For those of you who hate youtubes buffering bull**** (like me, its impossible to watch youtube videos on my connection unless I buffer them first), here is a site that allows you to rip the videos from youtube:
http://keepvid.com/
Also, yeah I agree, youtube has just gone off the deep end in recent years. I wish the good let's players I watch would just stop using it and find an alternative but I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon unless youtube starts really making it a pain in the ass to upload videos. (Seriously its easier for me to UPLOAD videos then it is to watch them)