this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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158
Something like Sonarr but for Youtube? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 months ago by major_jellyfish@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I need something and hopefully i dont have to invent the wheel.

I want to subscribe to youtube channels and have new videos automatically detected and downloaded to local storage. Bonus points for jellyfin intergration but i can live without.

I know not too hard to rig something like this uo with youtube-dl but if there is an existing solution that would be amazing.

Anybody know?

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[–] MichaelMuse@programming.dev 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Absolutely, there are a few solutions that can help you automate YouTube channel subscriptions and downloads without reinventing the wheel!

1. yt-dlp + yt-dlp-scripts:
yt-dlp is a modern fork of youtube-dl with more features and better maintenance. You can set up a simple cron job or scheduled task to check your subscribed channels’ RSS feeds and download new videos automatically. There are plenty of scripts and guides out there for this workflow.

2. Tube Archivist:
This is a self-hosted YouTube archiving solution with a web interface. It can subscribe to channels, automatically download new videos, and even integrates with Jellyfin for media management. It’s Docker-based and pretty user-friendly.

3. YoutubeDL-Material:
Another web-based frontend for youtube-dl/yt-dlp. It supports subscriptions, automatic downloads, and has a nice UI. You can set it up with Docker as well.

If you ever want to grab transcripts along with your videos, tools like Transcriptly can help automate transcript extraction.

Tube Archivist is probably the closest to what you want, especially with Jellyfin integration. Otherwise, a simple yt-dlp script and a cron job can get you 90% of the way there.

[–] wowleak@sh.itjust.works 84 points 2 months ago (4 children)

https://github.com/kieraneglin/pinchflat

[–] RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How would one connect this to jellyfin while preserving thumbnails etc?

[–] running_system@feddit.org 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Pinchflat allows to download and/or embed thumbnails and subtitles, as well as creates nfo files. I am using it together with Jellyfin and it works totally fine

[–] obviouspornalt@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 2 months ago

It has options for providing metadata, thumbnails, etc for jellyfin automatically, by pulling the metadata from the youtube page.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 5 points 2 months ago

Very cool!

[–] blackbarn@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Works great to convert certain channels to podcasts as well.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Damn that looks cool. I'm disappointed in how many projects are only for Docker though :(

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Docker is a bit of a pain to learn but it really helps once you start figuring things out!

[–] WbrJr@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

I would not even say so. It tool me maybe a weekend to und erstand the concepts. I had no other selfhosting experience before. Specialy docker compose is almost plug and play

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I agree. I am forced to use dockers with Unraid and I really don't like them. For me, the benefits are very limited compared to the extra hassle. I think they have become so popular on Linux because they sidestep so many issues related to distro fragmentation. This is yet another example of how the "freedom" of Linux prevents long term innovation and general OS improvements. Especially in terms of UX.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're looking for TubeArchivist

[–] theRealBassist@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I second this. Tube archivist is amazing and it integrates well with jellyfin

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

It also has a Firefox extension that add download and subscribe buttons for Tubearchivist directly on youtube website.

[–] Certainly_No_Brit@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 2 months ago

TubeArchivist works well for me. It also has a metadata plugin for Jellyfin

[–] paperd@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

ytdl-sub is by far the lightest weight of all of them.

[–] isles@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Yep, it's what I use, though I remember having some difficulty with the initial setup, its been very reliable since.

[–] rutrapio@jlai.lu 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Definitly look at pinchflat. Does exactly this. :) Easy to set up, and it runs so smoothly !

[–] scott@lem.free.as 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I moved from TubeArchivist to Pinchflat. Very good.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why the switch?

[–] scott@lem.free.as 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's much more lightweight, handles Plex integration much better and automatically cuts out ads, promotions, etc.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Any way to get YouTube's recommendations as well, and not just subscriptions? I mainly watch stuff from my recommendations, which are usually exactly what I want to see. Been honing my alg for decades. 😅

[–] scott@lem.free.as 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not with this setup, no. I specifically didn't want The Algorithm™ involved.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Alright, cool. Thanks for replying!

[–] splendoruranium@infosec.pub 1 points 1 month ago

Have started it up as well because I fear like there might not be much time to enjoy its benefits for much longer :(

Looks pretty neat! Too bad there's no standalone installation, only docker.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've been using Tubesync but the pinch one linked looks much cooler and easier

[–] dizzy@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I switched from tubesync to pinchflat and haven’t looked back. Much more friendly UI.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Was it easy to get something like plex to have it show up correctly? I remember it was a pain to get tubesync to name things in a way that plex accepted it

[–] dizzy@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah much easier, that’s why I switched, I can’t quite remember the specifics now because it’s just worked for the past few months but it lets you set up the file naming and folder structure in a way that Plex can handle.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

4k-videodownloader does this. Only paid version, but it's a one time payment of 5 dollars or something like that.

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

YoutubeDL-Material would fit the bill