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MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

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Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#21
post #3

"Self-hosted" ... on something that very much used to be a fairly simple desktop app... JDownloader anyone? Or yt-dlp ????

I totally agree. The idea of running a server application in Docker and then firing up a browser for something like this just seems so... round-about and alien to me! Is this the direction software development is really going?

I see that a lot in the stuff our interns produce. Instead of a simple command line too they often create a node server you need to post your requests to. This may somehow have some advantages but it makes building scripts or pipelines much harder than it should be.

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#22
Consider also Tube Archivist. If you just want to download a few videos it's overkill, but I use it to archive and index technical channels I like. It can do advanced full text and metadata searches on the transcription/subtitles as well as comments (and title and description). Much better than what alphabet provides, annoyingly.

https://www.tubearchivist.com/

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#23
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a large group of people, the vast majority of their computing and consumption is done apart from a desktop or laptop. Something like this makes perfect sense in a mobile-first world.

My generation dropped the ball on teaching computer literacy

Computers have become generally good enough to be used without much knowledge. Same happened with cars. 30 years ago it was very beneficial to know how your car works. These days you can own and a car without knowing much about it and you will most likely be ok.

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#24
It was pretty straightforward for me to install and use yt-dlp. On a Mac with Homebrew you can do `brew install yt-dlp` to install it in one command. IIRC yt-dlp also provides binaries you can install directly. I'm not sure if installing docker and running a web server is any way easier than that.

However, there are ways to download Youtube videos without installing a native app. For example, it is possible to use a library like Youtube.js [0] to make a browser extension that downloads Youtube videos directly. You won't find those on Google's web store due to policy, but you can find a handful on Github.

0: https://github.com/LuanRT/YouTube.js

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#25

Consider also Tube Archivist. If you just want to download a few videos it's overkill, but I use it to archive and index technical channels I like. It can do advanced full text and metadata searches on the transcription/subtitles as well as comments (and title and description). Much better than what alphabet provides, annoyingly. https://www.tubearchivist.com/

I second this. It's great!

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#26
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious if this is at millennials for not teaching the next generation(s) or at genz/alpha for not teaching themselves.

Ive encountered a shocking amount of 30yr olds that don't own a computer or know how to properly type. I'd say GenZ and Alpha have plenty of computer literacy as laptops were better integrated into education by time they got or will get to high school. Outside of some AP classes that had their own computer labs most kids in my age group (early 30s) took one computer class in their entire secondary education. I knew o…

They're all issued Chromebooks and live in a glorified browser and GSuite. There's something of an epidemic of students landing in college CS programs and not knowing how to manage files outside of Google Drive.

Millennials got to use real computers growing up. Gens Z and Alpha got locked down Google appliances tightly monitored by schools.

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#27

It was pretty straightforward for me to install and use yt-dlp. On a Mac with Homebrew you can do `brew install yt-dlp` to install it in one command. IIRC yt-dlp also provides binaries you can install directly. I'm not sure if installing docker and running a web server is any way easier than that. However, there are ways to download Youtube videos without installing a native app. For example, it is possible to use a…

This project is literally just a UI for yt-dlp. This is for people that want a front end for it.

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#28
post #3

"Self-hosted" ... on something that very much used to be a fairly simple desktop app... JDownloader anyone? Or yt-dlp ????

I'd be excited to have this on a NAS. Something in a container makes it easy and I can direct it to save in a directory that has Plex or something like that.

+1 for me. As a yt premium sub, I still think it'd be great if I could just pick a channel and have a recurring check to see if new content is up and to just dump them into a folder which my video player can show to avoid needing to open the app all the time. It'd work for my consumption uses better than relying on the sometimes great, sometimes terrible algorithm to surface the content I want to watch.

Re: MeTube: Self-hosted YouTube downloader

#30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My generation dropped the ball on teaching computer literacy

Computers have become generally good enough to be used without much knowledge. Same happened with cars. 30 years ago it was very beneficial to know how your car works. These days you can own and a car without knowing much about it and you will most likely be ok.

> These days you can own and a car without knowing much about it and you will most likely be ok.

It's a pretty expensive way to own a car, though: having to take it to a mechanic in order to maintain or fix things. But you're absolutely right that it's an option today that wasn't really an option 30+ years ago.

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