Download videos from hundreds of sites with open source app ViVidl

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 17, 2023
Updated • Apr 17, 2023
Music and Video
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17

ViVidl is a free open source program for Microsoft Windows devices to download videos from hundreds of sites. It is based on the very popular video downloader youtube-dl /yt-dlp, but comes with its own frontend.

Using ViVidl is straightforward, but not the most convenient of tools. It boils down to opening the program and pasting / dragging & dropping video URLs into its interface to download the videos. It is still quick, but programs like Internet Download Manager improve usability by integrating their technology into popular web browsers.

ViVidl does include an option to import video URLs automatically from the Clipboard, which users may enable under Automate > Auto-import URLs from the Clipboard.

Interested users may download ViVidl from Sourceforge. The program needs to be installed and Windows may throw a SmartScreen warning when the installer is executed on the Windows system.

First time users may want to select Options > Settings to customize the video download's behavior before they start downloading videos.

The settings list options to change the appearance from light to dark, change the download folder, and the default video format that download videos are converted to.

Advanced options are found under the download and advanced tabs of the settings. There, users find options to add a proxy, change the number of concurrent downloads, enable the downloading of the best quality, or check GPU acceleration. There is also an option to add custom downloader arguments.

Downloading happens automatically once one or multiple video URLs have been added to the application. The add dialog supports multiple video URLs, which are then downloaded based on the download preferences. Vividl supports downloading videos from playlists as well, if supported, and authentication.

Downloads and conversions are quick and all downloaded files are placed in the downloads folder. The process depends on several factors, including the Internet connection, the speed of connection to the video sites and the processing capabilities of the local PC.

ViVidl includes options to save the audio track only, which can be useful if the video feed is not required.  Downloads worked on all tested sites. Since it is based on youtube-dl, it supports hundreds of websites, including the world's most popular free video streaming sites.

One of the main advantages of using a video downloader is that the downloaded videos or audio files can be played offline. Put them on a mobile device before you take a long ride by car, train, plane or other means of transport, and you never have to worry about bad Internet reception or connectivity.

Closing Words

Vividl is a handy video downloader for Windows that is easy to use and very convenient. It supports conversions and may download audio tracks only on many sites.

Now You: do you use a video downloader?

Summary
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Download videos from hundreds of sites with open source app ViVidl
Description
ViVidl is a free open source program for Microsoft Windows devices to download videos from hundreds of sites.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. TelV said on April 19, 2023 at 12:26 pm
    Reply

    I use yt-dlp in combination with “The Stream Detector” the latter of which creates the correct yt-dlp download link. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hls-stream-detector/

    I used to use “Video Download Helper”, but the WebEx version requires installation of an addition software which I don’t like since it overlays the video with an watermark unless you pay for the premium version.

    If it’s just youtube videos you want to download you can use the commands on this site: https://write.corbpie.com/downloading-youtube-videos-and-playlists-with-yt-dlp/

  2. Paul(us) said on April 17, 2023 at 11:32 pm
    Reply

    I am using Vividl since 2022-01-19 and I like it.

    I started to use in the year 2005 another great download program called Free Download manager (Vrsn. 6.19.0.5156 – I have the 64-bit version installed.)
    I used to use Tixati up to version 2.59 (64 – installer) (’19-03-18)

    1. Mystique said on April 18, 2023 at 8:04 pm
      Reply

      @Paul(us)

      You might wanna read my post regarding some things that will help you get the most out of FDM as far as downloading videos go including on youtube.

  3. John G. said on April 17, 2023 at 6:30 pm
    Reply

    Coconut video downloader for MS Edge, works like a charm whatever the site and whatever the file extension, quality, lenght or size. However I must say that using an online downloading tool is good for non often tasks.

  4. Tachy said on April 17, 2023 at 4:06 pm
    Reply

    Youtube-dl still does the job for me on the rare occasions I need such a tool and I’m comfortable with the command line interface.

  5. sal said on April 17, 2023 at 3:45 pm
    Reply

    I use: https://antdownloadmanager.com/download

    with the extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/download-with-ant-downloa/dalgiebmfcjackkbjfbfmlnflbdfbekj/

    Clips can be downloaded almost anywhere. :}

    (After 1 minute my comment will disappear again…)

    1. John G. said on April 17, 2023 at 6:48 pm
      Reply

      @Sal, when you post a link the comment will await for moderation.

      1. sal said on April 17, 2023 at 7:23 pm
        Reply

        @John G., it’s not quite accurate. Initially, I notice that my comments disappear after 1 minute, without even containing links. Why my comments are “special” that they are still deleted/hidden, I don’t know. But it’s a fact. What is the need for my opinions to be moderate, and my opinions are reasonable …

      2. John G. said on April 18, 2023 at 7:28 am
        Reply

        @Sal, comments with links seem to be published however then they go to moderation spam process. Anyway, I can’t give lessons about censorship, some comments of mine were deleted too. No explanation was given.

