Save video while streaming in VLC

vlc-media-player

I use VLC to stream YouTube videos.

  1. Is there any way to also save the video to a local file at the same time as I am watching it? I mean without consuming any more megabytes off of my data plan.

  2. Is there any way to save all YouTube videos by default every time I stream them with VLC?

EDIT: I am on OS X 10.10.1

EDIT: To those who are offended by the violation of YouTube's TAC implied in the question, please just pretend the question was about a stream provided under the GPL.

Best Answer

  1. Read the help of Vlc [1], it is an interesting lecture of a might program.

  2. In general if you know the real source of a stream or a file you can download it & watch meanwhile, maybe with wget http://where/it/is/mystream.mp4 and run vlc over the downloading chunk.

    wget http://where/it/is/mystream.mp4  &  
vlc mystream.mp4

    If in your country is allowed or you have the right to do it, you can use VLC to clean the link to the file and to download it, without loss of quality [2]

    • In VLC, head to Media > Open Network Stream.
    • Paste the stream link in the box and click Play.
    • Under Tools, click Codec Information.
    • In the box that says Location, right-click the block of text and click Select All. Copy this text to your clipboard.
    • Go back to your browser and paste the link in the address bar. This will open the source file directly on YouTube's servers.
    • Right-click the video as it plays and select Save Video As or download it with wget

  3. You can also record clips from VLC by pressing the red Record button in the player itself; this is a conversion with all that it concerns.

  4. When you write the link in the open network stream there is the possibility to play Alt+P, to stream Alt+S or to convert Alt+0. Chosing the streaming (stream to a file) or conversion case meanwhile you can see it too. Probably if you choose the same encoding for video, audio you can have a not lossy output. The shortcut from keyboard can be different for language different from English or in different version of Vlc.

Related Question