Downloading YouTube videos and converting Multimedia files

I recently upgraded my Singtel account to the Singtel MIO bundle (broadband + mobile phone + fixed line phone for $68 per month). Making this switch netted me physical savings of $4 per month (compared to the $72 total I paid previously for the services separately). Besides being cheaper, I am also getting:

• faster broadband speed (3000 kbps compared to 1500 kbps previously)
• free SMS, free caller ID, and more mobile minutes for outgoing calls (100 minutes compared to 80 minutes)
• - free outgoing fixed line calls (I used to pay 1.4 cents per minute for outgoing calls on my fixed line)

This is truly one of those "no brainer" deals.

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When I upgraded to the MIO plan, Singtel said it was mandatory that I get a new mobile phone. After evaluating the offerings available, I finally opted for a $0 phone. For a free phone, I found the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 to be feature-packed! You can read a review of the phone and its features at this site:

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,39271322p,00.htm

As you can see from the CNET magazine review, this phone can play MP3 music and MP4 video files. As I have never owned such multimedia phones before (yup, I am that behind the times in terms of handphone ownership), I got all caught up trying all kinds of MP3 songs from my personal music collection for my ring tone. In the end, I settled on "Sara" (from the Jefferson Starship album "Knee Deep in the Hoopla"), which is one of my favorite songs from the 1980s.

However, I then found the "Sara" music video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

Not content with having "Sara" as my ring tone, I now wanted to also load the "Sara" music video on my Ultra Edition phone.

If you have tried to download YouTube's videos before, you know that you can't actually save YouTube videos on to your hard disk as easily as you can with regular files.

A little investigation told me that all YouTube videos are actually stored in FLV (Flash Video) format. I also found many techniques and utilities for saving YouTube videos as FLV files on the hard disk. However, the method that I am recommending is also the easiest to remember: Just put the word "Kiss" before "YouTube" to get "KissYouTube".

To download a copy of a YouTube video, simply prefix "kiss" before the word "youtube" in the URL. Using the above URL as an example, to download the "Sara" video, all I needed was to type this URL instead in my web browser:

http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

On the KissYouTube page that is opened, click the link "Download Now" to begin the download. As per the instructions given, you must remember to add the extension ".FLV" to the file name when you save the file on your hard disk.

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If you want to play FLV files from your PC, I strongly recommend the freeware (and open sourced) media player VLC, which can be downloaded from this site:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

A few years ago, I obtained a video in WMV format from a Microsoft CDROM. However, the WMV file on the CDROM was partially corrupted, and Microsoft's Windows Media Player refused to play the corrupted WMV file - complaining that it was bad and not playable etc. The corrupted WMV file will not play on other players like RealPlayer or Quicktime either. As I wanted to watch the video, I discovered references to the VLC program from a Google search. To my astonishment and delight, VLC played the corrupted WMV file without any problems whatsoever. I was sold on the VLC player ever since.

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However, the Ultra Edition phone cannot play videos in FLV format. To play the "Sara" music video, I need to first convert the FLV file to MP4 format.

I have found a fantastic web site that will convert a file in any media format to any other media format. And yes, the conversion service is free!

http://media-convert.com/

In the Media-Convert site, simply specify the source file from your hard disk and its media type. Then, specify the destination type you wish to convert the file to. Click the "Convert" button, and viola! The conversion is done for you. There is no software to be installed, so you can perform these conversions from a Windows, Mac, or even Linux computer!

I converted the "Sara.FLV" file to "Sara.MP4", and uploaded the MP4 file into my phone. I now have the "Sara" music video playing beautifully on my new phone.

Wickedly, the Media-Convert site is also able to convert the FLV video file to an MP3 music file too. Thus, this is also a good way to extract just the audio portion of a video file in to an MP3 file for use as a ring tone!

Hope you find these tips fun and useful. As a bonus, here is another YouTube music video that you might want to "rip" and "collect":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAjrIAFiJ0

Enjoy! NJ