Can I download YouTube videos with VLC?

Software similar to VLC Media Player for Mac 6. 60 votes Movist for Mac 2.6.3 Easy-to-use and powerful movie player for macOS based on QuickTime and FFMPEG. Oct 31, 2020 Download VLC 2.2.1 for Mac from our software library for free. The unique identifier for this program's bundle is org.videolan.vlc. Our antivirus check shows that this Mac download is malware free. The software is included in Audio & Video Tools. The latest installer takes up 33.7 MB on disk. The 3.0.12.1 version of VLC media player for Mac is provided as a free download on our software library. The actual developer of this free software for Mac is VideoLAN non-profit organization. The VLC media player installer is commonly called vlc-2.1.0.dmg, vlc-2.1.2.dmg, vlc-2.1.3.dmg, vlc-2.1.4.dmg or vlc-2.1.5.dmg etc. Portable VLC OS X is the VLC video stream and multimedia player packaged as portable application that you can carry around with you on any portable device, USB thumb drive, iPod, portable hard drive, memory card, other portable device (also on your internal hard disk) as long as it has 140 MB of free space and use on any Mac OS X computer, taking your preferences with you. VLC is a media player software and streaming media server developed by VideoLAN, a non-profit organization and project. The program can run on virtually all platforms, including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Android, iOS, and more. Read more below.

Of course, you can.

Name is often misleading, so judge not by name.

So is VLC Media Player.

VLC Media Player is not only a media player, but it can be also a YouTube video downloader through its hidden features.

You might be wondering: How do I download YouTube videos with VLC?

That is pretty easy.

Follow the step-by-step guide below and use VLC to download YouTube streaming videos effortlessly.

Part 1. How to Download YouTube Videos in VLC

Though VLC is not a professional video downloader to save YouTube videos, it can help you rip YouTube videos and export them on the computer via its streaming and playing functions. Here are 2 methods of how to make it.

Rip YouTube Videos in VIC by Streaming

1. Open VLC on your computer, go to Media at the top toolbar and select Open Network Stream.

2. Copy and paste the YouTube video URL into the bar under Network Protocol.

3. Click on the down-arrow associated with the Play button and select Stream.

4. Then the Source information will be shown, just click Next.

5. In the Destination Setup window, make sure that the New destination is selected as File. Then click Add.

6. In the pop-up window, you should click Browse next to Filename to locate where you save the downloaded YouTube video and give the file name. After that, click Next to continue.

7. In the Transcoding Options window, select the exported YouTube video format by clicking the drop-down option of Profile. As usual, click Next.

8. Here, you just need to click Stream and the downloading process will start.

You can check the downloading progress and seconds timer to know if the video has been downloaded successfully. After that, you can check the location you set for storing the YouTube downloads to open and play it.

Export YouTube Movies in VLC by Playing

All the YouTube streaming videos that can be played in VLC will be available to download.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Launch VLC on your computer and click Media at the top to select Open Network Stream.

2. Copy and paste the YouTube video URL into the bar under Network Protocol.

3. Click on the down-arrow associated with the Play button to make sure Play selected.

4. Once the YouTube video starts playing, go to Tools at the toolbar, and select Codec Information.

5. Copy the full URL (It is usually long) next to Location, and paste it in the address bar via your browser.

6. Press Ctrl + S (Or right-click the mouse to select Save video as) to give the video name and choose a location to save it.

That’s done.

Part 2. VLC Not Downloading YouTube Videos? Here Are Solutions

The above ways are the common ways that can help you get YouTube streaming videos downloaded on your computer.

There’s only one caveat: Most videos on YouTube are copyrighted, but VLC can only download those videos with a free license.

As a result, many of you may find VLC is not working to download YouTube videos and pops up the error message:

There are no official solutions to this problem from VLC official help guide.

You can save yourself the frustration by using other YouTube video downloader tools.

