In a review I recently wrote about a program called Web2 Delight (which aims to be a collection manager, a la iPhoto or iTunes, for images and videos found online at such sites as YouTube, Veoh, BlipTV, Flickr, Photobucket and more), that the only thing that really was holding me back from being really excited about it was the inability to export the content you’d downloaded into another form.
Enter Media Snap, a free program from German software developer Christian Kienle. Media Snap only works with YouTube, unfortunately, but for downloading and converting your favorite videos, it’s right up there.
Media Snap isn’t a collection manager, although it does show you all your downloaded movies, but while iPhoto, iTunes and Web2 Delight give you different ways to organize and view your content, Media Snap is all about downloading and converting those videos.
First, using Media Snap couldn’t be easier. Simply start it up. You’ll see a rather plain-looking window, with three tabs labeled Results, Downloads and Finished. You’ll also see, in the upper-right corner, a search box. Simply use this to search YouTube, and you’ll quickly see the top 10 results (this can be changed to view up to 50 results in the preferences, if you want).
The results show you a screen capture of the video, its name, how long it is, and allows you do download the video, or view it in your web browser.
The second tab, labeled Downloads, shows all currently downloading videos. There’s not really much to do here, except watch each video’s download progress. When a video is finished downloading, it is placed in the Finished tab.
Here’s where the real fun starts.
At the bottom of the Finished tab, you’ll notice a slider, with Video at one end and Audio at the left. What’s this? It’s where you choose exactly what you want to export. Since many people download videos from YouTube not only for the video, but for the audio, Media Snap has chosen to make it simple to export both. Video will be exported to MPEG4 (the standard used by iTunes and iPods by default), while the audio, if you want, can be exported to MP3.
To do this, simply slide the slider to either the Audio or Video side, then click the Send To Desktop icon, and Media Snap will perform the conversion for you. The Video conversion takes a bit longer than the Audio conversion, and it would be nice if there was some type of progress other than the spinning indicator, but it shouldn’t take that long, especially with an average length of 4-5 minutes per video.
Once you’ve converted your video and are finished with it, you can delete it from your hard drive. Your converted media, of course, stay safe and sound on the desktop. From here, you can add them into your iTunes library for viewing/listening, as well as for transferring to an iPod or iPhone.
About the only thing I’d like to see added to the Media Snap feature set is the ability to have converted media placed directly in your iTunes library. Other programs, like Web2 Delight, can do this, so the addition to Media Snap would be a good thing. As well, more site support would be a welcome addition. If Media Snap would support more than just YouTube (other sites such as Google Video, Veoh, and BlipTV would be good), it would truly be a great program.
As it is, if you’re a heavy YouTube user who wants to download and convert videos in a couple easy steps, Media Snap is well worth a look. As mentioned, it’s completely free to download and use, so what do you have to lose?
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