  6. 1+1= 43 said on April 17, 2023 at 3:41 pm
    Reply

    ClipGrab for the win. Although the developer is a bit simple in the head, ClipGrab upconverts YouTube audiofiles to 256 “for a better sound” which is retarded. Youtube streams mp3 at 128 and it doesn’t matter if you upconvert it to flac or have a futuristic device that spits out 3D printer High-Def Zorg laserdiscs from your screen, you can’t get back things that were removed in the compression to 128. This simple fact is very weird for some people to wrap their heads around. Yes it says now 256 on the tin, but the sound is still 128 even if you jump up and down and scream all you want. Same thing goes for 90% of all the music you can steal from the internet, it’s common practice to offer 320 quality but they are also mostly upconverted from 128 just to please idiots that think the number 320 SOUNDS better than 128. Like if you eat half your pizza, then put the rest in a larger pizzabox: do you now have a whole pizza again, and an even bigger one?

  7. Mystique said on April 17, 2023 at 3:09 pm
    Reply

    @Tom

    I don’t like depending on particular websites as they are usually here today gone tomorrow types and do not want to share with another third party website what I am downloading. I also prefer to have my downloads manager handle it since I have it installed anyway.

    Each to their own. It’s nice to have so many options that is for sure.

    It’s too bad a fork of yt-dlp does not exist that downloads from encrypted sources. That would be wonderful. I know there are some downloaders that work but they are cost prohibitive, have varying degrees of success and only support a small variety of services if at all.
    Yes, I am aware of the legal implications though.

    Hahaha, I speak fluent English and it takes me a lot more than 10 minutes to reply often with very poor English and grammar so you’re doing a lot better than I am.

    1. Tom Hawack said on April 17, 2023 at 3:53 pm
      Reply

      @Mystique, there is also the frequency of downloading videos : should I download on a regular basis that I might consider (a) dedicated application(s).

      I wouldn’t consider relying on a website’s service as a dependence : one vanishes another arises. Of course for those who have adopted another scheme, who have dedicated applications installed there’s no reason to not use them! As you say, “Each to their own” : that reminds me that we often forget that besides rational reasons there are also personal preferences and that the latter may very well dominate the former (that does not mean you or I are right or wrong!).

      Legal stuff, indeed. A moralist would remain stunned if he heard me say that honesty involves quantity as much (or almost as much!) as quantity : there’s a difference, maybe not legal but IMO moral, between downloading terabytes of music and videos and downloading occasionally a one given video, movie, song we’ve been searching sometimes for years :=) — Am I practicing excessive auto-tolerance, am I redefining terms of morality to adjust them to my needs?! Maybe.

      I read you often, your English seems to me excellent, nice phrasing, adjusted vocabulary, flawless grammar :=)
      You may not know that I’ve always thought you were francophone, perhaps because of your pseudo which I unconsciously perceived as French though I discovered lately that the word is the same in English …

      Nice to read you as polite people always say, and considering they may as well be sincere!

      1. Mystique said on April 17, 2023 at 6:39 pm
        Reply

        @Tom
        Yes, you are correct. If you do not see the need for your use case then a download manager of sorts or dedicated application may be overkill also.

        You are correct that new ones pop up every day and I guess it’s nice that way since they seem to create a legal buffer for the most part as they are easy pickings for lawyers that want to twist things to their own advantage.
        Having these sorts of options are great and I love the input people add to these articles because there is always something to learn and gain from them. Personal preferences often guide is in directions more so than we think so that is definitely an aspect in which we must consider to be true.

        I applaud your understanding and rationale as often is the case that we are unable to find media elsewhere. If we are speaking of morals than we must also consider the broader scope of situation in which we are often at the mercy of those with seemingly an absence of morals. How some media can be geo-locked or greatly inflated from one region to another beyond a degree of logic is maddening and as a result perhaps I too may exercise my will to download and consume media in a somewhat questionable manner but in the end if we can appreciate the art and performance of such works than that is great.
        I know I have personally spent a lot of time, money and effort support such works by purchasing various hard copy mediums for such works and also been to many concerts and purchase merchandise whilst there. Sometimes I also feel as though that the creators of such works are forgetting the power of the word of mouth. If we enjoy such work then we will spread that joy and enthusiasm for others to do so as well and at the very least give it a chance to make an impact upon them.
        I find it absurd that streaming media can be there one day and gone the next and no amount of legal downloading will help as they are nothing but a server authorised and glorified bookmark and if the parent companies decide that you are no longer entitled to such work it can be gone at the drop of a hat. It happens across many industries including gaming which is why gaming preservation and emulation is such a strong proponent for preservation and rightfully so.

        Thank you so much. I find your input to be very well thought out and concise, often following up on many points made across many articles which I admire.
        Haha, I am not actually from France but have a European background but I am very honored to be considered as such.

        As to you. Thank you for your input as always.

