TubeTV

Flash video download and conversion for Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod

Got an Apple TV, video iPod, or iPhone and want more content for it? Wish you could watch YouTube on your TV or iPod? Like to keep copies of your favorite internet videos on your Mac?

What can it do?

TubeTV is a freeware program for Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, and above which enables you to search for, save, and convert YouTube and many other flash videos to a format suitable for playback on your favorite devices.

A built in search bar and web browser helps you conveniently locate your favorite videos from common sites such as YouTube. If you prefer, a single button or menu option will grab the currently displayed URL or movie from your default web browser (Safari, Camino, Firefox, or OmniWeb). High quality video conversions using the H.264 codec are performed with QuickTime and Perian. If desired, TubeTV can add exported movies directly to iTunes and set appropriate comment tags enabling you to create a smart playlist. Alternately, double clicking on a converted video file will open it in iTunes or drag and drop a saved video file on to QuickTime Player to view it locally.

Isn't this already part of Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch?

Yes, it's true that Apple has added YouTube support to the Apple TV (June 20th, 2007) and iPhone, but TubeTV can still be helpful for saving your favorite videos and adding them permanently to your library. The YouTube options on the Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch don't have access to the entire YouTube library, and it's also possible you'd want to add content from other web sites besides YouTube - TubeTV works with most flash video on many different web sites. It's also still a great solution for viewing content on your video iPod, phone, or locally on your Mac.

What else is it good for? Older computers tend to be too slow to play YouTube videos at full speed - they stutter and skip frames. Use TubeTV to download the movie and then play back the flv file with QuickTime player at full speed rather than suffering through the stutter - this works even on an eight year old Mac like a G4 400 MHz tower (from 1999!).

Localizations

TubeTV has been localized into Spanish, German, and French. Thanks to our localizers for their time and effort on this - more details on the TubeTV web page.

Features

• Built in browser with search bar for YouTube and Google Video movies.
• Support for many other sites which use flash video.
• Support for bookmarking movies (requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher).
• Optional history of recently viewed movies (requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher).
• Ability to download using the flash video cache if the entire movie has been loaded.
• "Download without watching" technology enables you to save a movie without first watching it.
• Auto export video as flv (flash video), or for Apple TV, Video iPod, the 3rd generation iPod nano, the iPod Touch, iPhone, or other generic cell phone. See full compatibility list below.
• Batch download.
• Batch convert existing movies from your Mac.
• Ability to add exported movies to iTunes with appropriate tags for smart playlist creation.
• Uses the high quality H.264 video codec for export (with exception of the generic cell phone setting).
• Option to grab URL or movie from your default browser (Safari, Firefox, Camino, or OmniWeb).
• Universal binary - Intel, PPC native; written with Cocoa.

What is new in this release:

• [new feature] Fully cached flash movies can now be saved immediately rather than re-downloading (requires Leopard or higher).
• [new feature] Support for bookmarking movies (favorites) added (requires Leopard or higher).
• [new feature] Optional history of recently viewed movies (requires Leopard or higher).
• [new feature] New and improved version checking system which can actually download new releases rather than just sending the user to a web site.
• [new feature] Redesigned progress window which behaves more like users expect with regard to resizing and positioning. Progress items have a new option to reveal associated files in the Finder.
• [new feature] Enhanced preferences with more user customizability.
• [new feature] Various UI enhancements.
• [new feature] New option to automatically add converted movies to the TubeTV playlist in iTunes (playlist is created if not present). Movies are tagged to enable users to easily create smart playlists.
• [new feature] New option to attempt a movie download from your default web browser without first displaying the movie in TubeTV.
• [new feature] Support for downloading movies from dailymotion.com.
• [bugfix] Fixed a problem on certain web sites where the save button wouldn't remain enabled even though it should have.
• [bugfix] Fixed a crasher which could occur in rare cases when attempting to load a preview thumbnail using Perian.
• [other] Retooled help system with much more information about all aspects of TubeTV.
• [other] This version is localized in German by Uhde and Wolf-Jakob Gratz, French by Antoine Desir, and Spanish by Francisco Lopez.
• [other] Numerous other small changes and improvements.

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
• Mac OS X 10.5 for full functionality
• QuickTime 7.4 or higher
• Perian 1.0 or higher (http://perian.org/)