# A video downloader with low security concerns? **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/a-video-downloader-with-low-security-concerns/20826 **Category:** Questions **Created:** 2024-09-12T09:10:04Z **Posts:** 36 ## Post 1 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-12T09:10:04Z (please let me know if this doesn’t belong on this site and I’ll delete it) Hey everyone, I’m currently trying to download a video off my Nebula account into my personal files, which it doesn’t let you do on the website itself- just store locally. I’m a bit hesistant with video downloading websites and softwares as I know they can be scams from a security perspective a lot of the time. Are there any particular web/Windows/iOS based video downloaders that you guys can reccomend? I’ve seen “yt-dlp” reccomended elsewhere but comments there also seemed to suggest that it maybe isn’t the most user friendly application (something about using terminals). --- ## Post 2 by @anon74343381 — 2024-09-12T09:26:43Z [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/) isn’t complex at all if you’re just downloading videos, it just this: `yt-dlp https://link.to/the_video`. That’s only for Windows though. For iOS, you could try [cobalt.tools](https://cobalt.tools), but that only supports certain cites, and I’m not sure if Nebula is supported. Any other web-based downloaders shouldn’t be trusted --- ## Post 3 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-12T16:49:04Z Wdym its just that? I have no clue what you’re referring to. Do you mean like what you put into a terminal? I dont even know what terminals are or how to use them. I’m reallyyyyy not a computer person is the issue here. --- ## Post 4 by @Rasta — 2024-09-12T16:50:49Z Grayjay has a built in video downloader and supports nebula play back. I haven’t tested nebula myself but you could check and see if the app allows you to download videos from nebula. --- ## Post 5 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-12T16:55:23Z I’m not familiar, what’s Grayjay? What platform would I download it on? Windows? iOS? web? --- ## Post 6 by @exaCORE — 2024-09-12T16:58:26Z Android: [Grayjay App - Follow Creators Not Platforms](https://grayjay.app/index.html#download) --- ## Post 7 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-12T17:03:35Z I was just looking at their website - at least from there it seems like the downloads are just to within the application? Not to your own external files. --- ## Post 8 by @exaCORE — 2024-09-12T17:11:29Z No idea I don’t use it. I was just trying to answer the question for where to find it --- ## Post 9 by @Rasta — 2024-09-12T18:32:09Z It downloads to the application and then allows you to export from that to the phone’s normal file system --- ## Post 10 by @BionicBison — 2024-09-12T23:51:54Z > [@ParkerS](#): > > I dont even know what terminals are or how to use them. I’m reallyyyyy not a computer person is the issue here. I promise you it’s easier than you think :slight_smile: On Windows, all you have to do to install it is open the Start menu, search for cmd (Command Prompt should come up), open it, and type `winget install yt-dlp` and hit enter. After this is finished, close and reopen Command Prompt to finish the installation. You only have to do all of this once! From then on, when you want to download a video, you’ll open Command Prompt and, replacing the parentheses with the name of the browser you use, type `yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser (brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi, whale) `. Telling yt-dlp which browser you’re logged into Nebula with is necessary because it needs to access your logged-in session to download the content that your subscription gives you access to. As one final example, let’s say I use Brave and want to download the latest video from Wendover Productions. All I would need to do is open Command Prompt and type `yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser brave https://nebula.tv/videos/wendover-the-logistics-of-a-presidential-campaign`. yt-dlp will download the video in the highest quality available, and I can find the file in my Windows user folder by going to the file explorer, clicking This PC in the sidebar, clicking on the C: drive, the Users folder, and finally on my username. If you want files to go into your Downloads folder for easier access, all you have to do is type `cd Downloads` into Command Prompt and hit enter before you download the file, followed by the yt-dlp command. --- ## Post 11 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-13T03:31:09Z okay, a couple of questions. 1. Do I have to do this on an account with admin permissions? 