C A L P O L Y - C E N T E R F O R T E A C H I N G & L E A R N I N G

Downloading YouTube Videos

for Safekeeping
Tutorials By: Dr. Luanne Fose

A Classroom Tutorial for Cal Poly Faculty & Staff Fall 2010

Introduction
Have you ever found a YouTube video that was absolutely perfect to illustrate a pertinent point for your class and then later went
to find that it was no longer posted there? What’s an instructor to do? Some schools and universities (right now Cal Poly is not
one of them) even go as far as to ban YouTube from the available possible sites that students are allowed to visit on lab comput-
ers; thus, it isn’t always feasible to send your students to a YouTube video to confirm a learning concept. This tutorial was de-
signed to assist you in various methods for downloading YouTube videos for safekeeping so that you can store the actual video
on your computer hard drive or save to CD-ROM. YouTube videos are created with Flash but the web masters of the site have
chosen to lock them down so you can’t simply right-click the videos and save them to your desktop. Follow the steps below to
download the .flv video file itself. You also won’t have to rely on an internet connection to show them later on in your class since
you have the actual video to play from your computer.

5. While it is playing, open the Window > Activity menu.

and expand the toggle arrow on the Activity menu.
Download YouTube Videos with Safari
(Macintosh & Windows... Yes, Windows!) 6. Scroll down and hunt for the largest file. This is the video
file on the YouTube web page. It usually has the words
1. You must have an application that can play .flv (Flash
VIDEOPLAYBACK in it or is changing in size as you look
Video) files You'll need an application like VLC Player or
at it because you are playing the video and it is sending
FLV Player to view the Flash video that you are going to
to your computer.
download from YouTube. Download VLC Player from:
7. Double-click on the file. Safari will open a new window
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ with no address. Simply close the window.

and install it on your Macintosh or Windows computer. 8. The video should begin to download which you should be
able to see in the Download Manager (If you can’t see
2. WINDOWS USERS: If you prefer the FLV Player (for Win- the Download Manager, go to Window > Downloads.
dows only), you can download it for free at the following
URL: 9. In most cases, the video will be called videoplayback.flv
and will be playable with the VLC Player or any video
http://www.download.com/FLV-Player/3000-2139_4-1 player on your computer that will play Flash .flv files.
0467081.html However, in some cases, the file it downloads doesn't
have a file type extension on it and you need to have the
proper extension on it for it to play properly. To add the
3. Install the Safari browser if it isn’t already on your com- file extension, follow the instructions below in Step 10 or
puter. The technique we are going to use here to grab 11, depending upon whether you’re a Mac user or a Win-
YouTube videos requires the Safari browser instead of dows user.
Firefox or Internet Explorer. Safari has been one of the
favorite browsers of Macintosh users for quite some time. 10. ON A MAC: Right-click on the VIDEOPLAYBACK file
Now it is for Windows users as well. Download and install that was downloaded to your Desktop and select Get
Safari at: Info. In the Name & Extension box, add the extension
.flv This is the extension for Flash video (i.e., the format
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ that YouTube uses for all its videos) A dialog box will ap-
pear asking if you are sure you want to add this exten-
sion. Click on the Add button. Also, in the Get Info box,
4. After you have installed Safari, open Safari and go the you can select Open with and select for this file type of
http://www.youtube.com website. Find the video you .flv to always open with VLC Player. If you want your
wish to download. Play it.

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computer to handle all .flv files with the VLC application, will convert the video and send you an email when it’s ready
then click the Change All... button. with a pointer to where you can download the completed
converted video from. The videos only remain on their server
11. ON A WINDOWS COMPUTER: Right-click on the video for 1 day so you have to fast about retrieving it if you decide
file that was downloaded to your Desktop and select to use this method but it is handy!
Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click on the
General tab. In the textbox that is there, add the exten- For more info about some other grabbing and converting utili-
sion .flv to the end of the file name so that it says ties, please visit:
VIDEOPLAYBACK.flv Make sure that you have installed
the VLC Player before the next step. Next to Opens http://mashable.com/2007/05/05/download-youtube-vide
with:, make sure it says VLC Media Player. If it doesn’t, o/
click on the Change button and select VLC Media
Player from the list and click OK. This causes .flv files to Another tool that Windows users might want to consider is
always open with the VLC Media Player. When you are Kick YouTube (Visit: http://kickyt.com). Kick YouTube is a
finished making the changes to the Properties dialog box, free AVS video converter tool that you can use to download
click Accept and then OK. and convert YouTube videos to various formats. (Sorry Mac
users, it is a Windows only tool.)
12. Now you have the YouTube video file on your computer
for playing without an internet connection or for safe-
keeping. Burn it to a CD to make sure you don’t lose it if
your computer crashes completely and needs reformat- Embed YouTube Videos within Blackboard
ting in the future.
Obviously, you can link to YouTube videos from Blackboard
by simply using Blackboard’s External Link option to take
students directly from Blackboard to a video on the YouTube
Download YouTube Videos with TubeTV web site. However, there is another more pedagogically-
(Mac Only) effective method for placing YouTube videos in Blackboard:
Embed them so that it actually appears as if the YouTube vid-
There are also a lot of freeware and shareware tools on the eos are playing within your Blackboard course. This approach
market to help you download YouTube videos. One of the will keep your students from getting lost in the “black hole”
better ones for the Mac is TubeTV (Sorry, Windows users - that is YouTube and hopefully, will encourage them to con-
they don’t have a PC version). Check it out and download it tinue concentrating on your Blackboard course content. Be-
from: http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/tubetv/ low are the steps to embedding a YouTube video within
Blackboard:
TubeTV allows you to search for the YouTube video in your
browser and grabs whatever URL is in your address bar. It will 1. Open up Firefox and go to http://www.youtube.com.
then download the .flv file (if you have it set to do so in its (Please note that this method of embedding YouTube vid-
Preferences) and converts the video to either Apple TV (m4v) eos in Blackboard must be done with the Firefox browser
or iPod format for playing in iTunes. However, if you also because Firefox displays ALL the formatting options avail-
download the Perian QuickTime Component and install it able for use in the Blackboard Text area.)
(Note: A dialog box will ask you if you want it when you in-
stall TubeTV), you can then play .flv files on QuickTime Player. 2. Search YouTube for the video you wish to embed.
If you have QuickTime Pro (an additional $29.95 download
from Apple), you can then convert the .flv file to whatever 3. Below the YouTube video, you will see a button labeled
format you desire. <Embed>. Click on this <Embed> button.

