TubeTV Help Index

General

Searching YouTube, Google Video, and Google

Enter some keywords in the toolbar's search field and hit return to find a Google Video or YouTube movie to download. If you don't see the search field, try customizing your toolbar with the View->Customize Toolbar… option and add the field by dragging it to the top.

It's also possible that you dragged the divider between the location field and the search field too far and hid the search field entirely (or perhaps did this purposely). In this case, simply drag it back.

Other Sites

Although TubeTV has been most extensively tested on YouTube, it should work with many other sites which use the flash video format (flv). To find a movie from a different web site, enter the URL for the site in the location field and hit return. If using your default browser, the Navigate->Grab URL from menu option (or toolbar button) may be used to load the URL in TubeTV (copy and paste works too).

Downloading

How To Download

After a movie has loaded and begun playing in the TubeTV window the Save button should enable itself; click it (or command+S) to download the movie. Feel free to keep browsing and start downloading as many movies as you like simultaneously. Using the File->Save As… option allows you to set a custom name and choose a download folder. This option also permits you to select different conversion and iTunes options than the default. Alternately, it's possible to right-click on a link to a movie in the search results and directly download it without playing it first.

Cache

If you wait until a flash movie has completed loading in the browser, TubeTV will be able to make use of the cached file rather than re-downloading it, and the "download" process should complete almost immediately. If you start downloading before a movie is fully loaded, you'll basically be loading it twice: once for the browser, and once for the download, so it's more efficient to wait.

Grabbing from Default Browser

TubeTV has two options for grabbing movies from your default web browser. The first option simply loads the same web page you're viewing in your regular browser in TubeTV allowing you to hit the save button when appropriate. The second option attempts to grab the movie you're watching in your regular browser and download it with TubeTV without loading it in the browser. This option is sometimes problematic and whether or not it works depends on which site you're loading movies from. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

Converting

If the auto convert downloads option is set in the preferences, movies will automatically be converted to a format suitable for playback on your desired device (iPod, Apple TV, iPhone, etc.) after the download completes. Please check the preferences to see whether this is enabled and to customize the conversion format.

Manual conversion is also possible - choose the File->Convert Files… option and select as many video files as you like for a batch conversion. The options in the batch conversion dialog box enable you to choose different conversion and iTunes settings than the default and will not affect the default settings.

On slower (older) computers, it would be wise to lower the number of concurrent conversions and downloads in the preferences (default is 4).

Progress Window

When downloading or converting files, TubeTV will display a progress window with an entry for each download or conversion. A preference option lets you select how many concurrent downloads or conversions take place at once (set this lower on older computers to save memory, etc.). The Clear button at the bottom clears completed tasks, and the small round button to the right of each task either cancels it or reveals it depending on context. Note that if you have your preferences set to delete downloaded or converted movies, the reveal button may not do anything, or may bring iTunes to the front to indicate that the movie only exists in the iTunes library.

History and Favorites

If running TubeTV on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or higher, a Favorites menu will appear in the menu bar with an embedded History menu. The favorites system makes use of Apple's Core Data technology which received significant updates in Leopard; this is why it's not available in 10.4 (Tiger).

History

The history only remembers pages which have embedded movies. Read more about history on the preferences help page.

Favorites

To add a favorite (bookmark), use the Favorites->Add Favorite… menu option. This will bring up the same window as the Favorites->Manage Favorites… option and allow you to enter a name for your favorite; it should default to the movie name if available. Managing favorites is fairly straightforward with the exception of two points. The check box column on the far left selects which favorites are visible in the Favorites menu, and the Category column allows you to categorize your favorites however you deem appropriate. To add a category, click the Edit Categories button, press the + button, and enter a name for it. After adding a category, you can select it in the popup menu for any favorite.

In the Favorites menu, use the options in Menu Order to adjust the ordering of the Favorites menu. The menu can be sorted by name, rating, category, date added, or site.

Assorted

Cache

To empty the cache, choose the TubeTV->Empty Cache menu option. Note that this only removes the web cache and does not remove any cached flash videos. Cached flash videos are normally removed by the flash player itself as soon as you quit TubeTV.

TubeTV Help Index