Download TED Talks Videos at Their Original Quality of 720p, 1080p or Higher

As one of the TED fans, what are your most favorite types of TED talks? Have you ever wanted to download your preferred TED talks so that you can benefit from the influencers, professors, and probably your life models, whenever you can? Here in this article, we will discuss the best ever TED talks for kids, students, parents, entrepreneurs as well as the best method to keep those TED video talks on your local hard drive, with the original video quality that is far superior than the 480p quality offered by TED’s official download option. Now let’s move on to break down the details.

1. What Is TED Talks All About?

Originally intended for short presentations focusing technology and with a slogan of Ideas Worth Spreading, TED started up as a non-profit institution in 1984 that partners with individuals to assist in sharing ideas globally. With nearly 4 decades of development, TED has now grown into probably the world most influential online education platform that has been inspiring billions of not only just kids, teenagers, college students, but also people from all walks of lives including, employees, business owners, working parents and average netizens as a whole. In this article, we are going to introduce how to download streaming video from TED.

As of today, TED boasts a collection of more than 3000 TED talk videos presented by politicians, scientists, designers, comedians, actors, entrepreneurs and influencers on the topics covering technology, science, design, business, collaborations, innovations, social change, health, nature, environment, communication, activism, child development, personal growth, humanity, society, identity, community and more. And the number of the videos are still growing rapidly on a daily basis.

2. Why Are TED Talks Getting So Popular Nowadays?

With the number of TED Talks being added to the TED library, have you ever wondered why are TED Talks getting so wildly popular among netizens? Here’s we might have some reasons for that level of popularity TED is enjoying:

50. They are freely available on line to anyone
50. The contents go beyond classrooms
50. TED Talks can happen in a college campus
50. Those talks always discuss specific topics
50. TED Talks invites diverse speakers
50. The talks are concise in short duration
50. TED Talks are fascinating and focused
50. They are shot and videoed like movies

2.1 Top 10 Best TED Talks for Kids

Looking for some interesting, informative and captivating TED video talks to inspire young minds? Here is a short list of the most popular TED talks for kids that you might not want to miss out on.

50. The LXD: In the Internet Age, Dance Evolves...
50. Beau Lotto + Amy O'Toole: Science Is for Everyone, Kids Included
50. David Gallo: Underwater Astonishments
50. Arthur Benjamin: A Performance of "Mathemagic"
50. Tavi Gevinson: A Teen Just Trying to Figure It Out
50. Marco Tempest: The Magic of Truth and Lies (and iPods)
50. Jack Andraka: A Promising Test for Pancreatic Cancer ... from a Teenager
50. AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on Science with Squishy Circuits
50. Handspring Puppet Co.: The Genius Puppetry Behind War Horse
50. Raffaello D'Andrea: The Astounding Athletic Power of Quadcopters

2.2 Top 20 Must-Watch TED Talks for Students

TED Talks can engage students and spark meaningful conversations. Here below we’ve compiled a valuable list containing some of the best TED Talks students will find informative, funny, uplifting and worthy of their time.

50. Myriam Sidibe: The Simple Power of Hand-Washing
50. Manoush Zomorodi: How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas
50. Eva-Maria Geigl: The History of the World According to Cats
50. Claire Simeone: The Lovable (and Lethal) Sea Lion
50. Thomas Suarez: 12-Year-Old App Developer
50. Clint Smith: The Danger of Silence
50. Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement
50. Danielle Feinberg: The Magic Ingredient That Brings Pixar Movies to Life
50. Kevin Allocca: Why Videos Go Viral
50. Jamila Lyiscott: 3 Ways to Speak English
50. Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
50. Mac Barnett: Why a Good Book Is a Secret Door
50. Daphne Bavelier: Your Brain on Video Games
50. Tim Urban: Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator
50. Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts
50. Shane Koyczan: To This Day … for the Bullied and Beautiful
50. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
50. Drew Dudley: Everyday Leadership
50. Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are
50. John Green: The Nerd’s Guide to Learning Everything Online

2.3 Top 10 Best TED Talks for Parents

Each and every parent wants to do their best for their kids, right? But sometimes as a parent, we might not know how to do that in a better way, especially new parents. Want some enlightenment? There are TED Talks for parents, too. Check out our list of the top 10 most influential TED Talks about parenting that may touch that sensitive mama or papa heart of yours.

