Download YouTube videos in Firefox

YouTube is a very popular web site you can use to share your own videos. When you find a very good video you like, you may want to download the videos to your computer for offline use. This article tells how you can do it.

You can download and save the YouTube videos either using an add-on for Mozilla Firefox or through the help of some web sites. We will discuss only the method using Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a popular browser which works on many operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Linux and Macintosh. If you use Mozilla Firefox, then you can install an add-on Video Download Helper in the Mozilla Firefox browser. This addon helps you download any YouTube video as shown in the following instructions :

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and visit this web page : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
2. Click on the big green Add to Firefox button as shown in the picture. Follow on screen instructions to install the add on. Restart the Mozilla Firefox when prompted.
   
3. After Mozilla Firefox is restarted, you are ready to download YouTube videos. Just view any of your favorite video on YouTube. When the video starts to play, click on the Video Download Helper buttons (colored balloons icon) in the toolbar and select the video to download as shown in the following picture :
   
4. You would see a file download box, just like when you download a file in Mozilla Firefox. Save the file in a location you like.

Playing downloaded YouTube videos

Most of the YouTube videos are either in the MP4 format or in the FLV format. You can install the K-Lite Mega Codec pack for playing these videos on Microsoft Windows. You can also use the VideoLan Media Player to play these videos in Microsoft Windows. If you are using Ubuntu Linux, just try to play a file and it would ask you to install missing plugins; follow onscreen instructions to install them.