Getting exactly what you want from the web without paying for it isn’t as easy as you might think. Mike Plant explains how to download TV, music and more that you can keep forever
Let’s face it, free online stuff is ten a penny. Enter just about any noun into a search engine followed by the word ‘free’ and you’ll be inundated with web pages all promising the perfect free version of whatever you want. But there are two tricks to this. The first is distinguishing the best options from the sub-standard, the fake and the downright dangerous. The second, much harder trick is to circumvent the restrictions placed on free content.
Take the BBC’s iPlayer, for example. Millions of us use it every week, but the Beeb’s 30-day maximum limit on how long we can keep its programmes after downloading them to our PCs, phones and tablets means the clock is ticking if you want to watch them at your leisure. And it’s no use at all if you want to keep them long term to watch again and again.
In this feature we’ll show you how to use clever software that lets you bypass the BBC’s time constraints, so you can download and keep whatever you want, for as long as you want.
A deluge of adverts is another side effect of free online stuff. We’ll show you how to download YouTube videos without adverts and explain how to remove adverts when recording music from Spotify and internet radio stations.
Missing those TV classics from yesteryear? We’ll explain where you can watch them online. And we’ll tell you about the secure websites where you can safely download ebooks, puzzles, games, desktop themes, Microsoft Office templates, fonts, manuals and more – all for free.
KEEP TV SHOWS, VIDEOS AND MUSIC FOR GOOD
Break iPlayer’s download limits
BBC iPlayer (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) lets you download a wide range of the Beeb’s output to your PC, phone and tablet, but these downloads always come with a shelf life – 30 days from when they were aired for most shows – after which they will be automatically deleted. But, there is a way to beat this restriction and keep TV and radio shows forever.
Get iPlayer (www.snipca.com/21913) is the best program for downloading content from iPlayer without any constraints. Download the latest version (get_iplayer-2.96.1.exe at the time of writing) and double-click the file to install it. Go to the Start menu, find the ‘get_iplayer’ entry and click Web PVR Manager.
When the program opens you’ll see an interface that looks similar to the iPlayer’s, but with a few conspicuous differences. For example, Get iPlayer has an advanced TV-programme search tool. To search, enter the name of the programme (or a keyword in its title) into the search field, then use the ‘Search in’ field to define the search term (usually the Name, but there are options for description, episode names and more). Next, tick the relevant ‘Programme type’ boxes (BBC TV, BBC Radio, and so on). If you can’t find the program you want, click the Refresh Cache button to update Get iPlayer’s program listings.
When Get iPlayer shows its search results, just tick the box next to the programme(s) you want, then click Record. A new browser tab will open and the recording process will begin (an hour-long program will take about 10 minutes to record). Once it’s finished you’ll see a message saying ‘Recording complete’. Now go to your desktop and you’ll see an ‘iPlayer Recordings’ folder, where everything you record using Get iPlayer will be stored. These recordings are free of any time restrictions. Use a video player such as VLC (www.videolan.org/vlc) to play the files. We’ve never experienced Get iPlayer deleting programs after 30 days (as BBC iPlayer does), even though it is supposed to in order to comply with the BBC’s legal demands. To be on the safe side, cut and paste any programme files you download to another folder.
Download YouTube videos without adverts
There’s more to YouTube than funny cat videos. The Telegraph recently published a list of the best shows on YouTube (www.snipca.com/21937) that included the likes of The Darling Buds of May, Hornblower and The Prisoner among those available for free. The BBC (www.youtube.com/user/BBC) and ITV (www.youtube.com/user/ITV1) also have their own YouTube channels where you can watch entire TV series, trailers and behind-the-scenes footage.
You can use 4K Video Downloader (www.snipca.com/21942) to download anything from YouTube. Not only will the video be yours to keep and watch at your leisure, but it will also be free of YouTube’s adverts.
Find the video you want on YouTube, right-click it then click ‘Copy video URL’. Open 4K Video Downloader, then click the Paste Link icon (at the top left) to start the download process.
Next, select the quality of the video. The larger the file, the higher the resolution and the better it will look on your TV or PC monitor. We’d recommend you use the MP4 format and opt for 720p if the option is available. If it isn’t, choose the highest resolution available (360p in the screenshot above). Sometimes you might see 1080p or higher, but we’d suggest you avoid these higher resolutions unless you have plenty of free space on your hard drive. Finally, name the file, click the three dots (…) at the bottom right to choose a folder and click Download to start the process.
If the video is part of a YouTube playlist (a series of shows), a message will appear with options to Download Playlist or Download Clip. To see what’s included in a playlist, go back to YouTube and check out the list to the right of the video. Unless you’re interested in watching all episodes in a playlist, we’d suggest opting for Download Clip to save storage space. If you do want to watch other episodes you can always return and download them later.
Extract audio from a YouTube music video
Music videos are the most popular thing on YouTube and for that reason most artists you can think will put their latest songs on YouTube. The great thing about that is you can download the music without the video and play it on your MP3 player.
