Guides

Straight answers to the questions that come up around saving video and audio — formats, quality, file sizes, and what goes wrong.

• MP4 vs MP3: what is the difference?

  One carries pictures and sound, the other carries sound alone. That single difference decides everything else about them.

• Which video quality should you download?

  Higher is not automatically better. The right resolution depends on the screen you will watch it on and the connection you are downloading over.

• What is bitrate?

  Bitrate is how much data is spent on each second of a file. It is the quality setting that most people never look at, and often matters more than resolution.

• WebM vs MP4

  WebM usually produces a smaller file at the same visual quality. MP4 plays on devices WebM has never heard of. That is the whole trade.

• Is downloading YouTube videos safe?

  The file itself is almost never the problem. The sites handing it to you sometimes are. Here is what to actually watch for.

• Copyright and personal use

  This question has no single answer, because copyright law differs by country. What follows is the general shape of it, not legal advice.

• "This video is not available in your country"

  Region blocking is set by whoever owns the content, not by YouTube. That explains both why it happens and why there is rarely a way around it.

• How to download YouTube Shorts

  A Short is a normal YouTube video presented differently. Its link works the same way as any other, with one thing worth knowing about the result.

• How to download a YouTube playlist

  Paste the playlist address and you get the list of what is in it. From there you pick the videos you want, one at a time.

• Can you download a live stream?

  Not while it is live. The reason is simple: there is no finished file yet, only a broadcast still being produced.

• How YouTube stores video, and why it matters

  A single YouTube video is not one file. Understanding how it is actually stored explains most of what a download tool does.

• What is 60fps?

  Frame rate is how many still images make up each second of video. It affects how motion feels, which is a different thing from how sharp the picture is.