What is your preferred way of downloading youtube videos? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 2 months ago by ReedReads@lemmy.zip to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I'm looking to download a number of educational youtube videos for future reference. Looking for a reliable way to download videos. OS is Ubuntu. FF extensions and docker containers all good. I don't really want to install an executable on bare metal unless it is a flatpak.

My goal is for the downloaded videos to be accessed locally via jellyfin. Jellyfin is already sorted.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

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[-] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 2 months ago

You should listen to all the yt-dlp comments, but I've always had trouble getting all the yt-dl variants to just download the best version and subtitles consistently.

I use 4K Video Downloader, and it's easier to use. It has a 30 video per day limit is all, which is more than I need.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 months ago

WDYM you've had difficulty?? Isn't it just --embedded-subs or something?

[-] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 2 months ago

Maybe the command line version is consistent, but day to day I prefer not to do command line. I've tried like 5 different GUIs and they all have failed downloads, incorrect formats, and other issues just doing test downloads. I don't know why, but it's been a problem every time for me.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today -4 points 2 months ago

Well there's your problem.

Learn how to actually use a computer.

[-] ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 2 months ago

Huh... That's really not nice.

[-] AceSLS@ani.social 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

True, that guy seems like a jerk

Also, if you only want the highest quality using the command line version is easy as running

yt-dlp "link"

for example:

yt-dlp "https://m.youtube.com/watchv=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Although it needs ffmpeg too for certain websites that have seperate audio and video streams. Maybe that's why your previous experiences have been wonky

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today -4 points 2 months ago

If you want to use a computer you're going to need to learn how to use it.

It's not reasonable to expect maintainers of a very nice Python CLI tool to also maintain a GUI that works perfectly with it. Just look at the manpage if you need to find an option.

[-] refalo@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago

the best version is always the default for me on yt-dlp, that and --embed-subs has always worked perfectly for me, weird you've had issues with it, this is the first I've heard of anyone having that problem.