Parabolic (video downloader) Rewritten in C++, customizes the user interface

There are many ways to download videos from popular video streaming sites on Ubuntu, but I find Parabolic the easiest and least expensive option available.

For those who haven't heard about it: Parabolic is a GTK4/libadwaita app for Linux (or a Qt app for Windows) that provides what it calls a “simple frontend” for yt-dlp. All yt-dlp supported websites are supported in this app. Paste a URL, validate and download.

Parabolic allows you to download multiple videos at once and save them in popular video or audio formats; Sign in with account details (if required) and view the credentials for an in-app keychain. set download speed limits; shared chapters and much more.

This week a brand new version of the Parabolic (which has changed its name from Tube converter last year) was published. As the first major update this year (there was a small bugfix update in May), it's full of notable changes.

First of all: Parabolic has been rewritten in C++ to provide a faster and more stable download experience. The app was previously rewritten in C#.

There are also a number of major changes to the user interface “Make it easier to find the Parabolic features you love and want to use.”said developer Nick Logozzo.

“We have also refined and improved the options for configuring individual downloads, playlists and Parabolic as a whole. In addition to new things, we fixed numerous bugs across the download backend that users have been waiting for.”

Parabolic v2024.10 changes include:

• Rewritten keychain module (existing keyrings need to be reconfigured)
• Audio languages ​​with audio description are now correctly recognized
• Audio download quality options now list audio bitrates
• Playlist downloads are now saved in a subdirectory within the storage location
• The length of the download history can be changed Preferences
• Option to set preferred video codec while downloading videos
• Instant download option after URL validation
• Newer version of yt-dlp

In short, a solid update to a nifty tool that makes it very easy to download things you have permission for (I used it to backup a number of videos from my much-maligned YouTube channel OMG! Ubuntu, before I set it as private). .

Would like to install Parabolic on Ubuntu?

It's very simple!

You can get Parabolic on Flathub (this build should work on most modern Linux distributions), or you can also install the official version Parabolic Snap from the Canonical Snap Store. If you want the Qt Windows version, download that .exe from the Parabolic GitHub page.