        It’s great to see you are still here despite the more recent changes as I fear we may have lost a few people since then which is sad as sometimes I miss the often argumentative conversation here. Below the surface of it all there is always some element of truth and knowledge that I appreciate.

      2. Tom Hawack said on April 17, 2023 at 7:27 pm
        Reply

        @Mystique, we’re dealing with several topics :=)

        True that downloading via a dedicated Web downloader given it performs as a proxy puts some space between the downloader and the downloaded source, so to say. But I couldn’t be affirmative that these intermediaries don’t or never share one’s IP with the site hosting the video …

        Yes : comments are the natural partner of articles! I’ve learned a lot from some comments, be it about technical matters, one’s experience with this/that, even human appreciations of the world, cyber or not… the risk is digression, an area I’m specialized in :=) Fortunately Ghacks is not absolutist, purist about technology and technology comments. With a smile : should it be latest freelance authors occasionally feeding the miscellaneous topics could come in handy as an argument to follow their zeal :=) Ghacks hasn’t changed as much as some say, thanks to Martin : I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he had put conditions when selling the site. Of course we’ve had our feelings about AI-driven or assisted articles via the pen (keyboard) of these new freelancers but in its core my feeling is that Ghacks for the essential remains faithful to what we’ve known.

        Medias, downloading, morality. I know that be it in that area as elsewhere the argument I often hear is that “if they do it to you why not do it to them?”, if those we “steal” are the first to steal us then why get embarrassed with moral inhibitions? We may consider that a guy raping a media site (downloading at an industrial level) wouldn’t do any harm to an old lady and even help her : is it still a moral problematic or not rather an intellectual one? Personally i’ve never believed that my beliefs should follow those of my enemies, enemies should they be given they’re hurting me but friends as well : let’s share thoughts but decide by ourselves :=)

        I’m still on Ghacks, for the best as for the “lesser good” (in my view), have been for years and I congratulate Martin Brinkmann for having maintained the site’s spirit whatever imperatives of the new owners. Not for the worst which would be an inhuman staff laying articles as hen eggs, disconnected from visitors.

        let’s continue to breath here :)

  8. Tom Hawack said on April 17, 2023 at 2:04 pm
    Reply

    When I download videos, which is really occasional and perhaps because of so, I call upon an on-live video Website.
    Many are available, several are not trustworthy IMO, not all handle all sites.
    When I do download a video it’ll always be one from Dailymotion, Vimeo or Youtube (YouTube itself accessed via a ‘Piped’ instance).

    I ask one of the following sites to download the video :

    9xbuddy : [https://9xbuddy.in/] : my favorite
    ClipConverter : [https://www.clipconverter.cc/]
    NoTube : [https://notube.net/en/converter-start]
    SmallSeoTools : [https://smallseotools.com/online-video-downloader/]
    Y2mate : [https://y2mate.com/]

    These are in my bookmarks but except 9xbuddy I’m not sure they are still all valid.
    I use the ‘Redirect Link’ Firefox extension to have videos’ urls (Dailymotion, Vimeo, rewritten to YouTube Piped urls) sent to 9xbuddy (at this time) : no copy/paste :=)
    Whatever the online video downloader having a well protected browser is not an excessive precaution.
    The idea here is that when an online service to process a given task is healthy, performant AND involves no confidential data then why bother with a local application?

    Ouf! Took me 10 minutes to try to write this in correct English. Easier in French. Vive la France! LOL.

  9. Mystique said on April 17, 2023 at 12:51 pm
    Reply

    More recently I have been looking at the addon called Grabby which is attempting to emulate what Flashgot once did. Alone it may not be very great but when you combine it with Free Download Manager then you might have something.
    I did in the past make mention of an addon for Free Download Manager called elephant which is using yt-dlp to download videos. The great thing about elephant now is that it has moved development to github and may have an additional helper but also just as a consumer it now comes with an auto update option which of course is a good idea to enable.

    Where does Grabby come in?
    Free Download Manager made the decision to remove support for downloading, more specifically for youtube but with Grabby this with Elephant bridges that gap rather well.
    I have been testing Grabby for a few weeks now and it has continued to get better with each release but do keep in mind that there is another component that needs to be downloaded outside of just the extension for it to work. Whether it is worth it or not for any of you then that is up to you but if you already use FDM it is really nice to have this knowledge.
    Of course Grabby has more than just that one purpose and works for a variety of download managers so there is that too. It has also been updated to work with more download managers and has removed those that no longer are in development or functional.

    There are other options also like DownZemAll which is pretty nice and I believe is working on adding the ability to remove segments via sponsorblock. It’s not quite there yet but I have faith in them to get there soon. The development of this software has moved to github more recently too and is probably worth a look at. It appears to be clean and pretty decent.

    I just tested this Vividl and may have tested it in the past as the name seems familiar but I did have problems with the auto downloading option often not working but it seems okay.

  10. ilev said on April 17, 2023 at 12:18 pm
    Reply

    I use 4k video downloader

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