The higher the quality the bigger the file, so the trick is to balance quality and size: unless you’re watching on a really big screen, you can probably manage without 1080p quality unless you’ve got oodles of spare storage (although 360p video won’t look good on an HD display). That’s because YouTube streams in multiple qualities ranging from 3GP for old mobiles to 1080p high definition for big HD displays.ģGP aside, you have four options here for your computer, smartphone or tablet: 360p, 480p, 720p and 1080p.

If you’re downloading via a service such as ClipConverter – a process explained on the previous page of this article, you’ll be given a choice of video sources. The next decision you’ll need to make is the video quality. For maximum compatibility we’d suggest sticking with MP4. It’s perfect for small-screened mobile phones and awful on anything else, but the files are tiny – which matters on old mobiles, as they don’t usually have very much on-board storage or any memory expansion capabilities.įor other devices, MOV is Apple’s video format and works on every Mac, AVI was developed by Microsoft and works happily on PCs, and MP4 is the video equivalent of MP3 and works on pretty much anything. If you’re not too fussed about video quality, 3GP is the file format for you.

The most common are MP4, 3GP, AVI and MOV the choice of format and quality settings will affect what you can watch your video on, and how good the video will be. Video downloading apps usually give you a choice of file formats. What formats can I download YouTube videos in? All you need to do is add the link and choose the quality options, and you can download multiple clips at once. On a Mac there are stacks of options, but one of the most straightforward is MacX YouTube Downloader ( also available for Windows). When it’s finished it’ll appear in Documents’ downloads section, from which you can drag it over Photos > Camera Roll so it’s available from outside the Documents5 app.

Paste the address of the YouTube clip in the big input box, choose the quality options you prefer and the file will start to download. Open Documents and look for its web browser icon, which is the little compass at the bottom right of the display. To download a YouTube video using iOS, copy the link from the YouTube app, then use and Documents to save it to your device

Download youtube to camera roll