The developers have raised the bar considerable in the latest version; The number of supported video hosting sites has been raised from less than 50 to more than ten thousand.

The new version comes with additional enhancements like the ability to stop downloads and resume interrupted video downloads or a searchable and sortable download history. Users need to pay attention to the installation of the program as it tries to install a toolbar that replaces search and homepage of supported web browsers. It is however easy to block this from happening during the installation process.

Freemake Video Downloader can install plugins into Firefox and Google Chrome that add buttons to the browser interface. These act as a direct send to buttons to download movies and videos that are currently playing in the active browser window. The plugins are optional though, the program can also be used directly by pasting urls into the program interface.

The video downloader displays either a download dialog to the user or, if one click downloads have been selected, starts the download of the video right away. It is possible to specify some parameters in this case, like the preferred video quality or download directory.

Users who want more control can keep the default settings which displays a video download window whenever a video is about to be downloaded. Here it is then possible to select a video quality – if multiple video qualities are provided by the site and if it is supported by the software, the action (download video, rip music) and save directory. The following screenshot is an example of how the download window looks when a YouTube video has been selected for download.

It is not necessary to use the browser add-ons to download videos. You can alternatively copy and paste video urls directly into the application to download those videos. Another interesting option is the ability to add account information to the video downloader. Supported right now are YouTube, Facebook, Vkontakte, Nicovideo, Yandex and Mail.ru at the moment.

The application is a comfortable video downloader for Windows. Is there anything missing? Well, an option to add multiple videos would have been nice. And Firefox users may wonder why they cannot move the download icon in the browser. You can still read my old review of the application for further information.

Windows users can download the latest version of Freemake Video Downloader from the developer site. It is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

The Youtube downloader concentrates on streamlining the download of videos from the popular video hosting website. It comes with a search form on top that populates the main area of the application with search results in seconds. Each video is listed with its title, type, duration, rating and date that it was added to the Youtube video hosting portal.

A double-click will open the selected video in the default web browser of the computer system. The right-click on the other hand will open a context menu with three options. These options are to open, preview or download the selected Youtube videos. The open command will perform the same operation as the double-click. Preview will generate a small thumbnail image of the video and display it in the Youtube video downloader.

Save as finally will open the file browser that can be used to pick a download directory for the selected videos. It is possible to select one, multiple or all of the videos that have been returned as results. It is possible to either download the videos in original flv format or high quality mpeg format.

And that’s it. No fancy options menu to change program settings. No video preview in the application itself. Just a barebone fast Youtube video downloader that does what it is supposed to do. Oh, there is an option to enter a Youtube username and password but there is no explanation why this option is offered and it is not needed to download the videos. Youtube Video Search is available at the developer’s website. Check out the download Youtube videos article for more tools and services that allow users of all operating systems and web browsers to download videos from the video portal.

The Youtube downloader comes with an interface that requires some explanation. VYoutube videos can be added to the software’s database by going to the Preview tab in the browser which will open the Youtube video portal in the application. Videos can be added by clicking on the Save In Database button on tab. Another possibility is to right-click on a video thumbnail and select the Download Video option but there is no way currently to add multiple Youtube videos directly.

Videos are added to the Your Video tab from where they can be added to playlists that work in the Youtube downloader. Alternative playlists can be created for the video player VLC.

Once the videos are in the Your Video pane they can be added in batch to a playlist, converted to another video format or to mp3 audio. That’s actually one of the biggest strengths of this Youtube downloader as it can virtually convert hundreds of videos at a time.

The program would be excellent if it would provide the option to add multiple videos directly to the program. The version of the Youtube Downloader which is currently 0.0.1 could mean that the software developer has plans to add that feature and additional ones to the software program. The program works under Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Batch downloading from Youtube works on pages with more than one video on a page but not from the search results. The Download All or Download button becomes only active on selected pages. Say you want to download all videos by one publisher. To do so you open the publisher profile at Youtube and click on the Videos link that links to all videos. Only that page activates the download all button which was inactive on the profile page.

1-Click YouTube Batch Downloader is a great application for hardcore Youtube fans who also want to download a lot of videos to their computer. All videos are downloaded into the My Documents\My YouTube folder sorted by username.

Downloads continue even when browsing away from the page where the download was initiated. One thing that is missing is a stop button. It is not possible to stop or pause the downloads unless the application is closed completely.

It adds a small icon to most video download portals in Firefox that lets you download the video that is currently played. Internet Explorer users have to hover over the video to see a menu that lets them download the video. This feature is site independent which means that it should work on new sites that offer flash and streaming media files. That is not the main purpose of the download manager of course.

As I said earlier it supports most protocols and works with many download sites such as rapidshare (queue rapidshare premium downloads) and megaupload as well. You can add proxies and a virus scanner to Orbit downloader and add username and passwords for password protected sites. Orbit downloader displays a small icon that is always on top that can be used for drag and drop operations. Just drag and drop download links into the icon and the downloads will start automatically. The feature can be disabled if you do not like it.

Orbit Downloader does not use many system ressources and integrates perfectly with Firefox and Internet Explorer.