Although there are many video downloading tools on the Internet, they do not support many websites. Most of them only have popular websites such as YouTube, Facebook, X, IG, etc., and their stability is not as stable as the desktop version. Therefore, for people who often download online videos or music, it is still recommended to use the desktop version, and this article will recommend a very good Parabolic open source software.
Parabolic is a free video download software based on yt-dlp. It means that it can be used on all websites supported by yt-dlp. The number exceeds 1,500. Whether they are well-known or unknown, you can download them through this software and support the highest resolution and sound quality.
Parabolic free and open source audio and video download tool operation tutorial
Parabolic is available in Windows and Linux versions, and the Windows part also provides installation-free. In addition to downloading the highest quality videos, it also supports a variety of formats, including MP4, WEBM, MKC, MOV, and AVI. The music section has MP3, M4A, FLAC and WAV.
After entering Parabolic’s GitHub project, click the Releases link on the right to enter the version download page. The latest version is V2025.1.4. Here I download the Windows installation-free version, so it is Windows.zip:
Download and unzip it, find the file nickvision.tubeconverter.qt.exe, and click twice to execute:
Windows may pop up this warning, click on other information on the screen:
A button that still needs to be executed will appear:
The Parabolic operation interface is very simple. If you want to download online videos, just click the Add Download button on the right:
Paste the URL of the video or music you want to download, and I will demonstrate the YouTube video. The list of websites supported by yt-dlp can be found from GitHub You can find it on YouTube, Bilibili, Facebook, fc2, iQiyi, Mango TV, etc. No problem:
A download settings list will then appear. File Type selects the audio and video format you want to download. The default is MP4 video, and Video/Audio Format is image quality and sound quality. Below you can also specify the length of the video you want to download. This means that if you need the entire video, you can specify the start and end time here:
YouTube can be downloaded up to 4K. If you have no special needs, just set Best and it will automatically download the best picture or sound quality:
If the video has subtitles, it can also be downloaded together, and subtitles in multiple languages can be downloaded at one time. This is relatively rare. Most download software can only specify one subtitle:
The download speed is also very fast. I downloaded 4K and it was completed in a few seconds:
All downloaded videos or music can be found in the Compelted menu, and pressing Open can quickly open the storage folder:
I checked it does go to 4K:
Source: KOCPC Chinese