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!

@UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works
link
fedilink
English
3
edit-2
2M

I just add “pp” into the URL bar. Between the .com and youtube (youtubepp.com).

Idk if it’s safe or whatever, I get my video, and funny haha pp joke.

I self-host MeTube, and have a shortcut set up for my share-screen. When I see a video I want downloaded, I hit the Share button, and press the custom script that sends the link to be downloaded onto my Emby server.

yt-dlp, full hd quality, best audio, reading from a txt file for every URL

I always use yt-dlp do download youtube videos. It doesn’t require installation, you just download and run it.

@ReedReads@lemmy.zip
creator
link
fedilink
English
112M

I was just looking at this. Do you typically run it behind a VPN or do you expose your actual IP?

adr1an
link
fedilink
English
22M

No need of VPN. But it wouldn’t harm if you wanted to have more privacy

I use it all the time without any VPN and haven’t had any issues. I watch almost all youtube videos in MPV, which uses yt-dlp to get the video. I download any video I may want to watch again later to my server.

@IllNess@infosec.pub
link
fedilink
English
12M

I never used a VPN with it. I’ve been using it for years. I figured I’m getting it directly for YouTube. Google already knows my IP. I figured they wouldn’t care unless I abuse it anyway.

Litanys
link
fedilink
English
282M

I’ve never used a VPN with it.

@CaptObvious@literature.cafe
link
fedilink
English
4
edit-2
2M

I’ve never used a VPN with it either. But it should work, especially with an exit node in a country where Google has no incentive to/is prohibited from interfering with third party viewers.

@14th_cylon@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
92M

but unless i am missing some edge case, there isn’t really a reason, downloading video from youtube is perfectly legal, it wouldn’t work otherwise after all

Love the handle, BTW. :)

I think downloading is against Google’s TOS. Whether that makes it illegal is a question for a lawyer.

@14th_cylon@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
22M

Love the handle, BTW. :)

thank you

I think downloading is against Google’s TOS

maybe, but you are not going to jail for that. at least not today.

@ReedReads@lemmy.zip
creator
link
fedilink
English
92M

okay. Thanks. Gonna give it a go. It seems to be the one everyone is using.

@MrSoup@lemmy.zip
link
fedilink
English
152M

If you want a gui for android take a look at Seal, for Linux Parabolic.

@akilou@sh.itjust.works
link
fedilink
English
32M

Yeah, I used to use yt-dl(whatever) but Seal is just so much more convenient

Fleppensteyn
link
fedilink
English
22M

It shouldn’t be needed but if you want extra privacy, you can try torsocks.

Ebby
link
fedilink
English
12M

I used a program based on that and got a block I think. I get errors in the logs saying I need to use the official YouTube app.

Anything to look out for or best practices for a noob? I think I got seen.

If you’re into selfhosting I’ve heard good things about tube archivist. It integrates with jellyfin

Seconded. It downloads metadata, thumbnails, and comments too. Also has a browser extension that adds a download button into YouTube to trigger downloads on the server.

Titou [she/her]
link
fedilink
English
32M

On my phone i use tubular, which is a fork of NewPipe with sponsor block added.

Dr. Wesker
link
fedilink
English
172M

yt-dlp with a couple scripts I wrote, depending on the usecase.

yt-dlp is pretty much the standard program for it https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

It is installable as a python module, so it should be easy to sandbox if you need to (though it requires ffmpeg too). Nowadays I almost view it as a standard unix utility though and wouldn’t think twice about installing the native package

I tend to drop the link into yt1s.com

Sometimes just for audio, sometimes for the full vid.

I’m rarely grabbing more than one video at a time though.

[re-commenting as I meant this to be a top-level comment, not a reply]

@Drm12@lemmy.zip
link
fedilink
English
32M

Newpipe

@ssm@lemmy.sdf.org
link
fedilink
English
2
edit-2
2M

Skytube

@dumblederp@aussie.zone
link
fedilink
English
52M

Tartube, a gui frontend for yt-dlp

@cleverusername@lemm.ee
link
fedilink
English
32M

+1

Nice and easy to use too with powerful automation if you want it.

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.

@refalo@programming.dev
link
fedilink
English
32M

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.

Kairos
link
fedilink
English
42M

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

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.

Kairos
link
fedilink
English
-52M

Well there’s your problem.

Learn how to actually use a computer.

Huh… That’s really not nice.

Ace! _SL/S
link
fedilink
English
5
edit-2
2M

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

Kairos
link
fedilink
English
-52M

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.

deleted by creator

Cobalt is an awesome downloader, if the main instance (cobalt.tools) ever goes down or gets blocked by YouTube, there are countless other instances: https://instances.hyper.lol/instances/

It’s really a great project, make sure to promote it, give it a star on GitHub, maybe donate a few bucks (crypto addresses can be found when clicking on the donate button in the app)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Create a post
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don’t request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don’t request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don’t submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others


Loot, Pillage, & Plunder


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-FiLiberapay


  • 1 user online
  • 219 users / day
  • 509 users / week
  • 927 users / month
  • 4.94K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 3.2K Posts
  • 78.4K Comments
  • Modlog