YouTube offers video downloads

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 19 Jan 2009 at 11:51

YouTube has begun offering downloadable versions of the videos hosted on its site.

The new downloads option appears to be currently limited to videos of incoming President Barack Obama.

It consists of an extremely discrete "Click to Download" link tucked beneath the main video window.

The video is downloaded as an H.264 file, at a bit rate of 460Kb/sec. That's higher quality than the standard 200Kb/sec YouTube videos, but poorer than the new HD stream, which run at 900Kb/sec.

Offering video uploaders the option to provide downloadable versions of videos could open a whole new can of worms for Google when it comes to "illegal" downloads.

Google is already fighting lawsuits from companies such as Viacom, for allegedly hosting and sharing content protected by copyright. Making such videos available for playback and permanent storage on computers and devices such as iPods and PSP consoles could leave the company open to further legal action.

Google is remaining tight-lipped about the future of the service: "This is a limited test. We don't have any more details to share at the moment but I will be sure to let you know as and when we do," a spokesperson says.