50. Julie Lythcott-Haims: How to Raise Successful Kids — Without Over-Parenting
50. Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds
50. Gever Tulley: 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
50. Jennifer Senior: For Parents, Happiness Is a Very High Bar
50. Shane Koyczan: To This Day…For the Bullied and Beautiful
50. Emma Marris: Nature Is Everywhere — We Just Need to Learn to See It
50. Jedidah Isler: The Untapped Genius That Could Change Science for the Better
50. Ramsey Musallam: 3 Rules to Spark Learning
50. Astro Teller: The Unexpected Benefit of Celebrating Failure
50. Andi Puddicombe: All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes

2.4 Top 20 Best TED Talks for Entrepreneurs

As a business owner, how to build a company that lasts? How to be a successful entrepreneur? A life-long ongoing process of education is one of the vital factors. Check out our list of TED talks on continuous learning.

50. Richard Branson: Life at 30,000 Feet
50. Margaret Heffernan: Dare to Disagree
50. Seth Godin: How to Get Your Ideas Spread
50. David S. Rose: Pitching to VCs
50. Simon Sinek: Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe
50. Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit
50. Gary Vaynerchuk: Do What You Love (No Excuses!)
50. David Brooks: Should You Live for Your Résumé?
50. Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work
50. Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
50. Joseph Pine: What Consumers Want
50. Joseph Pine: What Consumers Want
50. Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend
50. Eddie Obeng: Smart Failure for a Fast-Changing World
50. Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work
50. Harish Manwani: Profit’s Not Always The Point
50. Tom Wujec: Build a Tower, Build a Team
50. Julie Burstein: 4 Lessons in Creativity
50. Vik Nithy: Why We Procrastinate
50. Dr. Ivan Joseph: The Skill of Self-Confidence

2.5 Best TED Talks of All Time

After enjoying the above-mentioned TED Talks topics on kids, students, parents and entrepreneurs, now let’s see what are the Best TED Talks of All Time that are enjoying exploding popularity among TED fans a whole. Note that the talks making to the list below may have already entered the previous listed mentioned above.

50. Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
50. Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are
50. Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
50. Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
50. Tim Urban: Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator
50. Julian Treasure: How to Speak So That People Want to Listen
50. Bill Gates: The Next Outbreak? We're Not Ready
50. Cameron Russell: Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me, I'm a Model.
50. Robert Waldinger: What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness
50. Mary Roach: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm
50. Pamela Meyer: How to Spot a Liar
50. Apollo Robbins: The Art of Misdirection
50. David Blaine: How I Held My Breath for 17 Minutes
50. Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts
50. Jill Bolte Taylor: My Stroke of Insight
50. Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
50. Jon Ronson: Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test
50. Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend
50. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
50. Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work
50. Celeste Headlee: 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation
50. Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
50. Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius
50. Dan Gilbert: The Surprising Science of Happiness
50. Pranav Mistry: The Thrilling Potential of SixthSense Technology

3. How to Download TED Talks Videos Officially

Most of the video sharing websites have no option for users to download their videos, those we’re quite familiar with, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They don’t allow users to download their videos for offline watch. But, TED is an exception! TED actually offers an official download option that allows anyone to easily download TED Talks for offline playback, either to your computer, or mobile devices running iOS or Android.

3.1 Download TED Talks from TED.com to Computer

• Step 1 > Open the TED Talk webpage you would like to download for offline watch, click the Share button.

• Step 2 > At the next the popup window where several options for sharing or downloading are offered, click the Download button.

• Step 3 > At the next window, click the Download video or Download audio to download the video to an MP4 or MP3 file respectively.

