I download my videos. For youtube, I use a frontend named invidious that has the option to download a video by default, otherwise I use chrome, hold a video while it loads and click on download. It has many benefits - one of them is that I can always come back to a video when I want, no need to load again, even offline. It has a huge demerit, however, and that is that I cannot watch a video while it is downloading. I can do that on my PC (in theory, never tried). I rarely watch vids on PC. I cannot do that on my android device. I basically watch my vids exclusively on it. Any suggestions on how to solve it?
open youtube from mobile browser~ search youtube video downloader on other tab, choice thing that suits your preference~ pick any video you want to watch and download, then copy the link to youtube downloader for download~ as long as your internet service provider fast enuf you can watch while download video at same time~ been done that since long time ago so this cat kinda puzzled with your question~ mp3 and mp4 format this cat have bunch of them
huh? why you need to open two video? isn't download progress actually on background while you watching the video? the download only for offline purpose so you can watch it anytime later with any video player app you have on your phone~ usually browser will put downloaded file be it on progress or completed on download folder by default that usually on internal memory section or SD card section if you move browser app into SD section~ by click the file you open it on this case video it will play until part it downloaded as it on progress~ do you mean your video app somehow can't do that? hmm maybe this cat have miscommunication with what you actually want~
What I mean is, since I am basically downloading the mp4 (or mov or whatever) file, is it possible to watch it while it downloads on android? When I watch a video online, as I understand, the video is basically stored in the browser cache (except for youtube which is doing a scummy thing with its videos it seems) and is played from there - so if I download a video in the background, I basically download a video twice. I don't want that. I want to download a file once.
You can not do it with youtube app, you should download some other app./ like youtube downloader or some other, that are available in your place. The option you are saying can only happen if youtube don't download it as cache and at the same time the way it download, is not in some other format. like downloading in some .cr extension and after complete download finish, file get convert automatically into mp4. tho i doubt such thing will happen, but spotify download its music files in different extension earlier and i downloaded and changed the extension later so i can play it with some other app. if vidmate app works in your place, then try this one.
Just click on the download sequentially for a video file with what ever downloader you use. Than open the folder and click on play with FLC player. It should play. But I heard not all file format is supported. Though that's just my pc experience.