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youtube-dl

  • basic download command

    • youtube-dl [url]
    • [url] can be a video url, a playlist url or a complete channel url

  • see all formats in which you can download a video or audio

    • youtube-dl [url] -F
    • yt-dlp [url] --list-formats

  • select the format in which you want to download the video

    • youtube-dl [url] -f [no-of-format]
    • [no-of-format] is achieved form the -F flag

  • download the audio only (lazy to use the -F flag)

    • youtube-dl [url] -f bestaudio

  • download only thumbnails of a playlist

    • youtube-dl --write-thumbnail --skip-download [url]

  • get metadata of a file

    • youtube-dl --add-metadata [url] - writes into the file
    • youtube-dl --write-info-json [url] - creates a separate the json file

  • ignore errors and continue

    • youtube-dl -i [url]

  • use external downloader for more speed (aria2c used in this case)

    • for small files
      • youtube-dl [url] --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args "-j 8 -s 8 -x 8 -k 5M"

  • for large files

    • youtube-dl [url] --external-downloader aria2c --external-downloader-args "-j 12 -s 12 -x 12 -k 5M"

  • get subtitles

    • yt-dlp --write-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download [url]
    • yt-dlp --write-sub --sub-lang en --sub-format vtt --skip-download [url]
    • yt-dlp --list-subs [url]
    • auto generate subtitles
      • youtube-dl --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download [url]

  • change filename

    • yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(upload_date)s, %(title)s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%(id)s" [url]

  • normal

    • video download yt-dlp -f 'bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio' [url]
    • audio download yt-dlp -f bestaudio [url]

  • download data about playlist in json format

    • youtube-dl --flat-playlist --dump-json https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=<insertplaylistid> > output.json