14 DAY TRIAL // We are all gathered here today to talk about video downloaders and converters. This sounds kind of familiar. It must be because of the recently reviewed aTube Catcher.
Continuing the trend of video processing tools specializing in downloading online content and turning it into another format, the next item on our list is save2pc (no capitalization required).
This is a pretty straightforward program that, unlike other apps, supports many popular video hosting websites and not just a single one (here's looking at you, YouTube), along with multiple file types for the output (apart from the fact that it can just download the clip and keep its original extension). It is very simple to work with, since it doesn't leave too much room for customization. However, *spoiler alert* it delivers quality videos after conversion.
The trial version does not have an expiration date, but it imposes several restrictions. To be more specific, the tool will download only half of the video's length, keep only three slots open for downloading, and use only a handful of file types for the output, namely FLV, AVI and MPEG (just for PC playback, not compatible with external devices).
save2pc is unpacked very rapidly and without prompting the user for any special actions. As far as the interface is concerned, the program does not put emphasis on its look, opting for a rather raw appearance. Some users may go as far as mouthing the "outdated" label, while others would probably stick to "practical." Intuitiveness resides in the UI, though.
Meanwhile, clicking the button meant for fetching the video firstly brings up a dialog reminding users of the trial's limitations and inviting them to purchase the full edition. Since this message box is unavoidable with each new downloading job, users are likely to get rapidly annoyed with the program's perseverance.
The secondary dialog holds information on video settings, such as clip name, duration, size, number of views and times it was marked as favorite, along with its thumbnail. In terms of output options, users may modify the default saving location and file type, as well as pick the preferred quality (supports 720p and 1080p).
The Good
If the quality selected by the user is too high (unavailable on the source server), the app automatically chooses the next best thing. This means that users needn't worry themselves about remembering the video quality available when working with multiple files from multiple sources at the same time.
The interface and options are highly intuitive, making save2pc accessible to all types of users, even the ones with limited experience in video downloaders and converters.
Clips are downloaded and converted pretty fast, and the resulted image and sound quality is excellent. We have tested this by downloading three HD clips and saving them to MPEG, AVI and FLV (no conversion), respectively. CPU usage was high, while RAM consumption was low.
The Bad
Even in the licensed version of the app, the list of supported output formats for conversion is brief, especially when taking in account the flexibility of other similar apps in this matter (like aTube Catcher, which is free).
After several runs on Windows 7 during our evaluation, save2pc simply stopped working and kept failing in its attempt to retrieve video links (the video settings dialog did not pop up). It worked well on Windows 8.1, though.
