YouTube-dl

File this in the small yet helpful utility bin. You can use YouTube-dl to download videos from YouTube. I don't have Flash installed on FreeBSD, but I do have Mplayer. This means I can use YouTube-dl as follows:

orr:/home/richard$ python youtube-dl 
usage: youtube-dl [options] video_url

options:
  -h, --help            print this help text and exit
  -v, --version         print program version and exit
  -u USERNAME, --username=USERNAME
                        account username
  -p PASSWORD, --password=PASSWORD
                        account password
  -o FILE, --output=FILE
                        output video file name
  -q, --quiet           activates quiet mode
  -s, --simulate        do not download video

orr:/home/richard$ python youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXF-iZh488
Retrieving video webpage... done.
Extracting video URL parameters... done.
Video data found at http://youtube-082.vo.llnwd.net/d1/01/F3/bPXF-iZh488.flv
Retrieving video data... 6608k of 6608k done.
Video data saved to bPXF-iZh488.flv
orr:/home/richard$ mplayer bPXF-iZh488.flv 
MPlayer 1.0pre7try2-3.4.4 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
...edited...
Starting playback...
...truncated...

Obviously as an added benefit I can keep a local archive of my favorite videos.

I learned about this program through Freshmeat.net, but I just saw a FreeBSD port was added today.