Download everything from a YouTube video using youtube-dl
Solution 1
The relevant options you need:
# Filesystem
--write-annotations
--write-description
--write-info-json
# Thumbnail images
--write-all-thumbnails
# Video format
--format bestvideo+bestaudio/best
--merge-output-format mkv
# Subtitle
--all-subs
--write-auto-sub
--write-sub
# Post-processing
--add-metadata
--embed-subs
Copy that to your config file (either /etc/youtube-dl.conf
or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config
).
Using that configuration, I downloaded this video and youtube-dl
wrote the following files:
$ ls
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile.annotations.xml
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile.description
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile.info.json
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile.jpg
The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile.mkv
I can't post mediainfo
's output here because it exceeds the characters limit, but you can see it in github.
I also want to download the video/audio in the highest quality possible, with no quality loss.
youtube-dl
downloads videos at the highest quality possible by default, but you can force this behavior using --format bestvideo+bestaudio/best
.
Even though it's not YouTube, I did also want to download some of my udemy courses I've bought so I can watch them while I'm on a long road trip.
Please read the article Can I Download a Course to my Computer?:
By default, complete courses are not downloadable from a computer. We do this out of concerns for piracy.
Please note that you can always save courses for offline viewing on the Udemy mobile app. For information on how to download video lectures to your iOS mobile device, please click here. For steps on how to download videos for offline viewing on an Android device, click here.
I have
ffmpeg
installed, and I heard that you need this for lossless downloads from YouTube, but I'm not sure how to link it withyoutube-dl
.
youtube-dl
uses avconv
by default, but --prefer-ffmpeg
let you use ffmpeg
instead. Anyway, this option is not needed for "lossless downloads". In the example I provided, youtube-dl
only used ffmpeg
to merge all the downloaded formats into a single mkv file.
Solution 2
To simply download the video, you can use this:
youtube-dl --all-subs "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBok-XGsKM"
To select the video quality, you should first use the -F option to list the available formats.
youtube-dl -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBok-XGsKM"
And this is the output for your video:
[youtube] KYBok-XGsKM: Downloading webpage
[youtube] KYBok-XGsKM: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] KYBok-XGsKM: Extracting video information
WARNING: unable to extract uploader nickname
[info] Available formats for KYBok-XGsKM:
format code extension resolution note
249 webm audio only DASH audio 52k , opus @ 50k, 4.19MiB
250 webm audio only DASH audio 75k , opus @ 70k, 5.42MiB
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 129k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 10.59MiB
171 webm audio only DASH audio 131k , vorbis@128k, 7.66MiB
251 webm audio only DASH audio 135k , opus @160k, 9.58MiB
278 webm 256x144 144p 98k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 6.59MiB
160 mp4 256x144 144p 114k , avc1.4d400c, 15fps, video only, 9.04MiB
242 webm 426x240 240p 205k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 11.47MiB
133 mp4 426x240 240p 265k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 20.11MiB
243 webm 640x360 360p 362k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 21.93MiB
134 mp4 640x360 360p 602k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 20.42MiB
244 webm 854x480 480p 662k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 37.82MiB
135 mp4 854x480 480p 1020k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 42.62MiB
247 webm 1280x720 720p 1353k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 81.53MiB
136 mp4 1280x720 720p 2013k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 84.69MiB
137 mp4 1920x1080 1080p 2438k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 157.71MiB
248 webm 1920x1080 1080p 2593k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 162.48MiB
264 mp4 2560x1440 1440p 6973k , avc1.640032, 30fps, video only, 459.58MiB
271 webm 2560x1440 1440p 7523k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 485.66MiB
313 webm 3840x2160 2160p 19991k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 1.34GiB
36 3gp 320x? small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2
17 3gp 176x144 small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2@ 24k
43 webm 640x360 medium , vp8.0, vorbis@128k
18 mp4 640x360 medium , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k
22 mp4 1280x720 hd720 , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (best)
Here are some useful options for subtitles:
--write-sub
Write subtitle file
--write-auto-sub
Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)
--all-subs
Download all the available subtitles of the video
--list-subs
List all available subtitles for the video
And for thumbnails:
--write-thumbnail
Write thumbnail image to disk
--write-all-thumbnails
Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
--list-thumbnails
Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
You can also find more information about the quality of video here
Solution 3
@leetbacoon see comment response at very bottom. (low rep still sry)
Note: I will be using the longer switch names to avoid confusion. Many of the switches used have shorter versions. See Docs: Options.
