Using a YouTube to MP4 converter has never been easier. It is simply a matter of loading your YouTube video into a converter and saving it in another formet, namely MP4.
YouTube videos are always in Flash format, which means you need a Flash player to view them. Their filenames end on .swf which is why they are also called swf files. This format was developed by Adobe, so you may also hear the files referred to as Adobe Flash files and compatible players as Adobe Flash players.
The format itself was originally called FLV, but in a later version has become known as F4V. A Youtube to MP4 converter can handle both formats.
The Flash video format is not used only by YouTube. It is incredibly popular and many big websites use this format to display videos. The only problem is that it is usually not possible to simply save them to your computer - you will need a program to download these videos (you can get one here).
The MP4 format is actually called MPEG-4, which is a widely used format for streaming video and audio files over the Internet. By streaming I mean watching and/or listening to the video/movie while it downloads in real time. Well, it doesn't actually "download" in the general consensus as it isn't saved to your computer or which ever device you are using. Also, MP4 is simply the extension used on the file names.
So when you want to use a YouTube to MP4 converter you simply need to locate the Flash file (ending on .swf) on your hard drive, load it into the converter and choose to save it as MPEG-4 - and that's it. Pretty straight forward.
There are many video converters you can use as well as many programs to download/save the Flash files. Here are a couple of good ones:
Convert Genius (for converting between lots of formats).
Tubetilla (for downloading Flash, but this one can actually also perform some conversions as well).