2. Would I download the installation file from github first before doing any of the above? 3. Let me clarify what I would put in a command prompt and let me know if this is right: `yt-dlp --cookies-from-firefox ` OR would it be `yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser (firefox) ` **so in command prompt I would go:** `winget install yt-dlp` enter close program re open program `cd Downloads` enter _then one of the above_ enter close program and then the video should be saved to my downloads folder? --- ## Post 12 by @Tech-Trooper — 2024-09-13T06:06:44Z Yok can use open video downloaded which is a UI for yt-dlp. > **[GitHub - jely2002/youtube-dl-gui: A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in...](https://github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui)** > > A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in Electron and node.js Edit: In the releases page, just download the exe file. [Release v2.4.0 · jely2002/youtube-dl-gui · GitHub](https://github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui/releases/tag/v2.4.0) --- ## Post 13 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-13T07:23:50Z looked at the demo - is this basically just yt-dlp but it runs closer to a normal computer application rather than using commands like yt-dlp does? also, do i need to also have yt-dlp installed? --- ## Post 14 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-13T07:27:26Z ![ovdwantsantivirusdisabled](//forum-uploads.privacyguidesusercontent.com/original/2X/c/c40964c0058bfc0f069a9f54e193c6529c91cff9.jpeg) this gui one you reccomended seems to want me to deactivate my antivirus to download anything which feels… suspicious as hell. --- ## Post 15 by @BionicBison — 2024-09-13T12:17:52Z > [@ParkerS](#): > > `yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser (firefox) ` Close, just remove the parentheses and \<\> as follows: `yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox https://nebula.tv/videos/reallifelore-modern-conflicts-origins-of-al-qaeda-and-the-road-to-9-11` As to your other questions, I don’t believe installing requires admin permissions. Also, you don’t need to use the GitHub link, that first command will take care of all the installation for you. > [@Tech-Trooper](#): > > Yok can use open video downloaded which is a UI for yt-dlp. I’m aware of the various GUIs, the problem is they’re all at vastly varying levels of development activity and feature completeness (open video downloader hasn’t been updated since 2021 and using browser cookies is far more of a hassle since it doesn’t support automatically extracting them), so I think for this single purpose just using the command line tool and remembering one command is a lot simpler. --- ## Post 16 by @anonfox — 2024-09-13T14:40:15Z You can use yt dlp on ios [Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/wiki/howdoiinstallytdlpinashellonios/) You can also use a shell mini instead of the full version There is also an open source shortcut [GitHub - net00-1/SW-DLT: SW-DLT: a front end iOS Shortcut for yt-dlp & gallery-dl.](https://github.com/net00-1/SW-DLT) but I personally just do it myself since it’s very easy --- ## Post 17 by @asanyan — 2024-09-13T15:18:24Z I don’t know about this particular program, but antiviruses suck. False positives are very common which is why you get prompts like this in programs. It’s not suspicious. --- ## Post 18 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-14T03:04:33Z IDK, I just have a policy against downloading anything with my antivirus disabled. (For reference, I have the full version of Malwarebytes.) Feels like if something says “download this! but you can’t have antivirus protection” its just opening me up to downloading something with a virus. Why would I disable the protections on my computer? --- ## Post 19 by @ikelatomig — 2024-09-14T06:56:23Z Does Nebula use DRM protection ? If not, use this extension: [Live Stream Downloader :: WebExtension.ORG](https://webextension.org/listing/hls-downloader.html) --- ## Post 20 by @ParkerS — 2024-09-14T13:07:45Z this worked, thank you :slight_smile: --- ## Post 21 by @anon74343381 — 2024-09-15T03:40:07Z Yea that was a bad reply, sorry. What I mean is that is the yt-dlp command to download a video. When you install yt-dlp, you’d type a command like that into a terminal, e.g: ``` yt-dlp https://youtube.com/watch?v=iYJy6sCCOg0 ``` That would download a video from youtube. That was actually such a shitty reply from me lmao, I’m sorry --- ## Post 22 by @Tech-Trooper — 2024-09-16T10:49:49Z You don’t need to install any dependency for the gui. It’s been a long time ago I used it. Probably I deactivated