How to download and record online videos on Windows and Mac

Download a video from its link in three steps: MovieJack

To keep a video as a file, such as a Mediathek documentary for a long flight or a training video you've been cleared to save, download it from its link instead of recording your screen. You save the video file itself, sound included, rather than a real-time copy of whatever your display showed. MovieJack, a Windows, macOS and Linux app from Engelmann Software, does it in three steps.

1. Open the video in your browser and copy the URL from the address bar.

2. In MovieJack, paste it into the URL field.

3. Click Download. Progress shows live, and the finished file lands in your download folder, which you can change in the settings.

To keep a video's subtitles, switch on subtitle downloads in the settings and MovieJack embeds them in the file. Choose MKV for better embedded subtitles, or MP4 to play anywhere.

Try the sites you need in the free demo first: 15 days, five downloads a day, full quality, no watermark, no account or card. Premium is the edition for video portals and media libraries, with playlists and up to 4K where the source offers it. It costs from €29.99 with one year of updates (€49.99 for two years, €69.99 for three), paid once with no subscription and no automatic renewal, and one licence covers up to three devices for the same user.

Save just the audio, or a whole playlist

To save only the audio, such as a talk you gave or your own stream as a podcast cut, turn on Audio instead of Video in MovieJack's settings, choose MP3, M4A or Opus (M4A gives better quality than MP3 in smaller files), and set the bitrate: 128 kbps for speech, 192 to 320 kbps for music. Then paste the link into the URL field and click Download as usual. MP3, M4A and Opus come with every MovieJack edition, and yt-dlp and 4K Video Downloader Plus save audio too.

For a whole playlist, which needs Premium or a higher edition, paste the playlist's link and tick Download entire playlist: the titles download one after another, and the progress shows where you are, such as Video 3/12.

What you can save: the rules in one place

Save what's yours or what you're cleared to use: your own uploads and livestreams, footage you have permission for, Creative Commons and public domain material and, in Germany, public broadcasters' shows for your own private viewing.

Check the platform's terms first. YouTube's terms don't allow downloading except through its own features or with prior written permission from YouTube and, where relevant, the rights holders, or, in the UK and EU versions, where applicable law permits. Twitch's terms bar downloading except where Twitch expressly permits it. On both, use the platform's own download, covered next; elsewhere, read the site's terms before you use a downloader.

Copyright law applies too. In Germany, Section 53 of the Copyright Act allows single private, non-commercial copies from a source that isn't obviously unlawful, which may not be shared or shown publicly. MovieJack's help page names the other condition: no effective copy protection may be circumvented, which German, US and UK law all prohibit.

Putting someone else's footage in a video you publish usually needs written permission from whoever holds the rights, or a licence such as CC BY 4.0 credited as YouTube's licence page shows, unless an exception such as US fair use applies. A licence covers reuse, not downloading, so ask the creator for the file. None of this is legal advice.

Your own uploads and streams: use the platform's download

If you made it, use the platform's own download, which is free and within its terms. In YouTube Studio, select Content in the left menu, pick the video (finished streams are under the Live tab), open its menu and choose Download. You get an MP4 in 720p or 360p depending on the video, up to five times a day per video, and it won't work for a video with a copyright or Community Guidelines strike or a preapproved audio track. Google Takeout saves every upload at once. On Twitch, open Video Producer from the Content menu of your Creator Dashboard and choose Download from a past broadcast's menu. Twitch keeps past broadcasts for 7 to 60 days depending on your account, and only if Store Past Broadcasts was on; the livestream clipping guide lists every platform's deadline. On Vimeo, the owner always has a download button.

The catch is quality. A 720p copy is not the file you exported, and YouTube warns that a stream longer than 12 hours may not be archived at all. That's why the lasting answer is to keep your own master, covered at the end.

Record what has no file yet: OBS and built-in recorders

Record when there's no file to save yet: your own livestream as it happens, a webinar you're presenting or a call everyone has agreed to record. For your stream, OBS Studio is the free, open-source default on Windows, macOS and Linux. It writes a recording to your disk while it sends the stream, with separate settings for each, so the copy you keep can be better than the one viewers saw, and you can give each audio source its own track for editing later.

For calls, demos and webinars you're presenting, the recorders built into macOS, Windows, iPhone and Android need no install, and the screen recording guide gives the shortcut for each and the fix for a Mac's missing system audio. A recording runs in real time and captures whatever your screen and speakers play, so when a file exists and you may keep it, downloading it is the better route.

ARD and ZDF Mediathek shows: MovieJack's Media Libraries edition or MediathekView

Search by show title in MovieJack's Media Libraries edition and save the episode to watch privately before it leaves the Mediathek, since shows stay online only for a limited time. The edition is made for this and covers public broadcasters' media libraries in over 30 countries, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. You don't need a link: open the Search tab, choose Media Libraries as the source, type a show's name, a series title or a keyword such as "Doku Klima" and click Search. Results show a preview image, the broadcaster and the broadcast time, and the download button saves the episode, usually in HD if the broadcaster offers it.

The edition costs from €14.99 with one year of updates, paid once, saves video as MP4 or MKV and audio as MP3, M4A or Opus, and has help pages in English; Premium adds the large video portals.

The free alternative is MediathekView, an open-source app for Windows, macOS and Linux that searches ARD, ZDF, arte, 3sat, the regional ARD broadcasters, ORF and SRF, and can subscribe to a series so new episodes download automatically; MediathekViewWeb runs the same kind of search in a browser. Both are in German. Some shows can only be watched from Germany or the German-speaking countries, mostly for legal reasons according to MediathekView's FAQ, and that's a limit to respect rather than work around.

Other downloaders: yt-dlp and 4K Video Downloader Plus

Choose by how you work: video portals and German Mediathek shows in one Windows, Mac or Linux app (MovieJack), a point-and-click app with a free tier (4K Video Downloader Plus), scripting and batches on any system (yt-dlp), or Mediathek shows for free with a German interface (MediathekView).

yt-dlp is free and open source, supports thousands of sites and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, but it's a command-line program: you type commands rather than click, and it works best with ffmpeg and the other components its documentation recommends.

4K Video Downloader Plus is a point-and-click app for Windows 11, macOS 12 or later and Ubuntu 22.04 or later. It saves videos, playlists and channels as MP4 or MKV, subtitles as SRT, and audio as MP3, M4A or OGG. The free Starter plan has download limits; paid plans are Lite at $15 a year for one device, and Personal at $25 or Pro at $60, both one-off for three devices. Only Pro includes a commercial use permit, which matters if you work for clients.

Keep the master, and a note of where it came from

Keep the full-quality export of everything you make, the local recording of every stream and the raw files, because a platform's copy can be capped at 720p or deleted on a schedule. For anything that isn't yours, log the file, where it came from, the licence or permission, and the credit line it needs: a four-column spreadsheet turns a later question from a client or a platform into a two-minute answer. If your masters are long streams, webinars or podcasts, FrameOS can find the strongest moments and turn them into captioned vertical clips.