Comments on: Lucky there's a....

Question: Lucky there's a....

alice ayres — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:49:04 -0800

can i extract the audio from youtube videos to create an mp3?

is there any way that i can extract the audio from the multitude of videos for the family guy musical pieces to create my own compilation (something similar to what the simpsons have already done)?

also, let's say i could find every single musical number on youtube (or other video sources), how can i make them into iPod friendly a) audio files and b) video files?

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:01:14 -0800

In OS X you can use Audio Hijack to encode audio from YouTube into an MP3.

By: Happy Dave

Happy Dave — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:03:28 -0800

This site allows you to save Youtube videos as mp3s (and also as mp4s or AVIs).

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:09:46 -0800

There are actually a number of sites that give you MP3s from Youtube videos. As for converting videos, PodTube might still work for the Mac, while Ares Tube looks like it's up-to-date for Windows.

Disclaimer: I have used none of these products.

By: Barry B. Palindromer

Barry B. Palindromer — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:21:24 -0800

Here's a nice walkthrough. It says it's for Linux, but ffmpeg binaries can be found for win.

By: HotToddy

HotToddy — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:27:11 -0800

I recently asked this similar question, the answers to which should be helpful to you.

By: 6550

6550 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:17:07 -0800

Another method in OS X is to use Soundflower to pass the audio to a recording application, like Audacity. It's easy to use and, unlike Audio Hijack, it's completely free.

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:26:04 -0800

I use Media Convert for all my converting needs.

By: sully75

sully75 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:26:25 -0800

Freedownload manager does this and is awesome.

By: Deflagro

Deflagro — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:53:58 -0800

The one I use a lot is Zamzar.com is great for online file conversion (Covered by Lifehacker) but another small known feature is downloading youtube videos (or from plenty of different web sites) and converting them to other video formats, image formats (not sure how that works) or several different audio formats. The great part is that you don't have to download any software, just put in the URL and it will email you a download URL usually within 30 minutes (depending on how busy it is).

By: Deflagro

Deflagro — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:54:54 -0800

Sorry, should've checked my links first. Here's the fixed link to Zamzar

By: strangecargo

strangecargo — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:22:42 -0800

Using the instructions linked by Barry B. Palindromer, it's possible to get a bit-for-bit copy of the audio stream from the file without transcoding loss. Once you have the .mp4 file (which you will already be able to play on an iPod), this command line will output the AAC audio stream (which is iPod/iTunes compatible) into its own audio file:

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -acodec copy audio.m4a

If you want to get an mp3, you can download the FLV version of the video (which will not work on your iPod) and do this:

ffmpeg -i video.flv -vn -acodec copy audio.mp3

The first method will yield a better sounding audio file.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:35:20 -0800

Get Tube has a preference setting to do this.

By: Who_Am_I

Who_Am_I — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:14:53 -0800

ListenToYouTube.com?