Table of Contents
In this post we'll review Allavsoft Video Downloader, an interesting tool that allows to download and convert online videos from various platforms to AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, MPG, and other common video formats.
The Video Downloader tool has been made and published by Allavsoft, a software development company founded in 2014 with the precise intent of creating video and audio conversion tools. Throughout the following sections we'll see how their Video Downloader and Converter solution works and how to use it to download and convert a sample online video from Vimeo to a common MP4 file: are we ready? Let's start!
Technical requirements
Allavsoft Video Downloader is available for Microsoft Windows and MacOS with the following hardware & software requirements:
Windows version
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Microsoft® Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows® 7, Windows® 8, or Windows® 10
- 1GHz Intel®/AMD processor or above
- 512MB RAM or more
- 30MB free hard disk space for installation
- Super VGA (800 x 600) resolution, 16-bit graphics card or higher
MacOS version
- Mac OS X v10.4(Tiger), 10.5(Leopard), 10.6(Snow Leopard), 10.7(Lion), 10.8(Mountain Lion), 10.9(Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.12(macOS Sierra), 10.13(macOS High Sierra), 10.14(macOS Mojave) and 10.15(macOS Catalina);
- PowerPC® G5 or Intel® processor;
- 512MB RAM or more;
- 50MB free hard disk space for installation;
- Super VGA (800 x 600) resolution, 16-bit graphics card or higher
The MacOS version can also convert video into native mac video formats such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro X or 7, Final Cut Express to ease the video editing process.
Download and install
Installing the software is quite easy: you just have to go to the Allavsoft Video Downloader website and click the huge Download button that shows up near the top of the page:
In case you own a Mac, just click to the Go to Mac Version link and you'll be able to download the MacOS installer: for the sake of simplicity we'll only deal with the Windows version here, but once the tool is installed the UI is pretty much the same.
Once you've downloaded the installer executable, launch it to start the installation process, which is rather standard (and doesn't ask you to install other bloatware or unnecessary sponsored software).
As soon as the installation process is done, you'll be asked to either use the trial version (with some limitations) or to insert your name and license registration code to unlock the full version (with no limitations):
As we can see from the above screenshot, the trial version has the following limitations:
- Max 5 video to download
- Max 5 minutes for conversion and/or merge tasks
Needless to say, the registered version comes with no limitations and also gives the chance to ask for technical support using a dedicated e-mail.
Testing
In order to test the Allavsoft Video Download tool we've chosen a sample video from Vimeo: La séance by Hippolyte Cupillard, which was uploaded on May 22, 2021. Needless to say, the downloaded and converted video has been immediately deleted afterwards. Such video is 1:32 minutes long, therefore is perfect for our testing needs.
The first thing we did is to copy the video URL and paste it into the software's Download tab; right after that, we've choosen the following options:
- Download quality: Best available, to ensure that the app is going to pick the best resolution available on the streaming platform.
- Save to: C:\Temp, our temporary download and convert folder of choice.
- Automatically convert to: MP4, since it's our favourite video format.
- Conversion quality: Optimal, since we want the best possible quality that the tool can offer.
Once done, we just had to press the huge blue down arrow button to the bottom right of the screen to start the download and conversion process, which went down pretty fast.
The converted video can be accessed by clicking on the yellow Folder icon on the top options bar, which opens the target path.
And here's how the converted MP4 video looks like after the download & conversion process:
Supported websites and services
The software works with all the most common media sharing sites, such as (yet not limiting to): YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, eHow, Dailymotion, Viki, Break, Metacafe, BlipTV, Crunchyroll, Deezer, Soundcloud, SBS, Tenplay, Plus 7, ABC iView, Medici.tv, Lynda, Udemy, PBS, BBC, cbc.ca, Livestream, Kissasian, MegaVideo, Veoh, VideoBash, LiveLeak, MyVideo, FunnyOrDie, Nico Video, TV.com, Veevr, Adobe TV, and more.
Conclusions
That's it, at least for now: we hope our review will be useful for those who are looking for a viable solution to download and convert online videos and have them locally stored in their favourite video format.
