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Here is an easy way to download videos of all types and keep them organized

Here is an easy way to download videos of all types and keep them organized

Vote: (2,152 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: KastorSoft

Version: 6.0.0.0

Works under: Windows

Also available for Android

Vote:

Program license

(2,152 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

KastorSoft

6.0.0.0

Works under:

Also available for

Windows

Android

Pros

  • Freeware
  • Supports YouTube and more
  • Search multiple sites at once
  • Converts to supported media formats

Cons

  • Obnoxious ads
  • Resource intensive
  • Concurrent downloads limited

All Video Downloader simplifies download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and more.

All Video Downloader is a program by KasterSoft that is ad-supported but offers a paid option, and it has been fully updated to support the latest Windows version. The purpose of the program is to provide a different experience when accessing YouTube and other video streaming websites. These web services want you to stream their content rather than download it. If you want to watch it again, you have to interact with their advertising again. All Video Downloader helps you step around this by downloading the file to your computer. The goal here is not just to avoid ads but to avoid buffering issues, conserve bandwidth usage, enjoy videos offline and archive content that may be removed at a later date.

Let us discuss the paid and ad-supported nature of this program before moving on. You can download and install All Video Downloader at no charge, and you can continue using it as much as you like and as often as you like without paying anything at all. However, this free version of the program is not actually free since it serves you ads while using it. The ads are abundant and quite obnoxious. They make watching videos as they download unenjoyable. It also exacerbates the issues with resource usage, which we will discuss at the end of the review. Many users will use All Video Downloader in a set-and-forget mode. Users who are more hands on will certainly want to consider buying the lifetime license.

If you are willing to buy the program or can look past the ads, All Video Downloader is pretty fantastic. This is the only downloader you will ever need because it already supports more than 280 websites that stream videos. In addition to YouTube, this includes Dailymotion, Vimeo, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and so on. It also includes many websites you have probably never heard of it, and if you are a fan of sites that stream adult content, do not fret; all of those services are supported as well.

The user interface is simple, clean and modern. KasterSoft has done a good job of keeping the presentation up to date. The main UI has an options menu on the left-hand side. The central list box lists filenames along with their status, download percentage and time remaining estimate. The bottom section lists the output path and output format and provides options to change them. There is also a small inline video player, which can be expanded to full size. There is also an integrated web browser, which can be useful at times but will more often than not be ignored by most users.

The search feature is in its own window rather than pane. One gripe we have with the UI is that search should be in a pane on the main page or at least an undockable window. As it is, you will often find yourself swapping back and forth between these two pages, which can be annoying. The search tool itself is rather powerful, however. It can search multiple sites at once. You can dictate which sites it searches as well as the search mode, view mode, results per page and so forth.

As you find content you want to download, it is simple to add it to your download list. You can pause and resume downloads and determine which files are currently downloading. The video player lets you watch videos via streaming, videos that you have downloaded and videos that you are currently downloading. We found that watching videos as they downloaded could actually overcome some buffering issues experienced while streaming. You can also put All Video Downloader in batch mode. As a file finishes downloading, the program will start down downloading another until all in the list are finished. This is great for setting a bunch of videos to download overnight while you sleep.

As mentioned in the UI section, you can actually set the output format of the video downloaded. The program supports AVI, MPEG and WMV, which is not an extensive list but certainly enough to support the most popular devices. Bitrate cannot be set, but if the site offers different bitrates, you can select it that way. The UI is set up to batch all files as a particular output format. You can set the files on an individual basis, and the batch feature supports this, but it is a hassle to do with many files.

A strange design decision with All Video Downloader is that it limits you to two files downloaded at a time. This is unfortunate because high-speed Internet connections can handle a much more aggressive approach and thus download many files quicker. This is less of an issue when downloading overnight.

Our final criticism of All Video Downloader is that it is much more resource intensive than it should be for what it is doing. We reviewed it on a high-end system where it did not interfere with other activities. But the program would become unresponsive at times and use more memory than it should, and we could see this being a problem on older system. We presume this is why the developers limited us to two concurrent downloads. It also makes the decision with ad serving even more curious.

Pros

  • Freeware
  • Supports YouTube and more
  • Search multiple sites at once
  • Converts to supported media formats

Cons

  • Obnoxious ads
  • Resource intensive
  • Concurrent downloads limited

Pros

  • Can download videos from many different streaming sites.
  • Supports converting videos to various formats for PCs and portable devices.
  • Allows saving the audio portion of a video in MP3 format.

Cons

  • Limited to downloading two videos at the same time.
  • Occasionally runs into problems when trying to download some videos.

All Video Downloader is a free software tool that allows you to save videos posted on a variety of online streaming services and convert them to different formats.

Download and Convert Your Favorite Videos

All Video Downloader is compatible with all of the popular video sharing services, including YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo. It lets you save videos to your PC and watch them offline later on. This is quite practical if you want to watch a movie that has been uploaded to a streaming service, but your Internet connection is a bit slow and you're experiencing constant interruptions as the video buffers.

If you already know the URL of the video you want to download, all you need to do is paste it in the program and press the "download" button. All Video Downloader will take care of grabbing the full video from the streaming website and saving it on your PC in the chosen format.

One feature that sets All Video Downloader apart from other similar programs is that is also comes with a search engine that lets you find videos shared on many websites. The results show up as thumbnails and you can even preview them directly in the software, which is quite useful if you want to make sure that you've found the right video. The built-in video browser eliminates the need to switch back and forth between your web browser and the application when you're looking for videos to download.

The software lets you save the videos in a wide range of formats, including AVI, MP4, MOV and others. There's even an option that lets you convert the saved video into formats optimized for various mobile devices, like the iPod Touch, PSP and iPad, which is perfect if you later want to copy the video to a portable media player and watch it while away from your PC. Finally, All Video Downloader also gives you the option of saving just the audio track of the video in MP3 format.

Free Version Comes With Some Limitations

All Video Downloader is free to use, but only supports two simultaneous video downloads. If you want to download more, you'll have no choice but to wait for the first two videos to finish downloading before you can continue. This can be a bit inconvenient for users who want to download a large amount of small videos at the same time.

The program generally works well with all of the top video streaming services, but there are a few minor reliability issues. There are times when it might display an error message when trying to grab a particular video, requiring you to try several times before it finally works.

Pros

  • Can download videos from many different streaming sites.
  • Supports converting videos to various formats for PCs and portable devices.
  • Allows saving the audio portion of a video in MP3 format.

Cons

  • Limited to downloading two videos at the same time.
  • Occasionally runs into problems when trying to download some videos.