Once again, we recommend using 4K Video Downloader. As described above, get the video’s URL from YouTube, then click Paste Link. This time, click the Download Video dropdown and choose the Extract Audio menu. Make sure the format is set to MP3 and select the quality level. Go for High Quality if you have lots of free hard-drive space or Normal if not. Change the download location using the three dots (…) at the bottom right, then click Extract to download the track without the video.
Download directly from internet radio stations
A great way to add to your music collection is to record content from internet radio stations – and you no longer need a mic, a casette player or even a radio. RarmaRadio (www.snipca.com/21944) lets you download any radio stream being broadcast anywhere in the world. Download and install the program, then double-click Region (on the left) and click on the continent and country of your choice. After you select a country, a list of available radio stations will appear in the right-hand panel. To record the station without a pause as one file, click Record then ‘Continuous – No Split’. Alternatively, to record just the music played (saved as individual tracks), click Record, but choose ‘Continuous – Split Songs’. By default, the recordings will be saved to C:\My Music\RaimaRadio folder. To add a particular station to your favourites, right-click it, then click ‘Add to Favourites’. Click Favourites in the menu at the top of the screen to access them.
You can record up to 10 radio stations at the same time. To do so, browse to find another station you want to record from (while another is already recording), click it, then click the Play button. This will cause a Record button to appear to the right of the Play button. Click Record, then ‘Continuously – Split Songs’ (or whatever option you prefer), and the recording of the station will begin. To stop recording a particular station, select it in the panel at the bottom of the screen and click the Stop button.
Record songs playing on Spotify
The free version of Spotify is a fantastic resource for songs, but the adverts between tracks are annoying (you can pay £10 per month for the Premium version, which is advert-free). One way to avoid the adverts in the free version is to record from Spotify and then extract the adverts when you edit the recording into individual tracks. This method can also be used to split up a recording from vinyl.
To start you’ll need to download the free audio editor Audacity (www.audacityteam.org/download). Open Audacity, choose Windows WASAPI in the top-left dropdown menu, then click the Record button. Next, open Spotify and play the album or playlist you want to record. Once the album has finished playing, click the stop button in Audacity. You’ll see that the album has been recorded as one long track. To break it up into tracks, click Analyze, then Sound Finder, change the ‘Add a label at the end of the track’ setting to 1, then click OK. You’ll now see that a new section called ‘Label Track’ has been added below your recording, and numbers have been added to sections of your recording (each one of these will be a full song or advert).
To save your recording as individual songs, click File then Export Multiple. In the pop-up box that appears, click Choose to select a save location, then select your preferred format in the dropdown menu. We suggest MP3, but you’ll need to download LAME (www.snipca.com/21615) to create MP3s if you haven’t used Audacity before. Then make sure Labels and ‘Using Label/Track Name’ are selected and click Export. The tracks will be exported to the specified folder.
Play the exported files to find out which are adverts. Delete these and you’ll be left with an advert-free album. Rename each song to its proper name (or use a program such as MediaMonkey to rename the tracks automatically).
BRILLIANT FREE STUFF YOU CAN DOWNLOAD
Old versions of programs
Don’t you hate it when your favourite program is ‘improved’ by its developer, only to leave you bamboozled by its new features and wishing it had been left well alone? Skype is a case in point. Its users were up in arms when it was given a major overhaul in 2014, leaving comments like ‘The new version is terrible, I hate it!’ (www.snipca.com/21952).
Somebody should have told them about Old Version (www.oldversion.com), a website that stores previous incarnations of software so users can revert to the one that worked best for them. Use the search bar to find the program you’re looking for and scan through the available versions. It will even highlight in yellow the most popular version of the program with users of the site, which is usually a good place to start.
The site also hosts old programs that aren’t available anywhere else (such as Google’s discontinued photo service Picasa). One word of warning: we’d suggest you steer clear of old antivirus programs, web browsers and browser plug-ins. The latest version of Avast or Firefox, for example, might be driving you mad, but it will include security fixes that help protect you from hackers.
Completely free ebooks
If you limit yourself to only buying books on the current bestseller lists, ebooks aren’t always that much cheaper to buy than their paper-based counterparts. If, on the other hand, you prefer the classics, there’s a vast library of out-of-copyright titles available for free.
One of the best places to find them is Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org). The site has over 55,000 free books and offers them in the Kindle format (for Amazon Kindles) and in the universal ePub format (for just about any other ebook reader or non-Kindle ebook mobile app). Click ‘Book search’, then Popular to see the most downloaded books (these include Frankenstein and A Tale of Two Cities), or use the search bar to look for specific titles or authors.
Kindle owners can also get free ebooks from Amazon’s website (www.snipca.com/21965). Or, if you prefer audiobooks, you can find a huge catalogue of recordings on LibriVox (https://librivox.org).
Games and puzzles
If you’re partial to a challenge, you can enjoy crosswords, Sudoku and solitaire for free online. Puzzle Choice’s website (www.puzzlechoice.com) might look quite basic, but it’s chock-full of puzzles that you can either play on the site itself, or download and print for free. Click one of the categories on the left to browse the available puzzles.
