News :: 15MR: VideoGet v2.0.2.27

Welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is VideoGet version 2.0.2.27 by Nuclear Coffee Software—An application to rip Flash-based video from various internet sites including but not limited to YouTube, Google Video and more.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states: (Shortened)

“VideoGet is a tool for downloading your favorite video clips from more than 100+ video websites. It supports such websites like YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Yahoo Video, VSocial and a lot more.

Most of these video websites are keeping video in FLV format, and a lot of people don’t know how to playback these files. VideoGet also providing you with ability to convert each video in most popular formats for more comfortable video playback. VideoGet supports AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats, so you will be able not only to view it, but also put it into your iPod, mobile phone or any other portable device.”

Quick Pros

• Interface laid out very well; Icons make sense
• Batch support very nice; Ability to add to batch while running great
• Format availability very nice
• Resulting files were great (Except AVI – See below)

Quick Cons

• Browser integration would have been handy; Use browser caches as well?
• Threaded support would have been nice; Downloading next while encoding current
• Could not play back AVIs in WinAMP or WMP with brand new codecs; Worked in VLC media player
• Output folder selection could be confusing

Expansion

With YouTube, Google Video and all the other Flash video-based sites popping up all over the internet and the sheer popularity, there is a market for the personal archiving of these videos. This application is trying to fill the gap with a near-full service lineup of features, including features for mobile support and much more.

I was definitely surprised by the simple interface. Besides the confusing ‘Output Folder’ area being grayed out, leaving you to rely on the the button with the ellipsis on the far side of the window to select the folder, the interface is very easy and straightforward.

The batch functionality is really nice; The ability to queue up a list of videos so that when you’re done you can let it run without dragging your connection down is nice. The Availability of formats including various mobile formats is a major plus for this application. It is also great that there is an audio-only extraction ability as well.

My biggest issue was with the AVI file encoding. I have a decently-large set of video codecs on my system and I could not get the AVI to play back. I spent a few moments and found out the application favors the format, so I closed it up, downloaded the newest xvid codec, rebooted and tried again. No video playback; Audio only. I looked for a solution in the comments of Giveaway of the Day as well as the creator’s website as well, to no avail. Not a big deal to me; I’d likely use MPEG2 or another format anyways. (Added Note:) Strangely enough, I downloaded VLC media player, and the file worked on that application, and neither WinAMP or Windows Media Player worked.

When I tried MPEG2 and WMV, the video quality turned out very well. Even with the settings at ‘Medium’, all the videos I grabbed turned out looking as good as or very close to the originals I used from Google and YouTube.

There are two features I feel are missing from this application. The first is integration into Firefox/Internet Explorer. Not only include a button to add to the batch list, but if possible use the cached file from the browser. This would be especially useful for people on dial-up or who just don’t want to waste bandwidth on a second download.

The second feature I feel is missing is there is no threaded support; The application should be able to start downloading the next file while encoding the current file. Especially if you are archiving large files from these sites, this could save quite a bit of time. Mix this in with the use of the browser’s cache, and you’d have a very fast application, especially on multi-core systems.

Final Verdict

While this application is lacking a few features I would have expected, the application does do its job (mostly) as advertised and with decent quality. The AVI format issue is a bit of a show-stopper and in the timeframe of this review can not figure out why the codec’s not read for the video in WinAMP or Windows Media Player but works in VLC media player. If you are a Online Video-aholic or just a casual viewer and would rather just save a copy of the video as opposed to bookmarking it, I recommend picking up this application. I do feel that, when the AVI issue corrected (With either a codec selection box or fix the codec use somehow,) this application would be worth it to many for $19.95.

Posted by BladedThoth on Wednesday, April 11, 2007