A lot of people wonder how to download videos from YouTube, and whenever I get the chance, I recommend a handy little program called YouTube Downloader to them. It's small and simple, but it does exactly what I need it to and rarely fails me.
You can download it here: http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/
Click on the green Free Download button. The trial has a few minor limitations, but it does not expire, although you will occasionally need to go back to the site and re-download it as YouTube's code changes and the downloader starts having problems.
To download a video, simply copy the URL and paste it into the white box in the Download tab. When it's finished downloading, you can convert it to various formats such as .avi, .wmv, and even .mp3. You can view the progress of both downloading and converting in the Activity tab.
I've been using YTD since an acquaintance recommended it to me in early 2009, but only recently did I notice that the Convert tab gives you the option to retain the quality of the original file. This makes me very happy. =) Sometimes I want to convert a video just so it will take up less space on my computer, but I don't like degrading the quality.
One thing I don't like about YTD is that it won't let me download age-restricted videos, even if I sign in on it. I've re-downloaded it several times and it still has this problem. Oh well... I don't download many age-restricted videos anyway, I promise. ;)
