• TubeTV
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  • Features
  • Known Issues
• Release Notes
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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!).

Other details...

This software doesn't require an installer; just copy it to your Applications folder and launch. Note that Perian is required for video conversions - refer to the requirements listed below for more information.

TubeTV is featured as Merlin's pick of the week in episode 40 of the MacBreak Weekly Podcast (er. Netcast), and in episode 106 of the Mac ReviewCast Podcast! Thanks guys!

A preference sets whether or not the downloaded flash video (flv) movie is converted to H.264 automatically after downloading. If conversion is enabled, you will end up with two movie files in your chosen download folder unless you have selected the auto-delete original option. The file ending in .m4v is the one you should open with iTunes and sync to your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. For other cell phones, the file will end with a .3gp extension. The .flv file can be opened directly with QuickTime Player for local viewing.

If you have a third generation iPod nano, use the conversion settings for iPhone since the nano has a higher resolution display than the regular video iPods. Also use this setting for the new iPod Touch.

Localizations

TubeTV has been localized into several languages besides English. Thanks to our localizers for their time and effort on this.

Bienvenue dans TubeTV !

TubeTV est une programme gratuit pour Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, et ultérieur qui vous permet de chercher et enregistrer des vidéos sur YouTube et autres sites basés sur le format Flash dans un format adapté pour la lecture sur votre Apple TV, ordinateur (iTunes ou QuickTime Player), iPod vidéo, iPhone, ou autre téléphone mobile.

Herzlich willkommen zu TubeTV!

TubeTV ist eine Freeware-Software für Mac OS X Tiger und Leopard, die es Ihnen erlaubt, YouTube Videos und andere flashbasierte Filme zu suchen und in einem Format abzuspeichern, das das Abspielen auf Apple TV, einem Computer (mit iTunes oder dem QuickTime Player), einem videofähigen iPod, dem iPhone oder einem anderen Mobiltelefon ermöglicht.

Features

• Free! (donations appreciated)
• 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.

Downloads

OS	CPU	Languages	Version	Date	Size	Download
10.4 or higher *		English, French, German, Spanish *	1.0	2/9/2008	1.1 MB

Release notes are also available.

Requirements

Known Issues

• 1.0
• If TubeTV is stored on a network volume (server, other Mac, etc.) and used over the network without first copying it to the local Mac, exporting movies will fail with an error.
• 0.9.2
• Some flash movies may cause TubeTV to crash when it attempts to download them. This is actually a problem with Perian 1.0 (the plugin which adds flash support to QuickTime), and the movies actually crash QuickTime player as well. According to the Perian bug tracking system, the next version of Perian should fix this problem.
• 0.9
• Files which contain accent marks or unicode characters in their names cannot be converted to other formats. This problem has been fixed in TubeTV 0.9.1.
• 0.8
• TubeTV versions prior to 0.9 will not convert files with Perian 1.0 or later; make sure to use Perian 0.5 with these.

Credits and Fine Print

Special thanks to the hard work of our localizers! These kind people spent hours of their time to improve the Mac experience for people in their countries by increasing the number of localized programs. To find out more about localization, visit our localization page.

Version 1.0: Björn Uhde and Wolf-Jakob Gratz for German (Deutsch), Antoine Desir for French (Français), Francisco López for Spanish (Español). Version 0.9: Preben Nielsen for Danish. Version 0.7: Carlos Leopoldo Magaña Zavala for Spanish (Español).

Thanks to Colin Curtin for designing the TubeTV icon! Certain portions of this software for QuickTime® importing and exporting are adapted from Apple sample code. Thanks also to Dave Batton of Mere Mortal software for his sample preferences code. YouTube, Google, and Apple do not endorse or support this project in any way. Use at your own risk.