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YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

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Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#102
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they knew about it, sure. All it would take is a 3 step (after initial download) instructional with some screenshots: 1. Open Explorer where you downloaded youtube-dl 2. Shift+Right click -> Open command window here 3. Type 'youtube-dl ' and paste url[0], then enter As I said it really is a discoverability problem, one that the organiser of the world's information is neither incentivised nor really expected to add…

I happen to be on a fresh copy of Windows 7 right now, so I'm going to try it. I expect to encounter at least several steps where a nontechnical user would be totally lost or frustrated. 1. Download Python 2.7 and install. Encountered error where the installer stopped with no indication that it had completed or failed. Tried to install again and it messed up the original installer which was hiding in the background a…

"We also provide a Windows executable that includes Python."

I read this as not having to install python for it to work.

I think some powershell commands that have required arguments start interactively prompting the user for values for those arguments if they aren't specified on the command line. That would probably work:

1. Download youtube-dl.exe

2. double-click

3. youtube-dl.exe notices the lack of url as argument and prompts:

URL:

4. paste URL and hit enter

5. Progress bar of download (?)

Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#103

I used this years ago to create a Youtube2MP3 site. This tool is great. Nice to see that it's still alive and maintained

Second this. I use it to make mp3 playlists. I don't bother too much with mp3's nowadays, but there is a second good reason to download: it's because YouTube bookmarked videos might disappear suddenly. If you want to make sure they remain accessible, you have to download them.

Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#104
post #75

Here's something i've added to my .bashrc that lets me type in simply 'play ' using youtube-dl and mplayer (I forget where I found this gem, and sorry for weird formatting, won): function play { youtube-dl --default-search=ytsearch: \ --youtube-skip-dash-manifest \ --output="${TMPDIR:-/tmp/}%(title)-s%(id)s.%(ext)s" \ --restrict-filenames \ --format="bestaudio[ext!=webm]" \ --exec=mplayer -vvv "$*" } play rick astley…

Excellent use-case! It's not that much faster than just `!yt rick astley never gonna give you up` on DDG, but the advantage is that leaving my dev environment introduces... distractions.

Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#105
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I happen to be on a fresh copy of Windows 7 right now, so I'm going to try it. I expect to encounter at least several steps where a nontechnical user would be totally lost or frustrated. 1. Download Python 2.7 and install. Encountered error where the installer stopped with no indication that it had completed or failed. Tried to install again and it messed up the original installer which was hiding in the background a…

"We also provide a Windows executable that includes Python." I read this as not having to install python for it to work. I think some powershell commands that have required arguments start interactively prompting the user for values for those arguments if they aren't specified on the command line. That would probably work: 1. Download youtube-dl.exe 2. double-click 3. youtube-dl.exe notices the lack of url as argumen…

That may be correct, but the download page explicitly says "Remember youtube-dl requires Python version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+ to work." and links to python's website. I tried renaming Python.exe and it still worked, so I have no idea what's up with it.

Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#106
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-f also supports some symbolic names, which is very handy because it allows you to easily get the best possible quality without having to check the formats every time: -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]' this is what I'm using in my case (on youtube). Posting this here, because it's not obvious from the docs that this works.

FWIW > Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best as default format selection […] If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading bestvideo and bestaudio separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to best and results in downloading the best available quality served as a sing…

bestvideo+bestaudio has been flip-flopping ver time and releases between mp4 and webm though. As I'm mostly using this for consumption on an iPad, I prefer mp4, so I'm happy to have found a way to get the best possible mp4 version without having to go format hunting.

Re: YouTube-dl: Open-source YouTube downloader

#110

> It's a bit worrying how many people run to defend corporation profits by default. Surely you are keen to make a profit yourself with your unicorn startup idea, dear unique snowflake.

This comment breaks the HN guidelines. Please post civilly and substantively or not at all.

We detached it from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11453077 and marked it off-topic.

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