Forced Video Re-encoding?

[ryanvcode]

Your question

Very long-time free user here, thinking of buying a license to support the project and expand what I can do with it (use it in places that currently incur the watermark).

I've noticed that some videos can be saved directly "as is", (or at least it seems that way), and appear with no watermark, while others are re-encoded, incurring a lengthy and CPU-demanding run of FFmpeg. I understand why this would be necessary to add the QR code watermark, and I can imagine this conversion being a potentially desirable option for people who don't want to deal with what they may consider unusual formats/codecs, but I am curious if the fully licensed version will save all videos, including those it would otherwise have watermarked, exactly "as is", or if they are also converted?

If they are also converted, I am curious why and if there are any plans to make changes such that it's not necessary in the future.

Thank you for all your hard work over the years, and for any answers you can provide!

Addon & CoApp version and details

version: 9.3.7.2
target: mozilla
channel: stable
lang: en-CA
coapp: {"found":true,"path":"C:\\Programs\\DownloadHelper CoApp\\vdhcoapp.exe","version":"2.0.19","new_version":false}
license: {"unset":true}
platform: x86-64 win
UA: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:138.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/138.0
{
    "privacy_accept": true,
    "used_history_button": true,
    "download_directory": "D:\\Downloads",
    "last_download_directory": {
        "__serializer_tag": "option_some",
        "__serializer_value": {
            "__serializer_tag": "primitive",
            "__serializer_value": "D:\\Downloads"
        }
    },
    "concurrent_downloads_max": 26,
    "show_success_notification": false,
    "view_options": {
        "all_tabs": false,
        "low_quality": true,
        "sort_by_status": true,
        "sort_reverse": false,
        "show_button_clean": true,
        "show_button_clean_all": false,
        "show_button_convert_local": false,
        "hide_downloaded": true
    },
    "default_action": "download_as",
    "yt_warning": true,
    "use_sidebar": false,
    "open_count_store": 26,
    "successfull_dl": 101,
    "never_show_successfull_dl_message": true,
    "history_limit_in_days": 3
}

[jcfrog]

Hi,
The re encoding is only used for QR code addition.

[ryanvcode]

Thank you for the information. I was busy with life for a while but back to report this now works as intended and described after buying, thank you!

[freezersharp]

A long time ago, I could just download the videos from some websites, but now, the plugin "wants" to re-encode the video, WHY???? I just need download them, as is.

[GrampaWildWilly]

I do not work for VDH. I am just another user. Also, please read #2214.

A long time ago things worked a lot different. The watermark is a gentle inducement to get you to buy a license. If you see some things getting a watermark & you don't have a license, you actually have no basis for a complaint. Buy a license & the watermark will never be written. Continue to not have a license & maybe some things will get the watermark & some won't. Don't compare now with back when. Today is a new world & you should just forget the way things used to work.