Youtube Videos - which quality is best: HQ18, HQ22, HQ35, HQ37?

Edited by Earl on May-15-2010

Youtube videos

Sometimes I run across an interesting video that I want to share with my kids.  I download the video to my notebook computer's hard drive and let my kids watch the videos offline while in the kitchen eating meals or snacks.

To download the videos, I use the Firefox browser and the add-on:  Download Helper.

Sometimes Download Helper presents multiple files to choose from for the same video.  Which file is the best quality?

HQ37 Super-high quality
HQ22 Very-high quality MP4  1280x720 (16:9 ratio) recorded at 2000 kbps
HQ35 High quality  FLV  854x480 (16:9 ratio) recorded at 900 kbps
HQ18 Medium quality  MP4  480x360 (4:3 ratio) recorded at 512 kbps

The information above was found from:

Yahoo! Answers - video specifications.

rishabhsingla.blogspot.com - rates the video quality from best to worst.

Add-ons for Firefox make downloading easy


One that sometimes works for me:  1-Click Youtube Video Downloader 1.4
Download from Firefox add-ons.


Download videos without installing anything new


There are other ways to download videos from video websites that does not require Firefox or installing a plugin.  Here is a website that will help you download videos from Vimeo and other video websites:

ClipNabber
ClipNabber





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