4K Video Downloader for Linux Review – YouTube Is No Match

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Easy to use interface
  • (3 more, see all...)

The 4K Video Downloader is a software solution that allows users to download video and audio files from YouTube, with the help of a simple and efficient interface. It's not freeware, but it's a good tool and it deserves a closer look.

It's not hard to download YouTube videos on the Linux platform and you don't even need a fancy GUI to do it. Linux users can simply employ the terminal and a package called youtube-dl. As the name implies, it can do just that with only a link. The problem is that some users, especially the new ones, might not want to use the terminal to perform such a simple task.

Besides the terminal, there are other methods available as well to download videos from YouTube. For example, there are quite a few Firefox extensions that can do the same thing, although they don't provide some of the more advanced options that you can find in 4K Video Downloader.

It's also worth mentioning that downloading YouTube videos sits in a grey area. Google doesn't allow it and there are no Google Chrome extensions for this task. Even so, there are dozens of applications like this available, most of them on Windows.

Installation

Users can download a .deb file for the application and this seems to be the only binary version available for download. There are also a couple of portable packages, but the source is nowhere to be seen, for obvious reasons.

I tested the app in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and it worked without any issues. There are a couple of ways to install 4K Video Downloader, either with the Ubuntu Software Center by double-clicking on the package, or with the terminal. If you want to use the terminal you might consider entering this command:

code
sudo spkg -i 4kvideodownloader_3.4-1_amd64.deb
The installation should be over pretty soon, but if the dependencies are not met, you will need to enter an additional command:
code
sudo apt-get install -f
This latest one will bring any dependencies from the repositories and complete the installation. Please keep in mind that you have to be root in order to make it work, either with the terminal or with Ubuntu Software Center.

Usage

So, now that you've got the 4K Video Downloader installed, what's the next step? Users just need to enter a link from YouTube into the application and they will receive a simple set of options to choose from, like the quality of the video, the format (by default it's MKV, MP4, FLV, and 3GP), and the path. Hit Download and the file should arrive pretty quickly, depending on your broadband.

This is all fine and dandy, but this simple operation can be done from Firefox, without having to install an application. The best feature of 4K Video Downloader is its ability to download playlists or channels. This option alone makes it a rather interesting application. Yes, it's possible to download playlists with youtube-dl as well, but it takes forever and it's not exactly easy.

The application also features a so-called Smart Mode. Basically, users can set some default options for the download process so they don't have to do it every time they add something to the queue.

4K Video Downloader also has a few other features in the Preferences menu. Users can set how many processor threads the application can use, create subdirectories, skip duplicates (still experimental feature), generate an m3u playlist file, embed subtitles in videos, and search audio tags.

The last feature I want to mention is the ability to download subtitles, but the option only appears if the captions are enabled on the video or if the uploader of the video made them available.


The Good

The interface is definitely a plus with the 4K Video Downloader app. It's nice to not have to worry about arguments in the terminal and to just hit download. The application is fast and seems to handle most tasks quite well.

The Bad

Besides the fact that it's shareware and that would be a problem for the advocates of free software, 4K Video Downloader doesn't have any issues, with a couple of exceptions. If the video channel that you are downloading has many videos, the application might become unresponsive. It still works in the background, but you will have to give it more time. The header bar has some GTK+ issues, but it doesn't affect the performance.

Conclusion

The 4K Video Downloader is a great application to download multiple files at once, and that includes playlists and entire channels. It's hard to find these kinds of features on the Linux platform, so we'll use the app even if it means paying for it.

user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 4
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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4K Video Downloader for Linux (8 Images)

Main interface
Download single filesDownload playlistsSettings for downloadSome sort of achievements
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