08-08-2009, 01:11 AM

Hi there,

I've tried to no avail to use download helper to download and convert vids from youtube to use with presentations. I have downloaded ffmpeg and the codecs needed to convert the files, but it has not worked with firefox.

Is there any simple program out there to download videos so that you can import them within PowerPoint? Thanks so much!

08-08-2009, 09:32 AM

Easiest way I've ever downloaded videos from youtube has been in Safari - go to the videos page, allow it to be fully viewable, go to your activity window (it's under the window dropdown or option+command+A) look through there for the largest entry (anywhere from just under a meg to quite a few megs) then double click the entry and it will automagically start to download.

Once you have the video, it'll be in either .flv or .mp4 format. If you can't import into powerpoint with that, I'd suggest taking a look at mpegstreamclip ( Download MPEG Streamclip for Mac - Convert MPEG-1/MPEG-2 files, transport streams in several formats. MacUpdate Mac Video Software Downloads ) it's free and easy to use, just open the program, drag your video into the main window of the program, then go to file, and select the export format that you need. You may want to check powerpoints help to find out what formats are supported.

You may need to tweak the settings a little to get your export just the way you want it, but that is the process I use when I want/need a youtube video.

08-10-2009, 03:17 AM

Well I've done something similar as Nethfel has mentioned, just a little different. Download the youtube video via Safari as mentioned. When it's finished, change the end of the file to .flv, go into ffmpegx, and drag the file to the left side box and it will automatically choose .avi to encode it. After that click encode and you should be good to go.

08-11-2009, 02:15 AM

Thanks for the responses.

For now I've been testing out mpegstreamclip, and it's convenient in that it has the trim feature. One thing that's odd though is that if you convert to windows media it only converts some of what's been trimmed (roughly half).

The avi quality is better. Is there any danger in just using the bigger clip size with avis? In other words, 20 to 30 mb clips making a huge powerpoint file?

I'll try out the other option as well.

Two things that blow about showing the clips within Powerpoint I've found are:
– zoom to full screen seems to make it extremely choppy (maybe there's a setting within windows to fix this)
– you can't rewind or fast forward (so stupid...)

Thanks for the wonderful tips from everyone!

08-11-2009, 07:39 AM

Honestly, the powerpoint stuff I can't answer - I don't usually have to create presentations, and the few that I've had to do have only required stills. Hopefully someone with more experience w/ PP can answer the PP specific stuff