Reviews Archives

How to download videos from YouTube in 1080p

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When I do live streams on YouTube, I frequently forget to record my programme locally. I guess there’s just so many buttons to press in the heat of the moment.

Hence I was looking for a way to extract full 1080p HD footage from YouTube, ideally both for my own files as well as those from other users.

Right now (February 2019), YouTube only allows me to download a 720p version of my own clips, and a YouTube Premium subscription is required to download other users’ footage. Either way, my desktop streams are usually 1080p, and that’s what I’d like to download for local archiving. 

I hunted around for a solution, and doing a quick Google search presented several contenders – many of which no longer work since YouTube have once again re-jigged some aspect of their operation. Most solutions, online and offline, can handle 720p for free, but again that’s not what I was looking for.

Thankfully I found a Firefox Add-On by a developer named Dishita, called Easy YouTube Downloader. It’s available for free from the Firefox Add-Ons repository.

Easy YouTube Downloader in action

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ezcap 261 / AGPtEK / MYPIN USB3 – Game Capture Review

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I’ve recently discovered an incredibly cheap HDMI capture device that promises 1080p60 capture for around $80. That’s quite a feat, and exactly what I’ve been looking for to get started with handsome looking game streaming. It’s known by several names, such as

  • AKPtEK VG0061
  • MYPIN
  • ezcap U3 / ezcap 261

But does it deliver? How would it work? What’s the catch? Why isn’t this thing flying off the shelves? And are the occasional zero-star reviews telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I had to find out for myself and ordered one. After much testing, firmware upgrading and more testing, I’ve ordered another one. Let me tell you the whole story in this article.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 24:43 — 22.6MB)

The RUIPU 121 – 24000 mAh LED Power Bank Review

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I can’t get enough of the RUIPU series of power banks. You can never have enough charged-up external batteries around, especially during hurricane season. Hence I’ve decided to invest into another model by the same company, namely the RUIPU Model 121 as pictured above.

Like my other RUIPU power banks, the 121 is a 24,000 mAh large and heavy external battery, with a micro USB input for charging and two USB outputs to power other devices. It’s about the size of an iPhone Plus / Max or equivalent smart phone with a 5″ screen, just over 1cm or half an inch in thickness. It weighs about one pound, so it’s on par with the other RUIPU models I own (such as the solar Q90 or the white quad-output Q80), maybe even slightly slimmer.

The noticeable and interesting difference with this unit is that it has a large blue LED panel at the top instead of the small blue dots, which lets us take a more accurate look at the remaining amount of power in the bank. That’s a very nice touch.

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Beauty meets Endurance: Ruipu Q80 Power Bank Review

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Ruipu have released a new 24,000mAh Power Bank. Being extremely satisfied with their other Solar Power Banks, I though I’d give this one a spin. It has some interesting features that I though were worth exploring.

First of all, the Ruipu Q80 is a thing of beauty: it’s made of white plastic with a faux leather pattern ingrained. It even has “stitches” embossed on the sides, as if it’s made of white leather. It’s not though – it’s standard plastic, but it just looks gorgeous.

Features

The Q80 has FOUR USB outputs, and all of them can be used at the same time. That’s right!  You can charge up four devices at once. Even better, ALL ports support fast charging, delivering up to 2.1A if a capable device can handle this much power. The iPhone 6 and above for example and several other gadgets all support fast charging.

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Western Digital My Passport Ultra Review

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After several months of use, here’s what I found out about the WD MyPassport Ultra external USB 3 hard drive. Mine is the White/Gold edition with a whopping 4TB of storage.

In the box was a matching white USB 3 to SATA cable, a leaflet with extremely small writing on it, and the drive itself contained some software to do backups and encryption – all of which is available from the Western Digital website.

I bought this drive in May 2018 from Amazon to exchange large amounts of data between my Mac and my Windows system. Therefore, I chose to format the drive in exFAT so that both operating systems can read and write to it without issues, and to accommodate long video files in excess of 2GB.

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Blue Yeti vs ZAFFIRO – Microphone Comparison ASIN B07BVRQD8G

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I was looking for another desktop USB microphone for my second desk. Currently I’m using a wonderful Blue Yeti with my Mac on my main desk (or Studio A as we like to call it), and every time I do a screencast or podcast on my Windows workstation (or Studio B as we’d like to call it), I have to bring over the Blue Yeti.

So I discovered the ZAFFIRO Desktop USB Mic, for over $100 less. I thought I’d give it a spin – and I really like it. Here’s what I found after a couple of weeks of working with it.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 10:35 — 9.7MB)