ClipGrab

What is ClipGrab

Clipgrab is a video downloader that can be accessed outside of your browser. It is compatible with all the most well-known video websites including Vimeo, CollegeHumor, DailyMotion, Tudou and, of course, the ever-present YouTube. You can download a file and keep it in its original format or use the Clipgrab converter to save it as a different format. Supported formats so far include MPEG4, OGG Vorbis, OGG Theora, WMV and MP3. Conversion may not be possible from all sites, as Vimeo files seem to have difficulty saving as anything but FLV format, but for the most part the converter works fine.

Clipgrab also allows you to download in HD if that option is available in the original video. There's a drop-down menu that lets you select the quality you want. Of course, a video that was shoddy quality when it was first uploaded isn't going to fix itself when you download it, but you can at least match the quality of the original file. Since most streaming videos are severely compressed to save on bandwidth, this is a huge help.

Downloading from Clipgrab is quick and easy. You can even change the program's settings to automatically start downloading any time you paste a video link. The download speed is impressive, especially compared to other similar programs that take forever and lock up your computer from doing anything else.

The fact that Clipgrab is independent of your Internet browser can be a pro or a con, depending on how you want to use the program. On one hand, if you want to download a bunch of videos at once, you can just copy the links over to a text document and paste them all into the program at the end of the day. That way, all the downloading happens seamlessly while you sleep.

If, however, you're more likely to want to download a video here and a video there, you might find it frustrating to keep the program open constantly on your computer. Even if that is the case, Clipgrab won't significantly slow down your computer or take up extra space, so if you do have to keep it open all day ready to download clips as you need them, it won't be much of a hassle.

One update to newer versions of Clipgrab allows the program to add ID3 artist tags to MP3-converted videos when they're available. This means that if YouTube has the artist and song title listed, you won't have to input that information yourself when you put the file in your media library.

Clipgrab isn't a perfect program, but it's small, speedy and easy to use. If you download a lot of videos, you'll probably save a good amount of time using this for your downloads.

Pros:

• Converts to most popular file formats, including audio-only
• Choose from several quality options to get best-looking download
• Quick and easy downloads
• Adds ID3 tags to MP3 fils

Cons:

• Converter may be finicky depending on original site
• Not integrated with browser