Other YouTube Grab and Conversion Tools

Figure 1: YouTube Embed Button
There are tons of other tools you can get for free that allow
you to grab YouTube videos and some will even convert them
4. A dialog box will appear underneath with some check-
into other formats. One web-based conversion tool you
boxes. Uncheck the box that says Include related vid-
might want to consider is Zamzar:
eos. (Note: We don’t want students distracted by other
http://www.zamzar.com/ YouTube videos; after all, avoidance of the “related videos
black hole” that students often stumble into was the rea-
With Zamzar, you can provide the URL for a video (up to 100 son we selected to employ this method of downloading
MB in size) on its web page; choose the type of format you YouTube videos in the first place.)
want for conversion (there are a variety of choices listed on its
pull-down menu); and provide your email address. Zamzar

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Figure 3: Blackboard Options

13. Scroll down to the bottom right of the Blackboard web

page and click the Submit button; then click OK.

14. Now, if you wish, change the numbering order of the item
Figure 2: Embed Dialog Box in Blackboard by pulling down on the drop-down menu
next to its number sequence and selecting the position
order you desire.
5. In the embed text box above this, select all of the embed
code that resides there (i.e., use Command-A on Macin-
tosh or Control-A on Windows to select all of the text of
the embedded code, which will begin with the code <ob-
ject width= and end with the code </embed></object>).
Figure 4: Change Number Order in Blackboard
6. Now copy the embed text to your computer’s clipboard by 15. To test the embedded video in Blackboard, simply click
pressing Command-C (Macintosh) or Control-C (Win- on the play arrow in the middle of the YouTube embedded
dows). file in Blackboard and the YouTube video should play di-
rectly in the Blackboard window without going off to the
7. Leave the YouTube web site and open your Blackboard YouTube web site.
course by logging in through the Cal Poly portal and navi-
gating to your Blackboard course. 16. Note: Because Blackboard is simply pointing to the file,
please be aware that this is not a method for ensuring
8. Once you have entered the Blackboard course, click on you have the video as an archive for all-time usage during
the Control Panel link and select the proper link to the the rest of your teaching career at Cal Poly. By using the
location in your Blackboard course where you wish to embed method explained above, you are simply pointing
place the video (e.g., Course Documents, Assignments, to the YouTube video at the YouTube web site (i.e., the
Videos, etc.) video is actually residing on YouTube’s server and could
be taken down at any time by YouTube); however, if you
9. Click on the Item button and provide a Name for the video use this method of embedding the video in Blackboard, it
in the Blackboard text box. will appear to the student as if they have never left the
Blackboard web page.
10. Below the Name area, you will see a text box labeled
Text with all sorts of formatting buttons provided for text
editing. Click on the <> button. (Note: You’ll know you’re
on the correct button if you hover your mouse over this <>
button and it displays the words “Toggle HTML Source
Mode”. Be advised that If you’re not using Firefox, you
may not have the ability to see the <> button.)

11. Now In the text box under the Blackboard Text formatting
buttons, paste the embed code you copied from You-
Tube’s text box in Step 6 above. (Note: To paste the code,
simply use Command-V on the Macintosh or Control-V
on Windows.)

12. Select the Yes button next to Make the content avail-
able, select whether or not to Track number of views and
if desired, Choose date and time restrictions (Note: Do-
ing nothing in the Choose date and time restrictions area
will make the content appear immediately as long as you
requested Yes for Make the content available.)

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