Many applications available for Linux only focus on just one or at most a limited number of related simple tasks. Although simple and functionally sometimes limited, these applications can still be powerful and important to your productivity workflow. In the past, I paid little attention to these kinds of single-task applications from a blogger’s perspective because there is relatively little to write about. However, I realized I was not giving these small but often powerful tools the attention they deserve. So with this article about the Video Downloader app, I am continuing my Mini Review series. Video Downloader is a simple but powerful application for Linux that can download Audio or Video by just providing the URL of the source.
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Content of this article
- Introduction
- What is Video Downloader
- How does Video Downloader work
- How to download and install Video Downloader
- Final words
Introduction
I have been crazy about music and audio equipment since I was a child. As a teenager, I listened to music in my room at my parents’ house via my then-quite nice hi-fi equipment, alone or with my friends. Later, I visited live concerts and also went to many audiophile fairs. In my teens and twenties, I played a lot of U2, Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, and Pink Floyd, among others.
One of my all-time favorite live concerts is Pink Floyd’s impressive “Delicate Sound of Thunder” (affiliate link) which took place in New York in 1988. Recently, a memory suddenly came to my mind of how much I loved listening over and over again to the double CD “Delicate Sound of Thunder” years ago. Without any specific reason, I forgot about it for years.
So recently I wondered if the full concert would be available on YouTube and if it could be downloaded from there. Indeed, it is on the HDPinkFloyd YouTube channel as a New 4K Edition.
When I tried to download the video to have it available on my hard disk and thus be able to watch it also without an internet connection, I got the message that I needed a Premium account. Bummer.
So that made me look for a way to download YouTube videos without a Premium subscription. There are several options available for Linux, but I found exactly what I was looking for in the simple application Video Downloader.
What is Video Downloader
The great thing about these kinds of mini applications is that there is little to say about them. They often have only one task and they do that task with verve. Video Downloader does what the name of the app says, namely making it easy to download video material and also video based material, in this case, the audio part of the video.
Video Downloader makes it possible to just provide a URL of the video you want to download. Via the user interface, you can choose to download the video, or only download the audio in MP3 format. You can choose in which resolution you want to download the video.
How does Video Downloader work
So, let’s take a look at Video Downloader.
When you start the application you will be presented with the following screen:
Here you have two tabs, one for Audio and one for Video. In the Audio tab, you can paste the URL of the file you want to download. If you go to the Video tab, you see the following:
Here you can paste the URL of the video file, you can choose the preferred resolution, and you can force the app to prefer MPEG format for the final file.
So let’s try to download a video from YouTube. which in my case is Pink Floyd’s “Delicate Sound of Thunder”. On YouTube search for the video you want to download and click on the Share button below the video.
Now click on Copy next to the URL and paste it into the URL section in Video Downloader.
Select the preferred resolution and click on Download.
After a while, your download process is finished and your video is available in your Downloads folder.
Further, there are some tweaking options via GSettings. It is possible to download automatic subtitles via the below described commands, for example English, and Dutch (“[‘nl’,’en’]”). But you can also download the complete set of languages (“[‘all’]”).
Use the below Terminal commands when you use Flatpak:
flatpak run –command=gsettings com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader set com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader automatic-subtitles “[‘nl’,’en’]”
or
flatpak run –command=gsettings com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader set com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader automatic-subtitles “[‘all’]”
Use the below Terminal command when you use Snap:
snap run –shell video-downloader -c ‘gsettings “$@”‘ ” set com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader automatic-subtitles “[‘nl’,’en’]”
or
snap run –shell video-downloader -c ‘gsettings “$@”‘ ” set com.github.unrud.VideoDownloader automatic-subtitles “[‘all’]”
Now you can select the subtitle language of your choice:
Note: subtitles are not available for every video you download.
How to download and install Video Downloader
You can download and install Video Downloader as a Flatpak- or Snap-based app.
Flatpak
If you use a Linux distribution like Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, or Zorin OS, Flatpak support is offered out-of-the-box, so it is integrated into the system and in the Software application. Just go to the Software Center and search for Video Downloader to install it.
If your Linux distro doesn’t have Flatpak support yet, you can find out more about how to set up Flatpak support via the below button:
When Flatpak support is set up correctly, next download Video Downloader from Flathub.
Now click on Install to download the .flatpakref file and double-click the downloaded file to install Video Downloader.
If you want to read more about managing your Flatpak-based apps, read my article “How to use Flatseal to modify and review Flatpak permissions in Linux“.
Snap
If you use Ubuntu, or maybe a Linux distribution like Zorin OS, Snap support is offered out-of-the-box, so it is integrated into the system and the Software application. Just go to the Software Center and search for Video Downloader to install it.
If your Linux distro doesn’t have Snap support yet, you can find out more about how to set up Snap support via the below button:
When Flatpak support is set up correctly, you can install Video Downloader via the below steps:
1) Open your Terminal via the keyboard combination Ctrl + Alt + T.
2) Copy and paste the following command and hit Enter:
sudo snap install video-downloaderFinal Words
I really appreciate these simple but powerful mini-apps for Linux. The purpose of such a small app is clear. It does exactly what it says it does and no more. They are fast, easy to understand, and if designed well, they’re easy to integrate into your Linux productivity workflow. And Video Downloader is one of these apps that ticks all the boxes of a simple video-downloading app for me.
If you have tips for other great single-task applications for which a mini-review is of value to other readers, please share your thoughts via the RealLinuxUser Contact page.
If you like to read my other Mini Reviews, use the below links:
- Mini review – Maintain focused productivity with Blanket for Linux
- Mini review – Distraction-free writing with ghostwriter for Linux
- Mini review – Drop content anywhere with Collector
- Mini Review – Flatsweep cleaning app for Flatpak files
- Mini Review – Bavarder is a simple ChatGPT-based AI App for Linux
- Mini review – Metadata Cleaner is a simple but powerful metadata cleaner app for Linux
- Mini review – Frog is a simple but powerful text extraction tool for Linux
- Mini review – Annotator is a simple but powerful annotation tool for Linux
- Mini review – TextShine is a simple but powerful text modification tool for Linux
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