Note:
- for visual convenience \
is used to display switches separately; all \
can be omitted; if using \
make sure there is no space character after \
.
Synopsis: A ytdl command to download a single video file of highest available video and audio quality. Saves the video into its own directory (specified by you). Downloads all available metadata, writes each to respective file formats and saves in same directory. Adds video metadata to video output file.
Substitute with your own:
- replace
/archive/videos/TED_Archive/
in the switches--download-archive
and--output
with a directory path of your choice. - example storage path /archive/videos
- example video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFs6ZiynSU
- example channel directory /TED_Archive
====
youtube-dl \
--limit-rate '0.25M' \
--retries '3' \
--no-overwrites \
--call-home \
--write-info-json \
--write-description \
--write-thumbnail \
--all-subs \
--convert-subs 'srt' \
--write-annotations \
--add-metadata \
--embed-subs \
--download-archive '/archive/videos/TED_Archive/TED_Archive.ytdlarchive' \
--format 'bestvideo+bestaudio/best' \
--merge-output-format 'mkv' \
--output '/archive/videos/TED_Archive/%(upload_date)s_%(id)s/TED_Archive_%(upload_date)s_%(id)s_%(title)s.%(ext)s' \
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bFs6ZiynSU' ;
Note: Enclose all arguments with ' '
for parsing safety.
Explanation of recommended switches:
--limit-rate '0.25M'
is used to limit the available maximum download speed of every youtube-dl instance in B/s (bytes per second).
Arguments: any positive integer with a capitalized unit suffix.
Unit Suffixes: K for Kilobyte; M for Megabyte; Unclear if Gigabyte is supported.
Addition:
1. avoid internet connection blockage.
2. helpful when managing download speeds of multiple concurrent ytdl instances.
Ommission:
1. clogs up internet; unable to browse, lagging youtube video play.
2. will download video as fast as possible.
Note: You can run multiple youtube-dl instances concurrently.--retries '5'
is used to auto-retry the download of a video if it fails. Useful when downloading a playlist or an entire channel (which is, in Youtube terms, also a playlist (of that specific channel)).
Values: Choose any positive integer. Default is10
. Max isinfinite
(enter as literal string).--continue
Arguments: none
Addition:
1. will force resume downalod of partial files
Note: ytdl downloads videos in chunks; chunks are preserved if ytdl unexpectedly terminates during download.
Ommission:
1. By default ytdl will resume downloads, if possible.-
--no-overwrites
Arguments: none
Addition: will not overwrite existing metadata files with same names.
Ommission: will overwrite existing metadata files with same names, but not the video file.-
--call-home
used to contact the ytdl server for debugging."If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding --call-home may be a good idea to get more diagnostics." – Docs: Bugs, retrieved 20180408,
-
--write-info-json
Arguments: none
Output Format: json;
Information Content: view count, likes, upload date, video and audio quality information, etc. (but not video text description (posted below video by uploader (2018 youtube layout)))
Addition: writes video metadata into a separate.info.json
file. Saved in same folder as video file.
Ommission: does not affect--add-metadata
which will still write video metadata to the video output file.--write-description
Arguments: none
Output Format: plain text;
Addition: writes text posted by video uploader in the description section of a video (below the video (2018 youtube layout)) into a separateWrite .description
file. Saved in same folder as video file.--write-thumbnail
writes highest resolution thumbnail available (calledmaxresdefault.jpg
by youtube) to.jpg
file. Renamed according to template specified with--output
. Saved in same directory as video file.
Arguments: none
Output Format: only JPEG;
Note: Useyoutube-dl --list-thumbnails '<video_url>'
to investigate available thumbnails of a specific video (does not work on playlist links); Ex.:youtube-dl --list-thumbnails 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwfHu6MDuU'
--write-annotations
writes video annotations to.annotations.xml
file. Renamed according to template specified with--output
. Saved in same directory as video file.
Arguments: none
Output Format: .xml;--all-subs
writes all custom created available subtitles for a video to their respective files (ex.:subtitles.en.vtt
,subtitles.fr.vtt
,subtitles.es.vtt
)
Arguments: none
Output Format: Default.vtt
; can specify other formats with--sub-format
Error Messages: If there are no subtitles available a WARNING message will be printed to stdout - format:WARNING: video doesn't have subtitles
Useful Command:
Note: Use youtube-dl --list-subs '<video_url>'
to investigate available thumbnails of a specific video (does not work on playlist links);
Ex.: youtube-dl --list-subs 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwfHu6MDuU'
--convert-subs 'srt'
Arguments: String : format extension ass, srt or best
Output Format: Default .vtt; or according to specification
Addition: writes subtitles to specified file format (ex.:.srt
). Saved in same folder as video file.
