Ares Tube

Ares Tube is a simple tool for downloading online videos. While it has a directionless layout, its results are strong enough to earn a recommendation.

The program's interface is a bit frustrating to use, since it provides no Help file or instructions. Luckily, there are so few command options that some experimenting yielded a fairly solid understanding of its basic operation. The program looks like a typical Web browser, but with a built-in queue for downloading videos. Ares Tube claims to work with more than a dozen video sites, including some of the most popular ones, like YouTube and CollegeHumor, and others we'd never heard of, such as BoFunk. With a few clicks, Ares Tube displayed an online film, pulled the video off the Web, and saved it as an MPEG file, directly to iTunes, too. The resulting file retained the same quality and length as the online version. Ares Tube is light on special features, but it does provide a handy guide to all the different Web sites it supports for quick reference. While the program's layout is a bit rough, its capability to rip videos from Web sites earns it a place in the video toolkit.

Ares Tube is freeware. It leaves folders behind after the uninstalling process. Even though the interface raised concerns about its user-friendliness, its video downloading capabilities make Ares Tube a helpful tool and a program we recommend.