"YouTube Downloader Online" is a popular keyword phrase that people often type into the Google search box. No wonder. Instead of buying disks with films and music, most people these days prefer to go online and download what they want from video sharing resources like YouTube, Comedy Central and many others. It's convenient because you can enjoy it offline on your PC, or portable devices like smart phones and MP3 players. Besides, you only have to pay money for the bandwidth, but the downloaded content is free. There are many methods to extract and download YouTube content to the computer and in this short guide we shall focus on RealPlayer.

RealPlayer offers more features than any YouTube downloader online you can think of and works with all popular browsers. Once installed, the downloading functionality can be accessed through the "Download This Video" popup button. This button appears on top of the content window on YouTube when you move the mouse pointer over the video. In addition to downloading video, the program also offers other tools. For example, there is a built-in trimmer to cut out undesirable parts of a downloaded clip, a set of conversion presets for a wide range of devices, and the option to share video with friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Nice isn't it?

The program is absolutely easy to use, and you need to make only a few simple steps to download a YouTube video. Let's imagine, for example, you wish to watch Madagascar trailer on your iPhone as you are travelling in the car. YouTube requires a live Internet connection, which you cannot find on the journey. Fortunately, RealPlayer can extend a helping hand and let you download YouTube videos to PC for anytime, anywhere viewing, no Internet required. Here's how you can download the video and convert it to 3GP for your smart phone.

To begin, you need to download and install RealPlayer on your computer, and then find the video on YouTube. Once you do that, you move the mouse pointer over the video and the "Download This Button" appears on top.

Click this button to start the download. This opens the downloader window like the one below.

The download will take some time, which depends on the speed of your internet connection. You can sit back and watch the remaining time and progress bar, or go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and some sandwiches. When you are back, the download is most likely to be finished. So what do we do next? Trim it!

Move the mouse pointer to the title of the video and click the Trim button.

This opens the trimmer with your video. You can now set the start and end point for the video and remove undesirable parts. When you do so, click "Save Trim..." and then "Close". We are back to the downloader window again. What we need now is to convert the video to a desired video format. Click the Convert button.

Now select the format and click OK. For example, if we convert to 3GP, we need to select Video Formats > 3GP.

Finally, click Start to begin the conversion. This will take some time again. When the process is over, you can find the video in the output folder. In our case, this will be My Video.

As you see, RealPlayer is downright simple and can replace any YouTube downloader online. It has nice conversion options and more useful features than any other tool. Try it yourself. Good luck!

Click here to download RealPlayer