MacTubes for Mac - Free download and software reviews

MacTubes 2.5.1 for Mac

MacTubes is a small program, free allows you to download videos from YouTube and play them on your Mac.

On the main window MacTubes , you can search for videos by keyword, and create playlists, videos, keywords, authors list. The program can display the results in Glid View mode and you can change the image size. You can activate the option "Search HD Video is Available" in the Preferences to search results if HD video formats, it will be labeled "HD" in the thumbnail. When playing a video, you can choose the game mode (eg Repeat Off, All, One) or switch to full screen mode.

HD Video Search

video player

MacTubes streamlines the process of finding and streaming YouTube videos by giving you access to them away from your Internet browser. With this program, your search results will be displayed in the app's interface, and selecting a video opens a pop-up window where it begins to play immediately.

Fast: Both searches and playback are quick when completed through this app. You get the same search results as you would if you were searching directly on YouTube, and playback is smooth and clear.

Playlists: You can also make playlists of songs or videos to play back at a later time. While it can be a little difficult to figure out how to add videos to your playlists at first, the feature does work, and the completed lists are easily accessible through a list on the left-hand side of the interface.

Cons

Confusing controls: While the Search and Play functions of this app are pretty straightforward, accessing some of the other features can be confusing. For instance, clicking the icon that seems to be for adding songs to a playlist only brings up a message that says you have to sign in to do that, but there is no option to sign in. However, when you bring up the drop-down menu from the icon in the lower left-hand corner of the video interface, there is an option to add the video to a playlist which works. You have to have already created the new playlist from the File menu, though.

Small screen: No matter what you do, the video is played in a small box inside a larger empty window. The button for maximizing the video to take up the full screen doesn't work, so while you can enlarge the entire playback window, the video, itself, still only takes up a tiny portion of that space.

Bottom Line

This free app is great for making music playlists out of YouTube videos once you get the hang of the interface. It's not the best option, though, if you're actually interested in watching the videos, themselves, as the viewing window is quite small.