VideoGet

Pros

• Converts videos to a wide range of formats
• Easy to pause and restart downloads

Cons

• Costs $24.95
• Does the same thing as free software

VideoGet is a video download tool that lets you automatically convert Internet videos to common file formats for viewing on iPhone, Android and computers.

When you first download VideoGet, you can install it by double-clicking the downloaded file. The Windows Setup Wizard launches and gives you options for configuring VideoGet for your user account. Follow the setup instructions to add VideoGet icons to your desktop, taskbar and Start screen and create a directory in your Videos library. At the end of setup, click Finish to launch VideoGet. Normally, you can launch it by clicking the Start screen tile or by typing VideoGet and pressing Enter. Unfortunately, VideoGet does not offer a system tray icon, and it doesn't integrate with the Windows shell or Web browsers for downloading videos from a context menu. To use VideoGet, you have to open it and manually enter the videos to download.

Most of VideoGet's controls are displayed on the interface, and you can show or hide the advanced conversion options by clicking the button in the bottom of the window. Its interface is arranged somewhat like a Torrent client in the sense that you can add, start, pause and remove downloads by clicking the transport controls in the menu bar. To start a download, click Add and then enter the URL of a video you want to download. Of course, the website hosting the video has to allow downloading or you may end up with half a video or a connection that never starts. Since most videos on the Internet are encoded in FLV format, VideoGet includes the option to convert them to more popular desktop and mobile formats.

When you expand the advanced controls at the bottom of the screen, you reveal options for video codec, screen resolution, audio format, audio and video quality and several other parameters. Usually, choosing your device from the Output Format menu automatically takes care of the other settings. For example, choosing iPad as the output format automatically sets the correct screen resolution and audio and video codecs. However, you should be aware that converting your downloads can take more than twice as long, depending on their original size and format. To make the window smaller and less complicated, click the button again to the hide the advanced controls.

Your downloads' progress is displayed in the download window, and as each download reaches 100 percent, a little Play button appears next to it. Clicking the button just opens the video in your default media player, but it is a nice touch. All the other options, including Settings, Help, About and Share, are accessible from the menu bar at the top of the window. The Settings menu lets you choose a few default settings for your most commonly used video preferences.

Pros

• Converts videos to a wide range of formats
• Easy to pause and restart downloads

Cons

• Costs $24.95
• Does the same thing as free software