There will never be a shortage of portals or services that block video downloads for offline playback. There will always be connectivity problems or buffering that guarantee a miserable experience. And between both extremes, the end user is caught… but it doesn't have to be that way. With the CocoCut extension in Chrome and Edge, downloading videos from any web page stops being a nightmare and becomes a process of two or three clicks, with very good results.
YouTube Go emphatically proved that it is possible to enable offline video playback without major hiccups, but it was too effective for its own good, and Google decided to retire it. Unfortunately, many other sites and services make the same mistake, forcing users to look for alternative solutions. One of them is CocoCut, a Chrome extension that will allow you to download videos from any web page, detecting streams on the fly, audio files, and other formats.
CocoCut: Chrome Extension to Download Videos from Any Web Page
The extension itself explains the basic procedure: Depending on the video, CocoCut may detect videos automatically, but in some cases it will need you to start playback. When you click the download button, that action will send you to a new tab, where the extension will handle all the buffering (saving the video in the browser cache), and then offer the complete copy.
There's something else: In that same tab and with the download already started, CocoCut offers an option to download videos at a lower resolution. This isn't always possible, but unless you want 1080p or 1440p copies in all cases, I recommend exploring downloading videos in 720p, 480p, or 360p. CocoCut also includes secondary resources like 'Force Download' or a direct recorder, but I haven't had good luck with them. The best thing is to download videos and be patient.
As expected, CocoCut has some weak points. The most important is that it doesn't work with several high-profile sites, including Vimeo… and the one governed by Mountain View (CocoCut declares it 'not supported'), a decision that ensures the extension's permanence in the Chrome Store. But then we find a certain lack of technical information about the streams it initially detects, and its tendency to create duplicates during download. This can be mitigated with the 'Ignore Parameters' function within its settings menu, although it's not perfect. CocoCut also doesn't process encrypted videos. Believe me, I tried.
That said, if everything you've tried so far hasn't helped you download videos, it's most likely that CocoCut will succeed. We definitely prefer a bit of chaos in its interface to the impossibility of obtaining local copies, something that major services keep hiding behind paywalls and premium profiles.
Official website: Click here
CocoCut on the Chrome Store: Click here
