I'm looking for software that would let me download YouTube videos as video files to the hard drive.
- Don't care much about format being saved as long as Windows VLC can play it out of the box.
- I'm not an expert on different formats of YouTube videos; if there are different ones, the software must support them all.
- Must save both video and audio.
I strongly prefer
- Freeware.
- Automatic acknowledgement if some video triggers "18+ years only" warning.
- Ability to download batches (e.g. GUI that accepts a list of URLs, OR command line interface with URL parameter that I can wrap in a loop in batch/Perl/Powershell script).
- Save all URL links (to different videos or other sites) embedded in the YouTube video. Format doesn't matter - could be just a text file on the side.
Furthermore, it would be nice if the tool also considers the following options
- Download video sets defined by YouTube, e.g. all uploads from a user; or entire channel.
- Ability to remember download history, e.g. do "Download all videos from the channel you didn't already download".
- Skip advertisements. Not an problem if it doesn't.
Furthermore
- Windows platform (XP 32 bit compatible preferred but not required)
- All things being equal (e.g. 100% same features and quality) standalone software is preferred over FF/Chrome plugins. But if a given plugin is better than anything standalone, I'm fine with a plugin.