Frequently Asked Questions

To install - download installer, run it and follow the screen instructions. To update you do not need to uninstall it first - just do the same steps as for installing.

You can install it up to 5 computers and use simultaneously. License key is entered from About box.

No, all updates are for free. You buy TubeDigger only once.

Switch to Chromium browser in settings. To avoid confusions: TubeDigger does not use installed Chrome, it uses Chromium Embedded Framework.

TubeDigger downloads media in the original format as it is streamed from server. Just convert .ts file into .mp4 using option "MP4 [Without reencoding]" from converting dialog - it will be fast and without loss. Many sites use Apple HLS protocol: .ts file (MPEG transport stream) is just another media container like .mp4 (MPEG-4 Part 14). Video and audio codecs are the same in these media containers and nowadays mostly popular are H264 for video and AAC for audio. You may also convert .mp4 file again into .mp4 using option "MP4 [Without reencoding]" from converting dialog if original .mp4 file cannot be seekable or has issues with playback. And you may enable option 'Convert downloads automatically" in setting for automatical conversion of downloaded .ts file into .mp4. After automatical conversion the original file is moved into recycle bin and therefore it may be restored later by demand.

Refresh current page, try to record in "Rec Mode", switch to Chromium (iPad) browser, restart TubeDigger or reboot computer.

Please press button 'Monitor Browsers' and open that video in external browser: Firefox (preferable), Internet Explorer, K-Meleon, Cyberfox, Pale Moon, Tor Browser. Sometimes it may be required to clear recent history of your browser (e.g. for last hour) by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Del in your browser OR press Ctrl-Shift-P in your browser for private browsing (not using cache). Pressing Ctrl-Shift-Del in TubeDigger clears cache of Internet Explorer (only when IExplorer browser selected).

Reset checkbox 'Detect all resolutions/bitrates of video' in settings.
For customization use command line argument '-res=...', see bottom of this page.

Start downloading video in default resolution, then switch resolution in player to required one (1080p,etc), move time slider back to 00:00 and wait until new download becomes detected. For 4K+ resolutions use embedded browser Chromium (WebM 4K). For HD videos use embedded browser Chromium.

Download also audio file with name "... - audio.ts" and join two .ts files using option 'Join' in converting dialog.

 In 'D-L Mode' TubeDigger downloads media file separately from what is playing in the web page area, in 'Rec Mode' TubeDigger records media stream that is currently playing in the web page area. Some live streams must be recorded in 'Rec Mode' and for most popular live streaming sites TubeDigger switches to recording mode automatically, so you will not need to remember about it.

'Rec Mode' is NOT screen capturing. In 'Rec Mode' TubeDigger records media packets that come through network card and recorded file has quality as in 'D-L Mode'.

Put mouse over caption 'Downloads', cursor changes, press left mouse button and move cursor up or down.

F1 - help, F2 - rename downloaded|idle file, F3 - rename downloaded|idle file using page title, Shift+F4 - shutdown PC after finished downloads, F5 - reload page, F6 - go to address bar, F7 - set auto-refresh timeout for recording, F8 - move item in downloads list up, F9 - move item in downloads list down, Shift+F10 - invoke context menu, F11 - rename downloaded|idle file using page link, F12 - turn off display, Ctrl+D - open bookmarks, Ctrl+F - search for text in web page, Ctrl+G - go to page link in clipboard, Ctrl+H - reset resolution selector of recording to the highest value, Ctrl+I - clear inactive downloads, Ctrl+J - go to downloads window, Ctrl+M - mute|unmute, Ctrl+N - set page blank, Ctrl+S - open settings, Ctrl+T - toggle window as topmost, Enter|Space - start|stop download(s), Backspace|Delete - remove download(s), Alt+Left|mouse back button - page back, Alt+Right|mouse forward button - page forward.

Press Shift-Backspace or Shift-Delete.

Select stream for recording and press key F7 - 2 minutes timeout starts and becomes displayed in main window caption. If no recording every 2 minutes - page will be refreshed. Leaving current page disables refresh timeout.

To record multiple streams - start new instance of TubeDigger and hide it into system tray to reduce CPU usage.
Or click scroll mouse button and selected item becomes open in new window (only in embedded Chromium browser).

Press Ctrl+M to mute/unmute.

Press 'Shift+F4' and select 'OK'. To disable shutdown - press again 'Shift+F4' and select 'Cancel'.

