

Send Youtube videos to your Dropbox folder - samrat
http://samrat.github.com/blog/videodropper.html

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doublesprout
Why hasn't Dropbox extended its main service with something like this yet?

Incredibly simple apps like puu.sh and Skitch have taken off as separate apps
and there has been a scattering of Dropbox-integrated third party tools, which
I typically have to give away my Dropbox key to use. There's so much data on
the web that is difficult to pull out of the cloud, and Dropbox is in the
unique position of bridging these two realms.

Dropbox has a lock on the position of market leader in file storage, but they
haven't built a platform. There was an article a few days ago which described
how Dropbox is a feature, not a product, and the whole company would be put
out of business if Apple/Microsoft/Google just rebuilt the functionality (a
bit hyperbolic, but worth a thought). But I don't think there have been more
than a few features since I started using Dropbox a few years ago, and it's
not for a shortage of engineers.

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tommi
So perhaps they are building more like a platform and releasing it when it's
ready? Who knows.

Ripping content out of a youtube might be denied in some EULA so maybe Dropbox
just doesn't want to get involved due to legal issues. In any case, Dropbox
does one thing and does it well. Anything else is extra and I congratulate
them for keeping their game together.

~~~
zackb
It is a violation of the YouTube EULA and there will also be bandwidth/rate
limits imposed.

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dbuxton
I love the idea but I'm not wild about giving my Dropbox key (which has about
as much sensitive valuable data as my email) to a random wild application.

Dropbox really need to allow users to lock down application API access to a
specific path.

~~~
palish
No chance I'd give access to random apps either. I have proprietary source
code and such in my Dropbox.

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tripzilch
It's not entirely clear to me whether this tool transloads the video straight
from YouTube to DropBox, or whether it travels (even temporarily) through your
machine to do so?

I fear it's the latter, and that would basically mean you're using your
bandwidth twice.

Can DropBox transload files from arbitrary URLs? Because then it should
totally be possible.

~~~
wccrawford
"Downloading happens at the fastest possible speed, but without interfering
with your Internet usage, so if you have a slow connection you'll be able to
download Youtube videos and still use the Internet at optimal speed."

That can only be true if it's not using your connection (twice!) to do the
download.

~~~
samrat
That's correct. It doesn't use your connection twice. It just uploads the
video to your Dropbox folder after which Dropbox does the syncing.

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zackb
How are you going to deal with the YouTube rate limit that is about to (or
already has) hit?

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owenfi
I made a little bookmarklet. Tested to work on Safari/Chrome on Mac. Make sure
you are logged in before using.

<http://pastebin.com/R5mu7c1K>

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kittxkat
Hmm, wait. So couldn't I just download the video with an application like
youtube-dl normally and save it within the Dropbox folder? Wouldn't that have
the same effect? (Syncing with phone etc.)

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wccrawford
Does it work yet? I put in a youtube URL and clicked the button, but nothing
is happening.

Wait, after going back and clicking a few more times, it finally queued it.

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mhunter
Why does this service need access to my entire Dropbox? Does Dropbox's API
allow you to just create a new folder for your app to access?

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ashcairo
I bet you he made this just to get more referral storage from Dropbox.

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twapi
It downloads videos in FLV format ... any way to opt for MP4?

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samrat
Yes, select the "Optimize for iPhone" option

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twapi
glad to know that. Great tool!

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res0nat0r
youtube-dl: <http://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl/>

~~~
samrat
Yes , it's really great

