Hulu Downloader

We've seen quite a few programs that promise to capture Internet content in one way or another, and more often than not, these programs disappoint. Hulu Downloader, however, actually delivers an effective and fairly easy-to-use set of tools for capturing and converting online Flash videos, such as those found on Hulu, YouTube, and other popular Web sites.

The program's interface isn't entirely intuitive, but with a bit of experimentation it's not too hard to figure out. The program's major features are arranged with buttons down the side. The browser function allows users to travel to the desired Web site and play a video, and the program automatically locates the video's URL and gives the user the option to download it. The videos download quickly, and the program comes with category folders--Entertainment, Science, and Sports--into which videos can be organized. The program also has several other useful tools, including a built-in FLV player, a utility that allows the conversion from FLV files to a wide variety of other formats (and vice versa), and an audio ripper that allows users to pull sound tracks from the downloaded FLV files. The built-in Help file is well-written. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by how well all of Hulu Downloader's features worked.

Hulu Downloader is free to try, but limits users to 20 downloads, which cannot be more than 10MB each. There is also a 14-day trial period. The program installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users.