Ommission: subtitles will be written as.vtt
Error Messages: If there are no subtitles available an INFO message will be printed to stdout - format:[ffmpeg] There aren't any subtitles to convert
Note: conversion will be executed as a post-processing step on the.vtt
file after download. If ytdl execution is terminated unexpectedly some subtitle files might not be converted (in this case execute command again).--add-metadata
Arguments: none
Behavior: writes metadata to video output file.
Note: does not require a.info.json
generated by--write-info-json
--embed-subs
Arguments: none
Behavior:
1. writes subtitles to video output file;
2. only for mp4, webm and mkv videos
Error Messages: If there are no subtitles available a INFO message will be printed to stdout - format:[ffmpeg] There aren't any subtitles to embed
Note: does not require a.vtt
generated by--write-sub
,--write-auto-sub
or--all-sub
--download-archive '<archive_path>/<channel_name>/<channel_name>.ytdlarchive'
Behavior: is used to create a text file containing links of previously downloaded videos. Allows skipping these videos when downloading an entire channel. Not necessary when downloading single videos only.
Arguments: String : composite of the path to your video archive, directory named after channel. File name consists of channel name with.ytdlarchive
file extension. (could also be .txt; but unique format allows for easy differentiation)
Output Format: plain text; one videoID per line
Addition:
1. ytdl reads this file, ignores and skips all videos listed with their videoID in it, even if no downloaded yet.
2. automatically adds the videoID of the last downloaded video to this file
Ommission: if video file and metadata files exist ytdl will download them again.--format ''
Arguments: Recommended String :bestvideo+bestaudio/best
to ensure highest video and audio quality combination.
Addition: full control over video quality and audio quality and their combinations, as well as fallback qualities
Ommission: Defaultyoutube-dl will guess it for you by default
– Docs
Note: See Docs: Format Selection Examples--merge-output-format '<video_format>'
Arguments: video file format. (ex.: mp4, mkv, 3gp, etc.)
Addition: can specify video file format
Ommission: Defaultyoutube-dl will guess it for you by default
– Docs
Note: See Docs: Format Selection
Useful Command:
Note: Use youtube-dl --list-formats '<video_url>'
to investigate available video and audio qualities and formats of a specific video (does not work on playlist links);
Ex.: youtube-dl --list-formats 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwfHu6MDuU'
--output '<template>'
Arguments:
1. video file format. (ex.: mp4, mkv, 3gp, etc.);
2. Recommended:%(upload_date)s_%(id)s_%(title)s.%(ext)s
Addition: influences file naming convention for video files and all metadata files
Ommission: By default the video title will be the file name. Default template:%(id)s.%(ext)s
will output ex.:testvideo.mkv
Note: Do not forget the%
prefix ands
suffix (other suffices exist too.); Thee_
between template elements is just a separator and can be any other char. ex.:%(upload_date)s-%(id)s
Note: See Docs: Output Template'<video_url>'
Arguments: String : url to specific video
Error Message:
1. If no video url submitted ytdl will not execute and display help.
2. If invalid video url submitted ERROR message will be printed to stdout - format:ERROR: u'' is not a valid URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run youtube-dl "ytsearch:" ) to search YouTube
Storage Recommendations:
make a
misc
directory in your video archive and store all single videos in there.when you download one or more videos from a channel make a dedicated directory for that channel. In this case, the channel name is
TED Archive
and the directory name will beTED_Archive
. (I preemptively substitute all space characters with underscores for easier directory navigation and file I/O actions when using bash (or python) scripts).
Responding to your comment @leetbacoon
And just wondering, why is a 1080p copy considered the best if 1440p is available? And why is 2160p displayed? That option doesn't appear on my end (it caps at 1440p) – leetbacoon
From the Docs
You can also use a file extension (currently 3gp, aac, flv, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file
best: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
bestvideo: Select the best quality video-only format
I think when you select just best
and you specify an output format youtube sends the format it thinks is the best video+audio combo for that format. This might be subject to some youtube internal balancing decisions (speculation).
In my usage experience, I have had to specifically specify bestvideo+bestaudio
to get the HIGHEST quality available of video and audio respectively and then combine them in a .mkv container.
I use /best
as a fallback argument just to be sure.