Yes, please see bottom of this page regarding how to use command line arguments.

In player press button with sign 'CC' or word 'Language' or letter 'S' and select subtitles. After short time file with extension .srt should appear in downloads window.

Yes and with .srt extension, but in most cases such renaming is automatically.

TubeDigger downloads subtitles and saves them in SubRip format (.srt files) that is supported by most players.

In VLC go to Tools -> Preferences... (set Show Settings to All) and Video -> Subtitles/OSD, then change the Text Rendering Module from Default to Freetype2 font renderer. After that go to Video -> Subtitles/OSD -> Text renderer and choose Unicode font (like MS Gothic, etc). Remember to press Save to save VLC settings and restart VLC after that to make sure changes are enabled. Refer here for more information.

In some cases file name cannot be detected - therefore unique 8 characters length name is generated to avoid name conflicts.

Selecting these options may help to fix some FLV files - mostly live recordings.

First method extracts audio/video tracks and remuxes them, second one fixes timestamps.

If you are not satisfied after your purchase, within 30 days after purchase your order can be fully refunded.

Command line arguments supported, no integrated scheduler, but you may use Windows Task Scheduler: create task, set date/time to run, select action to start program, browse for TubeDigger.exe (located somewhere like in 'C:\Program Files\TubeDigger\' or 'C:\Program Files (x86)\TubeDigger\'). There are two ways to specify web page to be open on start: 1) set it as home page in TubeDigger's settings; 2) type web page URL into field 'Add arguments' on task action dialog. TubeDigger also supports command line arguments in form: [url] [-rec] [-dl] [-res] [-hide] [-refresh] [-blank] [-useragent] [-outputdir] [-mute] [-exit] [-shutdown] [-srec] [-MonitorOn] [-MonitorOff] [-RtmpBufferTime]. Any of these arguments can be present or absent. To start TubeDigger in recording mode: add argument '-rec'. To disable switching to recording mode: add argument '-dl'. To start TubeDigger minimized: add argument '-hide'. To start TubeDigger muted: add argument '-mute'. To set auto-refresh timeout to default 2 minutes: add argument '-refresh'. To set auto-refresh timeout to custom value: add argument '-refresh=xxx' where xxx is value in seconds. To set making current page blank after 2 minutes: add argument '-blank'. To set making current page blank after custom duration of time: add argument '-blank=yyy' where yyy is value in seconds. To change embedded browser: add argument '-browser=n', where n is browser index, 1=IExplorer, 2=Chromium1, 3=Chromium1(iPad), 4=Chromium1(Android), 5=WinPhone, 6=Chromium3, 7=Chromium3(WebM,4K), 8=Chromium3(iPad), 9=Chromium3(Android). To use custom user-agent: add argument '-useragent="zzz"' where zzz is string value (to emulate iPad/Android embedded Chromium browser should be selected in settings). To use different download folder: add argument '-outputdir=vvv' where vvv is full folder path. To exit application when all downloads/recording become finished: add argument '-exit' or '-exit=xxx' where xxx is time-out in seconds after which exit application if no download/recording started. To shutdown PC when all downloads become finished: add argument '-shutdown'. To force rtmps recording for all SSL connections: add argument '-srec'. To start TubeDigger with enabled browsers monitoring: add argument '-MonitorOn'. To start TubeDigger without browsers monitoring: add argument '-MonitorOff'. To set custom rtmp buffer time and disable rtmp pause/unpause trick for fast downloading: add argument '-RtmpBufferTime=ttt' where ttt is value in ms (zero value only disables pause/unpause trick). To display only required resolution/bitrate: add argument '-res=all|low|mid|high|[xxx]p|[yyy]K', where all=all resolutions, low=lowest resolution, mid=middle resolution, high=highest resolution, [xxx]p=resolution (e.g. 240p, 360p), [yyy]K=bitrate (e.g. 1800K).
Examples of command line: [TubeDigger.exe http://tubedigger.com -rec -refresh], [TubeDigger.exe tubedigger.com -rec -refresh=60], [TubeDigger.exe www.tubedigger.com -rec], [TubeDigger.exe tubedigger.com], [TubeDigger.exe -rec], [TubeDigger.exe tubedigger.com -blank=30], [TubeDigger.exe -useragent="Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10"], [TubeDigger.exe -outputdir="C:\Videos"].
This command line can also be added to properties of TubeDigger's shortcut on the desktop.