How to Download YouTube Videos with VLC Media Player [Updated]

Disclaimer: WonderFox does not endorse or encourage downloading any copyrighted works from YouTube. This article is for educational purposes only. Please ensure your action does not violate YouTube’s terms of service.

🔔 The methods below are not guaranteed to work because YouTube frequently updates its streaming code.
🗨️ The whole process is demonstrated on Windows 10, so the steps may vary slightly if you use a different operating system.

Step 1: Open the YouTube video you want to download and copy its URL. You can right-click on the video and select Copy video URL or copy the full-length link from the address bar at the top.

Step 2: Open VLC. Click Media, then Open Network Stream. You can also use the shortcuts Ctrl + N.

Step 3: Paste the URL into the provided field. Next, click the ▼ button at the bottom and select Stream.

Step 4: Click Next.

Step 5: Click Add.

Step 6: Click Browse to choose an output location and name the YouTube video. Click Next.

Step 7: Enable the Activate Transcoding option and make sure Video – H.264 + MP3 (MP4) is selected (You can choose another profile if you want to save the video in a different format. Otherwise, the default profile is good for most cases). Click Next.

Step 8: Click Stream. VLC will start transcoding while streaming. When the progress bar reaches to the end, the download process is finished, and you can view the downloaded file in the output location you specified before.

Step 1: Copy the YouTube video URL.

Step 2: Open VLC > Media > Open Network Stream.

Step 3: Paste the URL into the network URL field and click Play.

Step 4: When VLC starts to play the YouTube video, go to Tools > Codec information. Copy the Location link.

Step 5: Open the location in your browser. If the video plays successfully, right-click on the video and save it to your computer.

If you run into a 403 forbidden page, try clearing your browser cookies or using an Incognito window.

🔔 You cannot download YouTube videos with audio when the video resolution is higher than 720p because YouTube splits high-definition video and audio tracks into separate streams.

It’s not uncommon to experience issues when trying to download videos with VLC. For example, you may receive a “Your input can’t be opened” error message right after you completed the steps above. This is likely due to a faulty YouTube script or an outdated VLC version.

Here are some fixes you can try to solve the problem:

Update: The official youtube.lua script has been removed from the VLC repository, so this method won’t work (unless you can find a new youtube.lua script released by individual users).

youtube.lua is a script VLC relies on to fetch YouTube links. It must be up to date so VLC can analyze YouTube videos successfully.

Here’s how you can update the script manually:

>> Go to https://github.com/videolan/vlc/blob/master/share/lua/playlist/youtube.lua and copy the full script.

>> On your computer, locate where your VLC is installed (the default path is C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\lua\playlist) and find youtube.lua.

>> Right-click on youtube.lua and open it with Notepad.

>> Replace the content with the script you just copied.

>> Open VLC and follow the part one instructions to see if the VLC downloading works.

>> Run VLC. Go to "Tools" > "Preferences" (Press "Ctrl + P").

>> At the bottom of the Preferences window, click "Reset Preferences" and confirm the dialog.

>> Now follow the part one instructions to see whether the issue is gone.

>> Uninstall the current VLC on your PC and download the latest correct version of the VLC Media player from the official site.

💡 If none of the above tricks work, you might as well try a different way to download YouTube videos. The next part offers a much simpler way for online video downloads. And it's completely free.

It’s increasingly difficult to download YouTube videos using VLC these days because YouTube just updates so frequently. My suggestion is to use a dedicated YouTube downloader that can keep up with YouTube’s changes.

On Windows, WonderFox Free HD Video Converter Factory features a powerful video downloader that can download from YouTube safely and quickly. It’s much easier to use and has a higher success rate. Below, I will show you how to use it to download a video from YouTube. You can click the button here to download download the program first and then follow the steps.

Go to YouTube and copy the URL of the video you want to download.

Launch Free HD Video Converter Factory and open the Downloader. Click + New Download and paste and analyze the copied URL in the downloader.

Wait a few seconds till the download options appear. Choose your preferred download option and click Ok to add it to the download list.

🗨️ You can repeat steps 1 to 2 to add more videos to the download task. You can also analyze a YouTube playlist or channel to get multiple videos at once.

Click ▼ at the bottom of the interface to choose an output folder. When everything is ready, click Download All to start the download.

🗨️ The program will download YouTube videos with audio, even if you choose a resolution higher than 720p. So that’s another plus.

That’s all I want to share with you about how to download YouTube videos with VLC media player. Keep in mind that the method may stop working if your youtube.lua or VLC isn’t up to date. But don’t worry. You can always try the dedicated YouTube downloader whenever VLC fails.

Thanks for reading!

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