• Additional Tips: You can add subtitles to your video download by choosing a language in the menu directly above the Download video button (it defaults to “Subtitles: Off”)

3.2 Download TED Talks to iOS or Android Devices

Besides downloading TED Talks from TED.com, you can also download those videos from its iOS and Android Apps so that you can directly save the downloaded videos on your mobile devices, which saves your trouble transferring from computer to mobile devices.

50. Visit a talk page and tap the Down Arrow icon.

50. When the video starts to download, the arrow will become a download progress circle. You can stop the download by tapping the X. A blue banner at the bottom will show the download percentage.

50. When the circle changes into a checkmark, it means the download is complete.

3.3 Cons and Disadvantages of the Official Download Method

Although TED Offers an official way to let anyone download videos from its website, there are drawbacks of using the official method to download TED talk videos. What makes things worse is that the disadvantages are not alone.

50. The maximal quality of the downloaded videos is only 480p which is far from being premium in the era when most of the smartphones are having 2K displays.
50. The maximal audio quality is only 80 kbps, which is even worse than the average MP3 music files when listen to from iTunes library.
50. Not all the videos on TED.com are available for download, due to several possible reasons:
        - The video is a performance of a copyrighted song that TED does not own
        - Other copyright licensing issues
        - The video does not belong to TED (it's part of TED "Best of the Web" series)
        - The video is a "TEDx" talk from an independent event
        - The video is part of our "TED-Ed" series
        - The video comes from a "TED Institute" event
50. Not all the TED Talks offer MP3 versions for you to download
50. There is no way to batch-download videos from TED.com
50. There is no way to accelerate the download speed

4. Download with a 3rd-party Video Downloader Software

Knowing all the flip sides of downloading TED talks with the official way, it’s understandable that you cannot help wanting to know how to download TED talks videos with the best video and audio quality possible? The answer is to bring in a 3^rd-party video downloader software like DVDFab Video Downloader that makes it possible for users to download videos from TED talks at their original quality, most of which are 720p.

4.1 Key Features of DVDFab Video Downloader

50. Supported Websites: It not only allows you to download videos from TED Talks, but also from 1000+ other video sharing websites including Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Dailymotion etc.
50. Premium Video Quality: Depending on original video quality on the hosting site, you can download up to 8K UHD 4320p videos as you wish.
50. Premium Audio Quality: Depending on how much you care about the sound quality you hear, you’re free to choose from 128 kbps, 192 kbps and 320 kbps.
50. Download Acceleration: To make the best out of your internet bandwidth, this TED talk downloader can download videos 10x faster by turning on its Turbo-Speed feature.
50. Batch-Mode Available: Download multiple TED videos at one go using the batch-download feature.
50. Download Subtitles: Similar like the official download option, you can also choose your desired subtitles to download.
50. Inbuilt Web Browser: It also features an inbuilt web browser that allows you to download videos without leaving the program.
50. OS Compatibility: Use this video downloader on Windows, macOS version, Android (free) and even on Chrome as a free browser plugin.

                           i  Free Download    i  Free Download  

Pricing plans: $19.99/mo. $29.99/year or $49.99/lifetime, you can also purchase it with two others modules (YouTube to MP3 and Video Downloader) as an all-in-one bundle at only $139.99 for a lifetime license at DVDFab Online Store.

Additional Tips: DVDFab Video Downloader is just one product module from the 3-in-1 Downloader suite. The YouTube to MP3 module can help you download TED videos directly to MP3 audio files, and the Video Downloader is a streaming video downloader that you can use to download videos from Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, ESPN, YouTube TV, AppleTV and more.

4.2 Download with the Inbuilt Web Browser

Refer to the detailed guides below to see how to download videos from TED with this all-inclusive video downloader software on your computer, using its inbuilt web browser.

Step 1 > Download this TED downloader and install it on your computer, either Windows or macOS, just click the right Download button below to complete the installation.

                          i  Free Download    i  Free Download  

Step 2 > When the installation is complete, start up the software, and in the Address Bar of the main interface, enter www.ted.com and press Enter key on your keyboard to open the TED Talks website using the inbuilt web browser.

