I’m raving about a website called Vixy.net. I rarely do this because it sounds like a shameless advertising plug (I wish…maybe then I’d see some money…). It’s another online FLV converter that claims to be able to “download” videos from YouTube. I figured it would be just like the 20 I’d been to before where it doesn’t convert it to a video, instead converts it to a flash file that you then have to download a flash file player to even watch…I’m gonna rank the website as a whole at around an 8. Well then why am I bothering to rave about it? Well there are two things I’ve got to review on this site, the online converter and the offline converter.

I tried the online converter and got it to not take 20 minutes before timing out only once. So I am gonna give it like a 3/10 there. If you had different luck, congratulations. If you’d like to go ahead and try the online version and see if it works for you – I will cheer you on. Here’s the link: http://vixy.net/. It’s right there on the front page…just paste your YouTube video URL or FLV file URL there, set your settings, and hit Start.

I got so frustrated I did what probably only 5% of the people that visit the site do…I downloaded the offline converter. I run a MacBook Pro with OSX on it, so this review isn’t about the PC version. I can’t guarantee it’s exactly the same, just as good, or doesn’t contain spyware or anything like that. I downloaded the Mac version and after a simple “drag this into your applications folder” installation, I ran it and it worked just like the online version…except like 1.5 seconds later I had my video downloaded and about 30 seconds after that I had it on my iPhone to show everyone. I know, I could’ve just visited the YouTube URL and it would’ve worked on my iPhone – but it was a clip from a new movie that was out and they get taken down by Warner Brothers probably every 30 minutes on YouTube (Wouldn’t you hate to have that job? The Warner Brothers YouTube monitor…what a sucky job.)

Anyway, they’ve got some cool options like MP4, AVI, MOV, and even Audio-Only. Check it out if you’re looking for a decent online converter that doesn’t require separate converters, 2 websites, a special video player, and a subscription to all kinds of crap. This is a straightforward converter that works. Well…the offline version at least (for me).

http://vixy.net/