I know a few people here use GNU/Linux, so they may find some of this useful.
This is what I use, though I'm certain that there are other ways of doing all this as there always are on GNU/Linux.
These are some command line programmes ... no, not scary but simple. The first two are in the Debian repos, so they will be on Debian derivatives too (you know who you are) and many other distros. They are "cclive" and "youtube-dl".
You go to the directory that you wish to download into, put the programme name followed by the URL of the web page you wish to download the video from, and there you go.
If you put in the programme name followed by --help then you will get a list of options for all sorts of things to do with video quality, file names, bandwidth throttling etc etc. With youtube-dl there are some options for automatically extracting audio files using ffmpeg (or probably avconv in newer versions, not that you'd notice as an end user).
There is also a programme called "clive", though this is no longer actively developed and the developers recommend "cclive".
These are very easy to install, just like any programme from a repository, and easy to use. Below is something slightly more complicated (not much in reality) to install but just as easy to use.
Since youtube occasionally change their setup then cclive and youtube-dl sometimes have a few issues until new versions of them and the libraries they use get into the repos. For this reason I also have a copy of the development version of "get_flash_videos". That is, not the version in the Debian repository.
I use git (a distributed version control system) to get the latest version. There's a page on the "get_flash_videos" website detailing ways in which to get the latest code (
https://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/wiki/Installation ), but this is what I do/did.
First you need to install git. It's already on my systems since I use it every day, but it is not a standard install. On Debian and Debian derived distros.
# aptitude install git
This will have to be done as root of course, or if your setup uses sudo,
# sudo aptitude install git
Then create a directory somewhere for the programme to live in and in that directory run:
# git clone
https://github.com/monsieurvideo/get-flash-videos.gitThat will download everything that you need. It includes a compiled (ie. ready to run) "get_flash_videos" file.
To upate it all, go back into the directory you used "git clone" in and run:
# git pull
This will pull new files onto your computer.
You can run "get_flash_videos" from its own directory if you wish, but it is more convenient to have the programme on the GNU BASH path so that you can run it anywhere by just using its name.
In the file ".bash_profile" (note the preceding dot) in your home directory add a line along these lines:
export PATH=$PATH:/home/your_username/path/to/file/directory
on my box it is as follows:
export PATH=$PATH:/home/ecadre/myfiles/scripts
I keep all sorts of scripts that I have written in that directory, including a sym-link to "get_flash_videos". In your case you will probably just want to point directly at the directory containing the "get_flash_videos" file.
When you've added the line to your bash profile it will append your addition to the machine's path (where it looks to find executable files) every time you log in. You probably don't want to log out and back in again right now, so you can reload BASH's settings:
# source ~/.bash
OK, now you can use "get_flash_videos" in much the same way as cclive and youtube-dl, follow it with "--help" to get info on some extra settings you can use.
NEXT: Using GNASH.
GNASH (a free software replacement for Adobe Flash) will play videos on Youtube (and many other places) in a web browser. You'll find it on all the big distros at the very least.
In GNASH you can set its preferences to save media it plays to a directory on your box. Whilst GNASH is playing a video, right-click on the video and you will get a GNASH menu pop-up, on the media tab tick "save dynamically loaded media to disk" and choose a directory to save it all in.
LASTLY(ish).
If you like programmes that do it all for you, then have a look at Miro. It's in the Debian repos (and lots of other distros) and although I've only ever looked at it briefly, I'm assured that its "great", "really kool" and all that kind of thing. It downloads, plays, converts, hooks up to media devices, plays "channels" from all over the web etc. Oh, and its all free software of course :-)
http://www.getmiro.comThe (ish).
Oh, converting stuff to different formats and audio files. There are a plethora of ways to do it, but you could do worse than trying out VLC (it's availible for Windows and Mac as well). It's a great video player that plays just about anything you can throw at it, it will also convert to masses of formats and leave the video out if you wish just to have an audio file.
Glossary:
repo = repository. Where a GNU/Linux distribution (eg. Debian) keeps all of the files (packages) needed to install thousands of different programmes and libraries. Your computer connects to it over a network (usually the internet) and a packaging manager programme manages what is installed and what you wish to install/uninstall. It also gives security updates and bug fixes for all the programmes in the repository.
BASH = "Bourne again shell", it's essentially the programme that interprets and implements what you type into the command line. There are other shells, but BASH is pretty much default on most GNU/Linux systems.
distro = distribution = For example Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu (OK, I've finally mentioned it), Trisquel (a 100% free software derivative of Ubuntu). It's a combination of programmes, settings etc that together run a complete GNU operating system.
Not really "glossary", but, the "#" above simply indicates the command line, don't type in the #.
Any questions? :-)
Edited: corrected typos