macOS gatekeeper for using it. It’s was not notarized. I cannot test the source code but it’s a popular software with 6.5K stars in GitHub. Additionally, you don’t generally need antivirus software on modern computers. --- ## Post 23 by @Average_Joe — 2024-09-16T16:58:18Z > [@ParkerS](#): > > (please let me know if this doesn’t belong on this site and I’ll delete it) > Hey everyone, > > Are there any particular web/Windows/iOS based video downloaders that you guys can reccomend? > > I’ve seen “yt-dlp” reccomended elsewhere but comments there also seemed to suggest that it maybe isn’t the most user friendly application (something about using terminals). Welcome to the community ParkerS! ParkerS, I made a huge threads about this and as you’ll see we made a lot of progress on this exact topic. We focused on JDownloader(free and open source) as well as the most popular downloader extension for Firefox in both threads. **Lots of the super knowledgeable users on here gave their opinions:** **[Is it safe to install a "companion app" with a Firefox extension? - #41 by Average\_Joe](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/is-it-safe-to-install-a-companion-app-with-a-firefox-extension/15127/41)** **[JDownloader: Is It Secure? - #28 by Average\_Joe](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/jdownloader-is-it-secure/12625/28)** **Let me know how you go!** --- ## Post 25 by @Average_Joe — 2024-09-16T17:05:17Z > [@anon74343381](#): > > [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/) isn’t complex at all if you’re just downloading videos, it just this: `yt-dlp https://link.to/the_video`. That’s only for Windows though. For iOS, you could try [cobalt.tools](https://cobalt.tools), but that only supports certain cites, and I’m not sure if Nebula is supported. Any other web-based downloaders shouldn’t be trusted [https://cobalt.tools/](https://cobalt.tools/) is a great mention! Is there anyway to check if it’s secure and doesn’t send telemetry of personal user information? --- ## Post 26 by @anon74343381 — 2024-09-17T07:11:09Z Yea It’s open source --- ## Post 27 by @Average_Joe — 2024-09-24T12:10:31Z > [@anon74343381](#): > > Yea It’s open source I appreciate your reply! Where in the source code can I check that there’s no user telemetry back to someone on the Internet? --- ## Post 28 by @win11.shading291 — 2024-09-24T21:29:50Z Is clipgrab ok to use? > **[ClipGrab - Free YouTube Downloader & Converter](https://clipgrab.org/)** > > ClipGrab is a free downloader and converter for YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe and many other online video sites “Download version without third-party offers” --- ## Post 29 by @BionicBison — 2024-09-24T21:55:27Z If you don’t have advanced requirements like logging into a subscription service I’d just stick to [Cobalt](https://cobalt.tools/). --- ## Post 30 by @win11.shading291 — 2024-09-26T01:02:10Z Great, are there any other options if it doesn’t work? Is there a FOSS software that does that and is more complete (more websites)? Cobalt didn’t work for some websites, while clipgrab did. But clipgrab might not be safe to use as it’s a donationware. --- ## Post 31 by @BionicBison — 2024-09-26T02:32:02Z Do you have any sites in particular that you can name? --- ## Post 32 by @win11.shading291 — 2024-09-26T02:39:49Z The websites are random and change all the time. --- ## Post 33 by @anon74343381 — 2024-09-26T16:14:33Z > **[GitHub - imputnet/cobalt: best way to save what you love](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt)** > > best way to save what you love --- ## Post 34 by @Average_Joe — 2025-07-17T05:40:43Z > [@anon74343381](#): > > [GitHub - imputnet/cobalt: best way to save what you love](https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt) Cobalt just seems to be getting better and better! --- ## Post 35 by @Average_Joe — 2025-07-17T05:57:21Z I just came across and it’s getting a lot of attention online: > **[9xbuddy Mobile (Android APK)](https://123sudo.com/mobile/9xbuddy)** > > Your favorite online video download helper now available on the mobile. A better experience with more features, more control, and of course faster downloads --- ## Post 36 by @Average_Joe — 2025-08-09T09:12:40Z I’ve been doing more research and cobalt.tools looks great because it has an active update schedule and there’s no need to install any apps which reduces the likelihood of any security threats. It’s open source as well of course! **EDIT:** > [@ParkerS](#): > > m currently trying to download a video off my Nebula account into my personal files Did you ever find a safe solution? Dirpy and Cobalt seem safe since they don’t require any installations.