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What Is v.redd.it and How to Download v.redd.it Videos

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v.redd.it links turn up in chats and comments, and opening one rarely gives you the video. Here is what they are and how to save the video behind them.

Links that start with v.redd.it turn up in chats, comments and search results. Open one and you may land on a Reddit post, an error page or a silent clip — rarely just the video. Here's what they are.

v.redd.it is Reddit's video host

Every video uploaded to Reddit — as opposed to linked from YouTube or elsewhere — is stored on v.redd.it. Each video gets a short id, so its address looks like this:

https://v.redd.it/abc123xyz0

That address is the video's home, not the post's. Reddit's player builds the video you watch from several files kept under it:

  • DASHPlaylist.mpd and HLSPlaylist.m3u8 — playlists that list everything else,
  • DASH_1080.mp4, DASH_720.mp4, DASH_480.mp4… (newer uploads: CMAF_1080.mp4 and so on) — the picture in each quality, without sound,
  • DASH_AUDIO_128.mp4 or CMAF_AUDIO_128.mp4 (older uploads: just audio) — the sound on its own,
  • wh_ben_en.vtt, on many videos — English captions Reddit makes automatically, one word at a time.

Why opening a v.redd.it link rarely gives you the video

  • The bare link (v.redd.it/abc123xyz0) redirects to the post the video belongs to, so you end up on Reddit rather than at a file.
  • A file link such as …/DASH_720.mp4 plays — but without sound, because the sound is in a separate file.
  • An error (403, "Access Denied" or an empty page) usually means the video was deleted, its post was removed, or the community is private.

How to download a v.redd.it video with sound

  1. Copy the v.redd.it link — or, if you have it, the link to the Reddit post.
  2. Paste it into FromRed.net.
  3. Choose a quality.

FromRed.net finds the post the video belongs to, reads its playlist, and offers every quality the upload has. When you pick one, it joins that quality's picture with the sound track into a single MP4, without re-encoding either. The result plays with sound in any player and app.

The same page offers the sound alone — the original M4A or an MP3 — a GIF made from the video, and, when Reddit has captioned it, the subtitles as SRT or VTT.

v.redd.it vs. i.redd.it vs. redd.it

Reddit uses three similar-looking addresses:

Address What it is
v.redd.it/… A video, stored by Reddit
i.redd.it/… A picture or GIF, in its original format
redd.it/… A short link to a post, like redd.it/1x2jjy4

All three work in FromRed.net. A redd.it link opens the post with all its media; an i.redd.it link gives you the original picture — see saving Reddit images as JPG.

Good to know

  • A v.redd.it video belongs to a post. If the post was removed or its community went private, the video stops being available too.
  • Videos that are still processing after upload have no files yet; try again a few minutes later.
  • Posts marked NSFW are not supported.

More on the separate sound file in why Reddit videos have no sound.

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