For card games, try 123 Free Solitaire (www.snipca.com/21976), which offers 12 variations of the classic solitaire game. Scroll down to the 123 Free Solitaire section, click the Free Download button and run the installer (it’s compatible with all Windows versions from Vista onwards).
Desktop themes
Changing your theme is a great way of injecting a bit of life into your Windows desktop. Microsoft provides a comprehensive selection of free themes at www.snipca.com/21970. Pick a category from the list on the left, then click the Download link on any theme that interests you. To apply it to Windows, simply double-click the downloaded file. Most of these are designed for Windows 8 and 10, but Windows 7 users can click the ‘Compatible with Windows 7’ category to see themes designed for that operating system.
Download product manuals
If you’ve ever been forced to turn your house upside-down to find a missing manual, you’ll be pleased to know a website exists that stores over 2 million digital manuals for all kinds of devices. ManualsLib (www.manualslib.com) covers everything from TVs to toasters. To find a manual, type the device name (you’ll usually find this on the back or base of the product) into the search box and click Search.
Microsoft Office templates
To design eye-catching Office documents you need access to the best templates. Try the free templates at Hloom (www.snipca.com/21968), which will help you produce professional-looking flyers, invoices, CVs and invitations. To download the template you want, choose a category and click the link in the Filename section (it will be in a .doc or .docx Word format). Excel Templates (www.exceltemplates.net) is a similar resource for Excel and features calendar, budgeting and scheduling templates.
If you use Microsoft’s free Office Online browse the company’s huge resource of templates at https://templates.office.com. Simply click the template you like, then the blue ‘Open in…’ button. Finally, click Continue when prompted to open it in Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
Use Google Maps offline
If you’re planning on travelling to remote areas, where 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi are a remote possibility, you can save a map of the area you’re visiting using the Google Maps app on your phone or tablet. Before you set off, open the app and find the area you want, then tap the menu button (three horizontal lines in the top-left corner), select ‘Offline areas’, then tap ‘Custom area’ on an Android device, or tap the blue ‘+’ symbol on an iPhone or iPad. You’ll see a section of map high-lighted within a blue square. The map area within the blue square will be saved to your device so you can view it, and even get directions within the area, without an internet connection.
As you set the size of the area you’ll notice that zooming into a relatively small area reduces the size of the download, which is shown below the highlighted rectangle. As you zoom out to include a larger area, you’ll see the size of your download increases. This is worth keeping an eye to make sure your device doesn’t run out of space. Once you’re happy with the selection, tap Download. Enter a name for the saved offline area when prompted, then tap Save and the map will begin downloading.
Bear in mind that the saved area will automatically delete after 30 days unless you update it (Google sets this restriction to ensure the saved map doesn’t become out of date). To update the area, tap the menu button, then ‘Offline areas’ and tap the area you saved, then Update.
Find new fonts
The best resource for free fonts is Font Squirrel (www.fontsquirrel.com). Scroll through the site to see previews of each font, then click the blue Download button next to it. If the Download button also says Offsite in brackets, you’ll be taken to another website where you can download the font. We clicked through to a number of these and had no problems, though some require you to create an account before you’re able to download. If this concerns you, stick with the non-Offsite fonts.
Any fonts you download will usually arrive as ZIP files. To add them to Windows you first need to extract the files using a program like PeaZip (www.snipca.com/21974). Once extracted, fonts will be in one of two formats (.ttf or .otf), but both work fine in Windows. To add them to your computer click the Start button, type fonts, then press Enter. When the Font panel opens drag and drop the .ttf. or .otf files into it. They will then be automatically added to Windows and you will be able to select your new fonts in programs such as Word and PowerPoint.
IS IT LEGAL TO DOWNLOAD VIDEOS AND MUSIC?
Legality is a grey area when it comes to downloading copyrighted material. But, as a general rule, it’s OK to download material for private use providing you have no intention of later distributing it. Using a tool such as 4K Video Downloader to download a YouTube video might be in breach of Google’s terms of service (www.snipca.com/21971), but isn’t against the law.
In theory, Google can sue users who download content in this way, but no such case has ever been brought to court and we can’t imagine Google would ever muddy the waters around one of its biggest cash cows. The same is true of the BBC, Spotify and internet radio stations, none of which have ever sued an individual for downloading their content.
HOW DO I KNOW IF A FREE SITE CAN BE TRUSTED?
It often seems quite easy to find free stuff online. It’s easier still to find a website that claims to have what you want for free. Knowing when you can trust a website’s claims and when you should cut and run, can save you from scams and malware.
Take a long hard look at a website before you click any links. If it’s packed with adverts, pop-ups and promotions that open in new tabs within your browser, you should tread carefully or just leave immediately. If in doubt, look for the website’s About Us page to see what the website stands for (if it doesn’t have one, run a mile). Also look for poor spelling, grammar and phrasing on the site. A genuine website is unlikely to be littered with mistakes, even if the content it offers is free. If you click a link for something that’s advertised as free, only to be told you have to pay for it, look elsewhere.