Vividl – Video Downloader is an open source tool for Microsoft Windows devices to download videos from hundreds of websites. The app uses the popular downloader youtube-dl / yt-dlp in the background. It supports downloads of video or audio files from hundreds of sites.
Most video streaming sites do not want you to download videos. Prime reason for this is monetization as offline videos cannot be monetized. Some services support video downloads, but often only as premium features. Google’s YouTube, for example, supports downloads, but restricts them to YouTube Premium subscribers.
There are quite a few reasons why you may want to download videos. Here is a short list:
- To watch the video (later) when there is no Internet connection or no reliable Internet connection.
- To watch a higher quality version of the video, which the Internet connection is incapable of streaming.
- To watch videos without ads. Tip: you may bypass YouTube video ads without adblockers.
- To listen to the audio of a video only.
- For backup purposes.
Vividl: the basics
You may download the latest version of the video downloader from its GitHub project website. The app runs on Windows 7 and newer versions of the operating system.
The developer lists two dependencies: .NET Framework 4.8 or higher, and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. Downloads for both are linked on the project website, if needed.
Windows may throw a SmartScreen error when you try to install it. The app checked out fine on Virustotal, which suggests that this is thrown only because it is a new version.
The main program interface looks basic, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Add a video by pasting its URL into the interface or through drag & drop. An auto import from Clipboard option is provided.
Vividl picks it up and displays information about it after a brief moment.
The main interface acts as the download queue but also download list. There is no option to separate these, which would help manage larger lists of videos.
Downloading videos
All videos added to the video downloader are listed in the queue by default. Several download-related options are displayed there.
The default output format is mp4 video and a default quality is selected. Both options are customizable. Vividl supports webm, avi and mkv formats on the video site next to mp4.
A click on the tool icon, which is adjacent to the format button, displays all available video and audio qualities. Here you may select the desired output format and quality manually. You may need to scroll to find specific options, as the lists are not necessarily sorted by size or resolution.
There are options to download video and audio files separately, or just one of the two formats.
The downloading happens in the background. Vividl downloads three files simultaneously by default. You can change this in the program settings.
The settings list several interesting options, some of which automate the experience. Here is a short list of important options:
- Change the default video resolution and video format. The defaults are mp4 and 1080p.
- Always download the best quality.
- Enable GPU acceleration for video encoding, if supported.
- Instead of overwriting existing media, skip it or rename it.
Verdict
Vividl is a straightforward video downloader for Windows. It supports hundreds of video sites and works really well. Both manual and automatic options work reliable.
To conclude, if you need a well-designed video downloader, this is a program that you may want to test. I still prefer Internet Download Manager, but this is a commercial program that supports video downloads and also other file downloads.
Was a time I downloaded far many more videos than I do now. Presently I rely on an online video download service in the rare cases I wish to archive a video and at this time the service is ‘9X Buddy’ at [https://9xbuddy.in/]; I very occasionally do.
The popular downloader youtube-dl / yt-dlp, throughout Vividl or within a browser extension is often mentioned. Personally I have no need for an application I’d use less than seldom.
That a user may wish to download a video for the reasons mentioned in the article is quite understandable, yet what surprises me is the amount of downloads as it seems, mainly perhaps in the musical video clips arena.
I used to download more videos in the past as well. This was at a time when streaming was in its infancy and you had to get creative to watch videos from the Internet on TV.
I rely on Internet Download Manager, which I bought a long time ago, to do all my downloading of videos and other files.
ClipGrab is superior in every way https://clipgrab.org/
It too uses youtube-dl, but looks way better than this thing. ClipGrab also installs Visual C++ files but not if you already have the latests ones, which you of course always download for safety reasons https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 Just make sure you don’t click on the Blue Button that says FREE DOWNLOAD, instead click on the small text to the right text that reads: Download version without third-party offers
PS: When you download only audio, ClipGrab up-converts it to 256 quality which is a “fake” 256. There is no such thing as 256 mp3 audio quality in YouTube. With ogg you can get 160, that’s it. Yes, all those “UltraHD Super FLAC DOLBY ATMOS HIGH-DEF AUDIO SUPREME” videos you click on YouTube: Quality: 128. Yeah, the uploader used audiogear worth a million bucks to upload it and YouTube spits out 128. Funny really. Apparently the ClipGrab developer doesn’t know how audio compression works: You cannot add things that have been removed. You will not get better sound by converting a 128 file to 256, you only end up with a 128 file that says 256 on it. Quite amazing this is not taught in kindergartens, really.. Maybe the developer does this so he can boast that his program has the best quality when downloading just audio, who knows. It’s still false. Other than that, ClipGrab is great.