Youtube: record what you hear or extract audio after saving?

[ignatz]

I know very little about the audio portion of video files as might be found on Youtube.

At times, I would like to capture the audio portion of such a file to an audio-only WAV or mp3.

Imagine these 2 scenarios:

1: I go to Youtube and locate a video. I open Audacity and start recording. While in record mode, I play the full video, capturing the audio portion (using the "stereo mix" functionality of my sound card) in Audacity after assuring I have a decent level. I then export that capture as an mp3 or WAV.

2: I go to Youtube and locate the same video. I download that video file to my hard drive, using any of several available apps designed to download Youtube files. I then open Audacity and open that downloaded file now sitting on my hard drive. The audio track waveform shows as expected. I then export the audio portion back to my hard drive as an mp3 or WAV.

Is either method NECESSARILY preferable in terms of fidelity? What are the shortcomings of each--if any?

What video formats will Audacity NOT open? I have successfully opened AVI, MP4, MOV, and FLV so far and assume I could extract the audio track from any of them.

[steve]

In terms of sound quality there is not much difference - the sound quality on YouTube is not particularly good, and remains not particularly good whichever method is used. I would expect that method 2 should be slightly better, though I can't say that I find it noticeably better. Method 2 is certainly faster.

There is a "method 3" that uses a third part web page to save the video in WAV or other format. Method 3 is never better and often worse in terms of sound quality than the other two methods.

What video formats will Audacity NOT open?

WAV, AIFF, MP3 (import), OGG and FLAC are handled natively by Audacity. Other formats (such as WMA, AVI, MP4, MOV, and FLV) are handled by FFMPEG. FFMPEG is a separate project from Audacity (the download links on the Audacity website are just for your convenience). Which formats are supported, and how well they are supported depends on the particular version and build of FFMPEG that you are using. FFMPEG is constantly improving support for file types, but exactly which file types are supported at any given time will change and is outside of the control of Audacity. Audacity is updated periodically to support more recent versions of FFMPEG, thus passing on the benefits of FFMPEG improvements. Older or newer versions than the version found on the main Audacity web site will probably not work with Audacity.

[ignatz]

Steve:

Thanks for the comments.

Method 2 is certainly slower in my case as I have to take time to download the video and then in a separate step pull the audio from it. I could more easily have captured the audio only simply by playing the video through without downloading it.

I've discovered another option. There are web sites/applications out there where you simply paste in a Youtube URL and wait maybe 45 to 60 seconds, during which time the app strips the audio and then reports back with a link through which you can download the audio portion as an mp3. The one I looked at gave you 2 quality choices, the best of which was 128k bitrate--not ideal.

One such example is listentoyoutube.com.

Complicating the issue is the fact that Youtube is constantly making coding or layout changes---which typical render a "youtube video downloader" application useless. You have to then try to find another app that might work or wait till your preferred app is updated to work around the Youtube changes.

I'd forgotten about FFMPEG in the background and have only a vague idea of what it does.

[waxcylinder]

ignatz,

I use your method 1 - just because it is reasonably straighforward.

My desktop PC is configured with my external soundcard for vinyl/tape transfers and FM oof-air capture - my laptap is configured to record what plays on the PC (e.g. from t'interweb).

As Steve says the audio quality on Youtube is nothing to write home about - but there are some interesting curios there which are very hard or impossible to find commercially available.

WC

[steve]

I've discovered another option. There are web sites/applications out there where you simply paste in a Youtube URL and wait maybe 45 to 60 seconds, during which time the app strips the audio and then reports back with a link through which you can download the audio portion as an mp3. The one I looked at gave you 2 quality choices, the best of which was 128k bitrate--not ideal.

That's what I meant by "Method 3".

I usually use method 2, because I find that I can download the video very much faster than waiting for it to play through, and it avoids getting gaps in the recording if the network slows down.

At those times that YouTube updates and the browser plug-in stops working, I would fall back to method 1.

[ignatz]

Steve and WC:

Do either of you have a recommendation for a Youtube download application that is working currently with Firefox 3.6.8, is free of spyware, and has a history of being pretty stable and usable over time?

I was using "Youtube Downloader HD", which had worked pretty well for at least 6 months, but has been rendered null and void in the last 2 or 3 weeks, I assume because of Youtube making some changes.

[steve]

I've got "Easy YouTube Video Downloader", but there's a whole bunch of them here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... be%20video
Take your pick.