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Youtube-dl

lastmod 2025-02-05created 2015-05-1222 edits

youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter (2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+), and it is not platform specific. We also provide a Windows executable that includes Python. youtube-dl should work in your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.

The YouTube-DL Takedown

  • The YouTube-DL Takedown - Youtube-dl removed from GitHub due to the DMCA
  • Claim that the YouTube downloader Youtube-dl infringes copyright
  • After the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sent a DMCA copyright violation notice to GitHub, GitHub blocked the official repo and its forks
  • The PyPi module is still available, and the code can be downloaded from places such as Gitee, a Chinese Git platform
  • Backup repository created on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl

GitHub restores the youtube-dl repository

In an official letter sent to GitHub, the EFF explained that youtube-dl does not technically violate the DMCA or TPM. GitHub accepted this, restored the repository, and summarized this takedown case and DMCA-related matters.

Dependencies

Uses FFmpeg, FFprob, index, list, and so on.

How to install

It is registered on pip, so it can be installed as follows. 

$ sudo pip install youtube-dl --upgrade

Flags

-c or --continue
Force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
-i or --ignore-errors
Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable vide os in a playlist.
-t or --title
[deprecated] Use title in file name (default)
--playlist-start NUMBER
Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER
Playlist video to end at (default is last)

Example

A collection of usage examples.

Format list

You can check the list of formats as follows. 

$ youtube-dl -F http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pzm5b6FFY
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] P9pzm5b6FFY: Downloading webpage
[youtube] P9pzm5b6FFY: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] P9pzm5b6FFY: Extracting video information
[info] Available formats for P9pzm5b6FFY:
format code extension resolution  note 
140         m4a       audio only  DASH audio , audio@128k (worst)
160         mp4       144p        DASH video , video only
133         mp4       240p        DASH video , video only
134         mp4       360p        DASH video , video only
135         mp4       480p        DASH video , video only
136         mp4       720p        DASH video , video only
17          3gp       176x144     
36          3gp       320x240     
5           flv       400x240     
43          webm      640x360     
18          mp4       640x360     
22          mp4       1280x720    (best)

Then choose the quality you want and download it as shown below. For reference, to use format 22, the Best quality in the example above, add -f 22 as a flag. 

$ youtube-dl -f 22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pzm5b6FFY

Mixing Audio and Video

First, check the available resolutions: 

youtube-dl -F <url>

The output looks like this. 

format code  extension  resolution note
249          webm       audio only tiny   46k , webm_dash container, opus @ 46k (48000Hz), 673.08KiB
250          webm       audio only tiny   60k , webm_dash container, opus @ 60k (48000Hz), 877.56KiB
251          webm       audio only tiny  120k , webm_dash container, opus @120k (48000Hz), 1.70MiB
140          m4a        audio only tiny  129k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@129k (44100Hz), 1.83MiB
278          webm       80x144     144p   31k , webm_dash container, vp9@  31k, 30fps, video only, 458.78KiB
160          mp4        80x144     144p   35k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400a@  35k, 30fps, video only, 514.78KiB
242          webm       134x240    144p   70k , webm_dash container, vp9@  70k, 30fps, video only, 1022.05KiB
133          mp4        134x240    144p   77k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400c@  77k, 30fps, video only, 1.10MiB
243          webm       202x360    240p  129k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 129k, 30fps, video only, 1.83MiB
134          mp4        202x360    240p  191k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400d@ 191k, 30fps, video only, 2.71MiB
244          webm       270x480    240p  238k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 238k, 30fps, video only, 3.37MiB
135          mp4        270x480    240p  332k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d4015@ 332k, 30fps, video only, 4.70MiB
247          webm       404x720    360p  475k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 475k, 30fps, video only, 6.73MiB
136          mp4        404x720    360p  718k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e@ 718k, 30fps, video only, 10.17MiB
302          webm       404x720    360p60  836k , webm_dash container, vp9@ 836k, 60fps, video only, 11.83MiB
298          mp4        404x720    360p60 1088k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401f@1088k, 60fps, video only, 15.40MiB
303          webm       608x1080   480p60 1425k , webm_dash container, vp9@1425k, 60fps, video only, 20.17MiB
299          mp4        608x1080   480p60 1823k , mp4_dash container, avc1.640020@1823k, 60fps, video only, 25.81MiB
308          webm       810x1440   720p60 4196k , webm_dash container, vp9@4196k, 60fps, video only, 59.39MiB
315          webm       1072x1906  1080p60 6785k , webm_dash container, vp9@6785k, 60fps, video only, 96.04MiB
18           mp4        202x360    240p  552k , avc1.42001E, 30fps, mp4a.40.2 (44100Hz), 7.82MiB (best)

youtube-dl -f 315 -o video <url>
youtube-dl -f 251 -o audio <url>
ffmpeg -i video -i audio -c:v h264 -c:a aac -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 result.mp4

Playlist download

Simply use the playlist URI. 

$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9O4Fkn5dFJMLhka4q_sEBT35MZpRt3yM

The important point is to check that playlist is included in the URL.

Use it as follows to use the playlist title as a prefix. 

$ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' -f 22 "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlMkM4tgfjnLSOjrEJN31gZATbcj_MpUm"

MP3 Download

You can download MP3 as follows. 

$ youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 <url to playlist>

Korean subtitle download 

$ youtube-dl --write-auto-sub --sub-lang ko -f 22 <url>

Best quality 

youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]' "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_kooU5i52Q&list=PLv8NImkCqMMU1oziR9nOGMqnV2wVE2EK4"

See also

  • YouTube
  • FFmpeg
  • yt-dlp - A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes
  • yt-whisper - A tool that generates subtitles for YouTube videos with OpenAI Whisper
  • Yark - YouTube archiving tool
  • Pinchflat - Self-hostable YouTube media manager

Favorite site

author Zer0 sitemap