Related videos on Youtube
leetbacoon
Stack exchange is wonderful, but the hats are stupid. Please forgive the poor english, it is not my primary language.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
-
leetbacoon almost 2 years
I want to download everything (subtitles, cards, tags, annotations, thumbnails, etc. (and obviously the video w/ audio)) from a YouTube video (for example, this one).
I'm using
youtube-dl
and, with the overwhelming amount of switches to use, I can't seem to find anything to fit my needs. I also want to download the video/audio in the highest quality possible, with no quality loss. Even though it's not YouTube, I did also want to download some of my udemy courses I've bought so I can watch them while I'm on a long road trip.I have
ffmpeg
installed, and I heard that you need this for lossless downloads from YouTube, but I'm not sure how to link it withyoutube-dl
.This is my first time using
youtube-dl
, so any help is appreciated. -
David Foerster about 6 yearsWhat do you hope to achieve with manual format selection?
youtube-dl
uses the best available video and audio formats by default. If you want to override a different setting in the configuration file you can use-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best
(which is the same as the default) or ignore the configuration file (--ignore-config
). -
leetbacoon about 6 yearsWill this embed the information from YouTube into the video? I don't exactly want that, I just want it to download it, but keep that all in separate files, kinda like what it looks like :)
-
leetbacoon about 6 yearsDon't quote me on this, but I thought I read earlier that to get lossless video w/ audio, you just use
youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYBok-XGsKM
-
leetbacoon about 6 yearsAnd is .mkv the default container for lossless videos using
youtube-dl
? -
leetbacoon about 6 yearsAnd just wondering, why is a 1080p copy considered the best if 1440p is available? And why is 2160p displayed? That option doesn't appear on my end (it caps at 1440p)
-
leetbacoon about 6 yearsOh, and how did you download the video?
youtube-dl [youtube-link]
? -
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon [1] It will only embed the subtitles and some metadata (description, uploader, date and url), but the other files will be kept apart. If you don't want to embed that info and only preserve the separated files, you can safely omit the
--write-auto-sub
,--write-sub
and--add-metadata
options. -
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon [2] I used .mkv (matroska) instead of another container because it doesn't need to recode the formats (it accepts virtually any format), so your video won't lose quality.
-
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon [3] Yes, I downloaded the video using just
youtube-dl [youtube-link]
. That's the magic of configuration files, you don't need to write all those options at runtime in the command line. -
leetbacoon about 6 yearsWill omitting those flags still download the subtitle files?
-
leetbacoon about 6 yearsAnd also, the thumbnail it downloaded isn't the largest available. Is is possible for me to force
youtube-dl
to download the highest resolution thumbnail, too? -
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon Oh, sorry, the options you need to omit are
--embed-subs
and--add-metadata
, not the--write
ones. It's supposed thatyoutube-dl
downloads the highest resolution thumbnail by default, in my example it downloads this thumbnail. What video are you trying to download? -
leetbacoon about 6 yearsI tried this video and got a 480x360 image using the settings you described, vs a 640x480 image I manually got myself.
-
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon I see. I'll add a bug report.
-
leetbacoon about 6 yearsThanks. Also, what about information on videos (like these) where they have text at the bottom that say credits? (in the example video that would be
Caption author (French) Mr. Apricot
,Category Entertainment
, etc.) Also stuff like video uploader, publish date, tags, and user watermark image? -
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon The tags, category, date and uploader are included in the
.info.json
file, but it seems thatyoutube-dl
doesn't support the credits, watermark and profile picture. Please bear in mind thatyoutube-dl
is not a fully featured scraping utility, it is intended to be used just as a video downloader utility. If you need even more functionality, you should ask for it in its GitHub site or look for another program. -
nxnev about 6 years@leetbacoon I don't know which program could fulfill your needs, you'll need to search on the net. And building a scraper in Bash from scratch would be a very difficult task, so you could try doing that but I don't recommend it.
-
leetbacoon almost 5 yearsWhat is the purpose of the
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest
option? For some reason I get 404s on youtube videos when this option is added -- removed it works fine (yes everything's up to date) -
nxnev almost 5 years@leetbacoon Back when I wrote this answer it was the opposite,
youtube-dl
wouldn't have been able to download certain videos if the--youtube-skip-dash-manifest
option were not present. Just edited out that option, thanks for telling me. -
leetbacoon almost 5 yearsThank you for updating me on this. Is there any benefit to including this versus leaving it out?
-
Hassan Ahmed about 4 yearsSeems like
--prefer-ffmpeg
flag is the default now. That is, youtube-dl uses FFmpeg by default rather thanavconv