If you were to look into another person's software collection, you'll most likely find a video downloader and converter lying around. These apps are great for preparing collections of music, movies or tutorials for entertainment or educational purposes, as well as for transferring them to portable devices, like smartphones or tablets, for the sake of convenience.
For this review we're taking a look at Freemake Video Downloader. Small-sized, straightforward and very simple to use, this Windows utility is made to obtain video clips from numerous popular websites (like YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook) and save them to the computer, either with their original file extension or changed into something else. A notable feature it possesses is a one-click download mode that, as this suggests, permits users to speed up downloading jobs by activating them with one click.
Tricky setup and interface with adware
The installation procedure takes little time to finish, but it shouldn't be rushed either. Due to the fact that it's ad-supported, Freemake Video Downloader offers to download and install some third-party components (unless they're already installed) that it doesn't actually need to work properly. In order to avoid this situation, users simply have to switch from express to custom installation mode and clear all checkboxes.
The GUI is pleasantly designed. However, similar to the setup stage, Freemake Video Downloader contains adware, namely it draws the user's attention to the center of the main window, which shows a large button for downloading and installing another third-party tool. Times like these make us grateful for keeping User Account Control activated.
How to download and convert videos
The first step is copying a video link, and the second is pasting it into Freemake Video Downloader with the click of a button. Unfortunately, the app does not integrate a feature for activating a Clipboard monitor to automatically paste all copied links which contain video streams.
Before proceeding with the downloading operation, the software application offers several kinds of video quality, depending on what's available on the host website, so users may pick the preferred one by taking into account the output format (such as MP4, WebM, 3GP, FLV or MP4), audio quality, and file size.
The clips can be obtained with their original file type, but there is also the possibility to convert them to other formats. This depends on whether users want to make them compatible with mobile devices or not (like smartphones or iPads) for file transfers, for example. The file extension options are AVI, MKV, MP3, WMV, iPod/iPhone, iPad/iPad 2, Android, PSP and 3GP.
Regardless whether video conversion is enabled or not, it is possible to pick a custom output directory on the disk for saving the downloaded clips, or choose a common location from a drop-down menu, like the desktop or "My Videos" folder.
Play videos and view the downloads history
In order to speed up a larger task with multiple clips from different sources, users may populate the download list with two or more videos and get them in bulk. Any job can be paused and resumed later, while downloaded videos can be opened in Windows Explorer or played with the default media player without leaving Freemake Video Downloader's interface.
All downloaded videos can be reviewed in a history window where a search function is put at users' disposal and it is also possible to play clips, view their location on the disk, open their URL in the browser, as well as remove entries from history.
One-click download mode
The software utility implements a one-click download mode for those looking to swiftly fetch multiple videos without having to go through the same configuration every time. This means that users can customize settings to apply them to all clips. These revolve around the saving folders, quality and size ratio (best quality, minimal size, or optimal parameters), as well as to download only or convert the clips to another file format.
Program preferences and parental control
Freemake can be set to minimize to the system tray area, hide popups, save adult videos as hidden and hide their thumbnails when downloading them, as well as to lock the adult sites. Users may also limit the download speed and maximum number of simultaneous downloading jobs, apply a proxy configuration to connect to the Internet, add account credentials to log into social networks and download private and age-restricted videos, as well as switch to another UI language. Since the tool is able to download clips from adult websites, it also features a parental control module to lock this feature with a password.
The Good
No error dialogs popped up in our tests, and Freemake did not hang or crash. It quickly downloaded videos and delivers good quality after conversion. CPU and RAM consumption was reasonable.
The one-click download mode speeds up the entire task. Multiple videos can be downloaded in bulk.
Parents can block access to age-inappropriate websites with a password.
First-time users can quickly learn how to work with the app.
It is free to use.
The Bad
On top of that, the tool is not capable of recognizing links that are part of playlists (e.g. YouTube) to give users the possibility of marking all videos in the playlist for bulk downloading.
The installer is filled with adware.