| Version | 3.4.0 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | nn-d |
| Release date | Mar 15, 2014 |
| Date added | Mar 15, 2014 |
| Os requirements | Mac OS X 10.4 PPC, Mac OS X 10.5 PPC, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.8, Macintosh, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X 10.4 Intel, Mac OS X 10.7, Mac OS X 10.5 Intel |
| Requirements | None |
| Total downloads | 97,118 |
| Downloads per week | 21 |
| Price | Free |
Description
ClipGrab is an open source downloader and converter for online videos. It currently supports, among others, YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion. Many other sites are supported via the heuristics filter (e.g. several adult sites and many many generic sites). ClipGrab can convert the downloaded videos to MPEG4, WMV, OGG Theora, MP3 and OGG Vorbis - or simply store the videos in their original format. ClipGrab can download videos in HD from sites where this quality standard is available. Since 3.0.7, ClipGrab can also add ID3 metadata to MP3 files.
Review
People often want to download online videos from sites like YouTube to watch offline or edit. ClipGrab for Mac claims to allow users to save Internet videos to their desktop, but ultimately doesn't deliver.
ClipGrab for Mac is available as freeware without any restrictions. The program is small and installed easily after a quick download. After installation, the program starts quickly, but there are no instructions, and product support appears minimal. While sparse, the interface is fairly intuitive. Menus allow the user to paste a link with a video directly into the program or search directly in YouTube from the program. The interface and search features work well and return YouTube's results, but that is where the functionality ends. During testing, when clicking on YouTube links, the program went to the conversion menu, but error messages were returned about half the time saying the pages were not available. When they did load and the conversion was selected, an additional error message came back stopping the process. None of the YouTube videos we tried even started converting. While the program downloaded, installed, and started up as expected, it simply did not perform its functions.
While available for free, ClipGrab for Mac did not work as intended, and those seeking to save online videos to their desktop should look elsewhere.