Vlc Software For Mac Free

Vidmore Screen Recorder is the best YouTube grabber software, which can save any YouTube videos for offline viewing later. Compared with those YouTube downloaders, the recording way can keep any YouTube video you are playing in your browser, while those YouTube video downloaders may fail to access all the videos.

• Rip video from YouTube, Twitch, Netflix, etc.
• Grab audio from YouTube separately.
• Export YouTube video as MP4, MP3, MOV, etc.
• Save live YouTube video for offline playback.

Let’s streamline the process.

Step 1: Install YouTube recorder on a computer

Download the YouTube video grabber from the above download buttons. It supports Windows and Mac computer so that you can download YouTube videos on Mac with ease.

Run this software and select Video Recorder.

Step 2: Capture a YouTube video

Firstly, you should select the recording area. Just play the YouTube video that you want to save and click Full or Custom to confirm the video region that you want to save.

Then turn on System Sound and disable Microphone to keep the YouTube audio only and avoid any noise around you.

To output YouTube video as a format you need, just click the gear icon to open Preferences, where you can make the settings of output format, quality, mouse clicks, hotkeys, etc.

Step 3: Record and save YouTube video

When everything is done, just click the red REC button to begin recording the YouTube video you are playing.

The floating bar while recording enables you to edit the recording file.

To stop a video recording, just click the stop button and it will direct you to the preview window, where you can use the clip feature optionally to cut down YouTube video and click Save to export it.

Though VLC is not mighty as Vidmore Screen Recorder, it can record YouTube videos. (VLC not recording?)

Part 3. FAQs of VLC Downloading YouTube Videos

How to download YouTube videos in VLC on Android?

Such hidden features as recording, converting, and downloading are only available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. As for Android users, VLC can only work as a media player and cannot download videos.

How to Convert YouTube to MP3 in VLC?

Similar to downloading YouTube videos, you just need to select MP3 as the output format from the drop-down option of Profile in Part 1. If you want to convert downloaded YouTube videos to MP3, check it here.

Vlc Player For Mac Os

Can VLC download subtitles?

Yes. While you watch a video in VLC without subtitle, you can click the Subtitle option and select the Download subtitles option. Then VLC will start searching for the closed captions file online and add the captions to the currently playing movie.

Conclusion

There are many secret features in VLC Media Player and downloading streaming videos is one of them. This page shows the step-by-step guide to save YouTube videos with VLC. However, due to the YouTube copyright protection, many videos may fail to download from YouTube. No worry and this page also recommends a YouTube recorder, Vidmore Screen Recorder, to help you save videos from any websites easily.

Did you find this tutorial helpful? Do not hesitate to share it, or drop your feedback in the comments section below if you have any problem.

Devices and Mac OS X version

VLC media player requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later. It runs on any Mac with a 64-bit Intel processor or an Apple Silicon chip. Previous devices are supported by older releases.
Note that the first generation of Intel-based Macs equipped with Core Solo or Core Duo processors is no longer supported. Please use version 2.0.10 linked below.

If you need help in finding the correct package matching your Mac's processor architecture, please see this official support document by Apple.

Web browser plugin for Mac OS X

Support for NPAPI plugins was removed from all modern web browsers, so VLC's plugin is no longer maintained. The last version is 3.0.4 and can be found here. It will not receive any further updates.

Older versions of Mac OS X and VLC media player

We provide older releases for users who wish to deploy our software on legacy releases of Mac OS X. You can find recommendations for the respective operating system version below. Note that support ended for all releases listed below and hence they won't receive any further updates.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Use VLC 2.2.8. Get it here.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Use VLC 2.0.10. Get it for PowerPC or 32bit Intel.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later is required

Use VLC 0.9.10. Get it for PowerPC or Intel.

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther

QuickTime 6.5.2 or later is required

Use VLC 0.8.6i. Get it for PowerPC.

Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar

Vlc Media Player For Mac Official Website

Use VLC 0.8.4a. Get it for PowerPC.

Vlc Media Player Software For Mac

Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah and 10.1 Puma

Is Vlc Available For Mac

Use VLC 0.7.0. Get it for PowerPC.