Here’s the rub: there’s lots of great video content on the web, but you can’t always rely on being online to access it all. There are plenty of free tools for downloading and converting video – Freemake Video Downloader and All Video Downloader spring to mind – but we’ve just stumbled on a great little freebie called aTube Catcher.

aTube Catcher is packed with useful features – there’s the basic download-and-conversion tool, of course: enter your video URL, pick an output folder, choose a format to convert to (practically every angle is covered, and you can tweak just about any setting if your exact requirements aren’t met) and click Download.

But that’s not all aTube Catcher does: there’s an option for capturing streaming video in realtime for stubborn sites that won’t play ball, plus audio recorder, MP3 downloader and screen recorder, perfect for capturing video chats, for example. The Tools menu reveals more hidden features: a YouTube monitor for IE and Firefox that automatically downloads videos as you watch, for example, plus an option for downloading and joining together multiple files.

aTube Catcher promises to work with dozens of websites, but if – like us – you find it struggles to detect video on sites like DailyMotion.com, then paste the URL into savevideo.me to extract the direct link (if that’s too much hassle, and you don’t mind paying for the privilege, try Jaksta for Windows or Mac instead).

aTube Catcher is freeware and available for PCs running any flavour of Windows from 95 onwards.