This week’s resource isn’t specifically a youth ministry resource per se, but it is definitely a tool that has served me well in preparing video youth ministry materials.
With all the videos available on YouTube, Google Video and elsewhere, it’s pretty easy to find good lesson illustrations, intros, funny clips for a laugh and even worship videos. I used to download these videos from YouTube with Firefox extensions and then convert them into formats I could actually burn to DVD or use in PowerPoint or KeyNote. However, thanks to Vixy.net, the entire process is now as simple as copying and pasting the video’s URL to their site and waiting for your video download to start in whatever format you choose. The quality is pretty decent and the speed is surprisingly quick. Vixy.net adds their logo to the end of each video, as show below, but those frames are easily removed with most video editing software packages.
There’s probably other services that do the same thing, but this is the one I’ve been using to rip free embedded videos for use in youth ministry presentations. It’s saved me lots of time and hopefully it will for you, too.
CONTRIBUTE TO FREEBIE FRIDAY: If you’ve benefited from others who have freely shared their youth ministry resources online, consider giving back to the community by sharing your own materials here. Send me your donations for review and if I publish them in a Freebie Friday, you’ll receive full credit, a link, lots of gratitude and a warm feeling inside that comes from sharing with others.
[ Sign-up for FREE notifications of freebies and content added to this site! ]
About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, 
March 9th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I just figured out something cool for mediashout users. You can display YouTube videos full screen.
Go to a youtube video and click the “full screen” button. That will give you a URL you can then drop in Annette and “bang” you’ve got it.
PA
March 9th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Great resource! I love finding stuff like that. Thanks!
March 9th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
You’re very welcome!
March 10th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Hey thanks for this…
I appreciate it…
March 12th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Thanks Tim! I definitely will check into it. Do you know if it can convert google’s videos?
I know that google has it’s own player, but just wondering because I would love to be able to stick some of those things into media shout.
Steve
March 12th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I just tried it with Google Video and it didn’t work. If you can get the URL to the Google video’s flv file, then it’ll work with that address, but it didn’t with the full URL. However, Javimoya.com will do it with Google Video and other places. I used to use their Firefox extension, but sometimes it wouldn’t work and it usually turned out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe their site works better than the extension, though.
March 13th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Hey I was wondering if you thought that this was stealing at all.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Scott, I guess if it’s copyrighted works… it’s probably not legal. But certainly self-produced work put on youtube are meant to be used.
I’ve found another option for you guys… you can download it using the FLV firefox extension and then convert it with a program called “super” to any format you’d like.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Yeah, any videos posed on YouTube and Google Video and other such places are already supposed to be copyright-free. People like myself create videos and upload them to YouTube for the sole purpose of sharing them with other people to view and use. If we were talking about studio released movies or something, that would be a different story.
July 17th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hey Guys, I just used the converter for the first time today, and when my video was ready to download the advert on the site was for porn…nuf said. Just be careful out there.
God Bless Y’all,
Lisa
July 17th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Sorry about that, Lisa! When I wrote this I don’t think the site was using advertising at all.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:33 am
No prob, Tim, on the web stuff happens. Just, Walk Boldly and Carry a Big Sword!