Additional Tips: As you may have noticed below, all the supported 1000+ websites are well organized and sorted out in an alphabetical table at the lower part, from which, you can find browse and find your target website, including the ones that are already displayed with their respective logos above.

Step 3 > Then find and play the TED talk video you want to download. Once the playback starts, a black Download button will appear at the upper left corner of the playback screen, click on that button to pop up the Download window.

Step 4 > The Download window is the place where you can decide whether to download TED video as MP4 video file or as MP3 audio file. In our case, choose the Video tab, and then the available video quality you want, next hit the Download button below to start the download.

Additional Tips: If you want to download TED video as an MP3 file, then click the Music tab on this window and choose your desired audio quality accordingly. But be noted this requires you to purchase the YouTube to MP3 module.

Step 5 > To download videos 10 times faster, click the Downloading tab from the left pane, and then toggle on the Turbo-Speed feature.

4.3 Download with the Paste URL Feature

You can also copy the TED video URL in advance and paste it to the URL input box manually to download that TED talk video. The benefit of doing this way is that you can use the batch-download mode.

Step 1 > Copy the TED video URL you want to download. To do that, click on the Share button on that video page, and then manually copy the URL address from the popup window using Ctrl + C keys on your keyboard.

Step 2 > Click the Paste URL button at the top left corner of this TED video downloader, and then manually paste the copied video URL into the URL input box, choose the output format as Video along with your preferred video quality, and press the Download button to begin the download procedure.

Additional Tips: to batch-download TED videos at one go, just copy and paste all the URLs into a .txt file, then click the Select file button to load the .txt file and import all the URLs into the URL input box.

4.4 Download with the Android App or Browser Extension

As stated previously, DVDFab Video Downloader also has an Android App and Chrome plugin which are totally free to paid users of either YouTube to MP3 or Video Downloader. Thus, instead of downloading TED videos with TED App in low quality, you can also use the Android App of this video downloader software to download those videos with the highest video quality. The entire download procedures are almost the same as demonstrated in 9.2, so we won’t repeat them again here. Just click the dwonload button below to install this TED Talks Android downloader on your device.

                                             Download for Android  

Apart from that, Chrome users can also add this video downloader add-on to your Chrome and download TED talk videos much easily. Be noted however, sometimes on certain videos, this browser plugin still needs to work in combination with its desktop App.

                                                  Install for Chrome  

4.5 Download Videos from TED Talks YouTube Channel

TED Talks not only offers its videos on its own website, it also opens an official TED Talks YouTube Channel. This means, if you don’t want to download video directly from TED.com, you can also subscribe to its YouTube Channel and download YouTube TED Talks videos from there, as TED Talks officially stated that they will put most of their videos also on YouTube.

So, how to download TED videos on YouTube? Due to the fact that YouTube does not offer an official download option, so you can only resort to a 3^rd-party YouTube video downloader software, this is when and where DVDFab Video Downloader kicks in to help.

50. Step 1 > Find your target TED Talks YouTube video and copy its URL
50. Step 2 > Paste the video URL into the software like previously illustrated
50. Step 3 > Choose the output format as Video, your preferred video quality, such as 720p/1080p, and click the Download button to start the download.

Final Wrap-up

Given the extreme popularity TED Talks are enjoying today, it’s only a matter of time that TED grows into the No.1 biggest education platform hosting millions of videos centered on each and every aspect it can touch. That would be a tremendous fortunate to every one of us. Whenever you want to learn something, there must be certain TED Talks videos on your subject. You can stream them online, download them for offline playback. It’s totally up to you which approach you choose.

In terms of download audio and video quality, the official download option offered by TED Talks can far from being able to meet most of the user demand, because nowadays who still care about 480p videos and 80kbps audios? This is why a 3^rd-party video downloader, that not only allows to download TED Talks videos at their original quality but also allows you to download videos from more than 1000 other video sharing website, including from the TED Talks YouTube Channel, is highly recommended.