There's nothing worse than losing Wi-Fi or data coverage when you're halfway through your favorite video on YouTube. While YouTube does allow you to save some videos for offline watching, with a little effort, you can download them in HD as well. All you need is the VLC media player installed on your system. And the procedure is as easy as using VLC.

Disclaimer: According to Google’s Terms of Service for YouTube, “You shall not download any Content unless you see a ‘download’ or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content.” So, it is illegal to download YouTube videos. This how-to is for informational purpose only. It is recommended to subscribe to YouTube Premium for downloading videos.

Note that some of the menu might change with each release of the VLC media player. However, procedure remains the same. This how-to is verified to be working with the v3.0.x of the VLC media player. The latest version of VLC media player is 3.0 on Mac Informer. It is a perfect match for Players in the Audio & Video category. The app is developed by VideoLan and its user rating is 4.4 out of 5. About VLC Player for Mac VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, avi) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. The 3.0.11.1 version of VLC media player for Mac is provided as a free download on our website. The actual developer of this free software for Mac is VideoLAN non-profit organization. The VLC media player installer is commonly called vlc-2.1.0.dmg, vlc-2.1.2.dmg, vlc-2.1.3.dmg, vlc-2.1.4.dmg or vlc-2.1.5.dmg etc.

Steps to download YouTube videos using VLC media player

1. Install the VLC app on your Mac OS. Click here to download the app.
2. Open VLC and then select File, Open Network.
3. Paste the URL (link address) of the YouTube video you want to download.
4. Once the video starts playing, click 'Window' and then 'Media Information'.
5. Find the 'Location' bar and copy that URL.
6. Open your browser and paste that URL.
7. Right-click the video and select 'Save Video As'.
8. Select the desired location and save the video.

Note that some of the menu might change with each release of the VLC media player. However, procedure remains the same. This how-to is verified to be working with the v3.0.x of the VLC media player.

Do you find this how-to helpful? Let us know by dropping a comment below.

Last Updated on December 30, 2020 by Leo Standy

“This Blu-ray disc needs a library for aacs decoding, and your system does not have it.” You read this because you got a Blu-ray error when trying to play a Blu-ray disc with VLC Player on your computer. VLC is a good player software for Blu-ray content on Windows, macOS and even Linus, but it still can’t play Blu-ra disc that protected by aacs or BD+ nonetheless. Therefore, if you want to enable VLC to play those commercial Blu-ray discs, you must find the valid library for aacs decoding and put it into the right place, so that VLC can invoke it for decrypting Blu-ray content.

More Errors that you May Got when Playing Blu-ray with VLC

What is AACS? AACS is short for Advanced Access Content System which is a standard for DVD and Blu-ray content distribution and digital rights management. Accordingly, with the protection of AACS, all unauthorized access to the DVD and Blu-ray content will be banned. And that is the reason why you cannot play the Blu-ray disc on VLC. Luckily, many AACS decryption keys have been extracted and published on the internet, enabling decoding the AACS protected DVD or Blu-ray Media with third-party software such as VLC. So those extracted decryption keys are the library for aacs decoding that you need when playing Blu-ray disc with VLC.

Where to download AACS decoding library and how to install it to VLC

To fix “this Blu-ray disc needs a library for aacs decoding…” error, there are two files that you need to implement to your VLC.

1. KEYDB.cfg file – this file is used by aacs decoding file.
2. libaacs.dll – this is the aacs decoding file

Step 1 Go to vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name, you will receive the privacy error telling you that Your connection is not private. Click on the Advanced button to enlarge the error explanation tab and click Proceed to vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name (unsafe).

Step 2 Download keys database file and AACS dynamic library file onto your computer. You should download the right version of AACS dynamic library according to your system. Since I am in Windows 10 60bit, so I will download the VLC 64 bit on Windows version.

Step 3 Install the downloaded files.

For Windows:

1. Put KEYDB.cfg in C:Users[Your User Name]AppDataRoamingaacs. You can press Win + R to launch the Run application, and enter %appdata% into the Open text filed. Then click OK to open the directory of C:Users[Your User Name]AppDataRoaming, then Create a folder name “aacs” and copy the cfg into the folder.
2. Put libaacs.dll in your VLC installation directory.

For Mac:

1. Put KEYDB.cfg in ~/Library/Preferences/aacs/ (create it if it does not exist).
2. Put libaccs.dylib in /usr/local/lib/ directory (create it, if it does not exist).

Note: since vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name has been out of update for years, so please follow our instruction to install those files.

Vlc Media Player For The Mac

Step 4 Restart VLC and open the Blu-ray disc once again.

Now you probably have fixed the “This Blu-ray Disc needs a library for AACS decoding, and your system does not have it” error. Make sure that you have followed the fix guide carefully. If it doesn’t work. Please repeat the steps once again.

If you still cannot play your Blu-ray movie with VLC. I will recommend you to use a third-party Blu-ray Player software to open the Blu-ray disc.

Best VLC alternative to play Blu-ray disc on Windows and macOS

If you don’t want to see the Blu-ray errors when playing Blu-ray contents with VLC or you just can’t fix the “This Blu-ray Disc needs a library for AACS decoding, and your system does not have it” error. Then a third-party Blu-ray Player software is your best choice.

Vlc Player Download 32 Bit

• Embedded with all necessary decoding library for playing all DVD and Blu-ray disc, you don’t have to handle with the aacs decoding library missing problems.
• Play AACS and BD+ protected Blu-ray 1080p/720p HD videos.

How to Play AACS Protected Blu-ray Disc with Blu-ray Player instead of VLC

Vlc Player For Mac

Step 1 Install the Blu-ray Player software mentioned above on your Windows or Mac.

Step 2 Launch the Player and click Open Disc on the middle menu of the interface.

Then you are free to enjoy your Blu-ray movie on your PC now.

Besides turn to a third-party player, you have another feasible solution which is to rip the Blu-ray disc to a digital video file then play the video with any ordinary player on your computer. To rip a Blu-ray disc, you need to appeal to Blu-ray Ripper.