Downloading videos to my iPod Touch is a real pain just as it has been with most of my music files. Early last year, I used to search the Internet for hacks and applications that would allow me to download videos from Youtube. I finally came across a version of RealPlayer which allows me to download the Youtube video and watch it anytime without streaming/downloading the same file from Youtube each time. Whenever I go to a video on Youtube or some of the other sites, I can mouse over the video and see a download video link appear on the top right of the Adobe Flash based video. Once I click the link, the video is automatically downloaded onto my laptop.  This was a great Internet Explorer plugin that came with the FREE RealPlayer download.

The only problem earlier this year was that I was limited to RealPlayer only to watch the video on my laptop since all the other players I had installed on my laptop did not support the Adobe Flash (flv file format). The other problem was locating the downloaded video for transfering to my mobile devices. Now RealPlayer has released the RealPlayer SP which allows downloading or syncing to most mobile devices including the Apple iPod Touch. Apple does not support Adobe Flash on the iPod Touch therefore syncing these files via iTunes is not a direct possibility.

The videos downloaded from Youtube do not have the best image or sound quality but at least allows me to watch something like a favorite music video whenever I please. With the huge popularity of Youtube, other video sites like video.google.com, Spike.com, Metacafe.com, ustream.tv and many others are becoming mainstream. Most do not support the RealPlayer download method though.

If you are not into installing another program onto your PC, then you can try anyone of the online video grabbing or conversion sites listed on this website located HERE.