other program, for custom post-processing, using whatever parameters you require.
• Uses your local youtube.com server, whenever you do..
  Supports au, br, ca, cz, fr, de, hk, il, in, ie, it, jp, kr, mx, nl, nz, pl, ru, es, se, tw, and uk country codes.

YouTube FreeLoader likes to be small..

You can still see all the important information..

Bigger is good, too. You can see exactly what it's up to..

That log can also be automatically saved to a file..

Preferences..

Most of YouTube FreeLoader's options are fairly self-explanatory, though some contain hidden features you might want to know about, and a couple might be unfamiliar, so here I'll run through them, explaining as-I-go..

The Watch Clipboard setting does exactly that; watching your system clipboard and waiting for youtube.com links. If enabled, when a new youtube.com link is copied into your clipboard, YouTube FreeLoader will grab it and begin downloading the video immediately. You can also set how often YouTube FreeLoader checks the clipboard for new links, in seconds (Poll).

Beep when done.. plays an audio alert at the end of each download. This is handy if you are running YouTube FreeLoader hidden, or for larger downloads. The input can be either left alone (in which case the checkbox will enable/disable a short beep from your PC speaker), a Hz value (enter some number between 37 and 19999), or the full path to a WAV file. You can also drag and drop WAV files directly onto the input, at which point they will be immediately tested. You can also test any of the beep settings by clicking the green arrow (play) button.

Overwrite Files is unchecked by default; in which case, if YouTube FreeLoader finds an existing file with the same name, it will rename it automatically with a date & timestamp. If you would prefer to simply overwrite any existing files, check this. Note: This only applies to completed downloads.

ToolTips enables handy ToolTip help when you hover your mouse over any of the controls. The window needs to be re-built for this setting to take effect, either re-opening the preferences window, or in the case of ToolTips in the main GUI, restarting YouTube FreeLoader.

Hover to show is a funky little setting specifically designed for "Tool Windoids", like YouTube FreeLoader is. Basically, if the main window has become hidden behind other windows on your desktop, you can hover the mouse over its tray icon, and it will pop to the front. The slider underneath sets the sensitivity. Set that to 1, and you will have to hover the mouse over the tray icon for a good second to activate the window. Set it to 10, and YouTube FreeLoader will leap to the front instantly. 8 is a good setting for fast mousers.

Output Colors sets the background and foreground colors for the log output. Click the color wells to pop up the system color chooser. You can store colors in there, too, and they will be remembered after a restart.

Downloads Folder.. is where your videos get downloaded to. If the folder does not exist, YouTube FreeLoader will create it. You can drag folders onto this input, or select one by clicking the button to the right of the input.

Log to a file.. can be left blank to disable logging to a file (you still get the current log in the main window). Or else enter the full path to the log file. You can also drag files onto the input (if there is data in them already, YouTube FreeLoader will warn you about this). If you drag a folder onto this input, a log file will be created in that folder, using the default log name.

Execute Command.. If you like, you can have YouTube FreeLoader run a command on your downloaded files as soon as they arrive. You could send them directly to your media player, or pehaps to a video converter, or whatever you need. Simply enter the full path of the program you wish to use. You can also add custom parameters, if required. Either way, YouTube FreeLoader will automatically append the full path of the downloaded video to the command. If you need to put parameters after the file's path, then use %1 to specify the downloaded video file, and YouTube FreeLoader will not append it. Examples..

Open the file in Media Player Classic (at least on my system!)..

@programsdir\Multimedia\codecs\cccp\MPC\mplayerc.exe

Send downloaded video to ffe, and immediately execute the "FLV to AVI" preset, to convert it to an AVI..

@programsdir\corz\ffe\ffe.exe go(FLV to AVI)

In the examples above, YouTube Freeloader has automatically added the file's path onto the end of the command - we don't have to. In this next example, sending the downloaded video to a fictional media converter; convert.exe, the file path is required in the middle of the parameters, and so we will specify it ourselves (and while we're at it, use that string to also create part of the output file name)..

@programsdir\multimedia\convert.exe /in "%1" /out "%1.avi"

Note: If you are specifying the downloaded file yourself (with %1), and are working with long paths, you will need to put your own quotes in the command line, where required, as in the above example. You do NOT need to add quotes around the path of the .exe file.

Lastly, there's a special switch you can add, *hide, which will attempt to run the program hidden. You can put this switch anywhere in the parameters. I say "attempt", because many programs will resist this. Note, the actual string, "*hide", is removed from your command before being sent to the chosen program.

@tokens

You probably spotted the use of @tokens. These are special short-form strings you can use to specify folder paths on your computer. Available tokens: @appdatacommon, @appdatadir, @desktop, @homedir, @mydocs, @programsdir, @userdir, and @windowsdir. These @tokens work for any preference with file or folder paths.

As well as being easier to type than their file system counterparts, these tokens dynamically transform at run-time to whatever their current value is on your system. You could set some preference to @userdir\something, and even if that folder were to move, the preference still points to the correct place, along with other advantages.

Note: YouTube Freeloader will automatically Tokenize any eligible paths you save.

Frequently Asked Questions..

What is the Clipboard?

The Clipboard is an area of global memory on your system. It can be used to store text, images, sounds, any data, and is available to all applications running in your user space. Because the Clipboard is syetem-wide, its data can be shared between applications. Most applications have an Edit menu, with Clipboard commands, and their HotKeys (keyboard shortcuts).

The basic HotKey controls for the Clipboard are, Ctrl+C (Hold down the Ctrl key whilst simultaneously pressing the C key) to "copy" data INTO the clipboard, and Ctrl+V to "paste" it back out again (the actions roughly analagous to the Clipboard's real-word counterpart). There's also "cut", which is just like copy, except the data is deleted from the original location. Once you realize it's there; and a surprising number of computer users don't; the Clipboard is a massive time-saver.

For example, you could copy a password from a text file, and paste it into a website login; not only saving more typing, but guaranteeing the password's accuracy. This also means you can use ridiculously complex passwords, so long as you keep that text file secure!

How do I put a youtube link into my clipboard?

There are a number of ways to get your youtube URLs into your Clipboard. In most browsers, you simply right-click a link, and choose "Copy Link Location" (Firefox), or perhaps "Copy Link address" (Opera), or "Copy Shortcut" (IE), or something along those lines. As soon as you select this menu item, the URL will be in the clipboard, and YouTube FreeLoader will see it.

If you are already at the page, simply click the address bar and hit Ctrl+C. In most browsers, when you click the address, all the text is automatically selected, so it's ready-to-go straight into the Clipboard. You could also right-click the selected address bar text and choose the appropriate item from the context menu.

Itstory..

Embedded fresh from..
http://corz.org/engine?section=beta/windows/youtube-freeloader&source=version.nfo

YouTube FreeLoader info complete!

That's about it for YouTube FreeLoader. Hopefully it should be intuitive to operate, and the program will just work for you without any more help from me. But if you do have any questions, or issues, or find a bug; feel free to leave a comment below.

YouTube FreeLoader download..

YouTube FreeLoader is free to download, and free to use. But if you discover any bugs, please do let me know about them!

Note: You will need a unicode capable Windows^® system to run YouTube FreeLoader, that is; Windows 2000, 2K3, XP, Vista, and later Windows operating systems. YouTube FreeLoader will not  run on Windows 9x.


Have fun!

;o) Cor