I often see users ask how to download YouTube videos in Ubuntu, but the answers given out often vary widely in their complexity.
From command-line scripts to web-based convertors and integrated all-in-one desktop tools like MiniTube. Heck, even VLC can do it with a little know-how. Suffice to say, there are number of ways to download YouTube videos in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.
As a fan of the “keep is simple” approach I find that the best app for this job is the one I see don’t see recommended enough. It’s called ClipGrab and is fast, free and easy to use.
In this post I’ll show you what it can do and how you can install it in Ubuntu. Before we dive in be sure to read over the ClipGrab privacy policy before installing.
Downloading YouTube Videos in Ubuntu The Easy Way
Most of us waste spend countless hours over on sites like YouTube and Vimeo gawping at cat videos, giggling at the latest vlogs by “web-lebrities” and learning new tricks through handy how-to’s. Sometimes you may need to save a video for offline viewing, backup purposes or another reason.
How?
ClipGrab is a free cross-platform YouTube downloader that also supports other services, including Vimeo and DailyMotion. It offers a number of useful features, including options for quality and conversion, letting you download videos in a number of formats, like .mp4, .mp3, and .ogv, as part of the download process.
It couldn’t be easier to use:
- Find a video on a supported service (or search in-app)
- Paste the URL in to ClipGrab
- Select a file format and set the quality
- Download
Key Clipgrab Features:
- Search for videos in-app
- Paste URL of clips you wish to download
- Download multiple clips at the same time
- Choose download quality, from 260p to 720p
- Convert downloads to .mp3, .mp4, .flv, .ogg, .ogv or other file formats
- Add meta-data to videos saved as .mp3
Dive into ‘Settings’ for more options, including the ability to specify the default folder, enabling metadata embeds to saved downloads, configuring proxy support, enabling a system tray icon and a few other tweaks.
Remember: only download videos to which you own the rights to or have permission for (you’re free to download ours for offline viewing). Downloading copyrighted material without permission could land you in hot water — and not the sort of hot water that a rubber duck floats on!
How to Install Clipgrab in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
There a several ways to install Clipgrab in Ubuntu.
If you’re on a 64-bit build of Ubuntu 14.10 (or later) you can download a precompiled binary from the official project website. Once extracted, the app can be run with a double click. No install required.
The Clipgrab-team PPA provides the latest builds for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS users only. To install from this repo you will need to run the following commands in a Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:clipgrab-team/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install clipgrab
Alternative, if PPAs aren’t your thing, you can nab the relevant .deb installer from the PPA directly from the links below.