I read somewhere that it is possible to rip youtube videos (music only) without the need for converting it into an mp3 as such.
The online conversion process (naturally) results in loss of quality, and (apparently) it is possible to preserve the original video’s audio quality via a direct rip. If so, how would it be done and what format would it be in anyway?
I believe if you’re willing to check the format codes on the video you can download audio only but both will get you the least compressed audio available.
This uses ffmpeg under the hood and muxes the file into a .m4a file without transcoding. Basically keeping whatever compression youtube used for the audio (which is some sort of mpeg4 compatible audio, probably depends a little bit)
This still recompressed, but it’s the best you can do using youtube as the source.
uploader (almost certainly, but theoretically you could skip this step if you encoded your video well) compresses audio
uploader uploads to youtube
youtube re-compresses the audio again (almost certainly transcoding into a different codec)
YouTube compresses the video as soon as it’s uploaded, so it’s unlikely you can obtain any sort of lossless download. You may be able to get a .wav or similar download of a video’s audio track, but there will still be compression losses from the YouTube side.
yt-dlp has the -F parameter to list the available stream formats. (uppercase F to list, lowercase f to select)
I use -f 251 to download the opus audio stream, and afterwards use ffmpeg -i file -c copy file.opus to copy the opus audio stream in an opus file format file (codec copy so without encoding losses).
yt-dlp -f bestaudio/best --extract-audio --embed-metadata --embed-thumbnail --recode opus --audio-quality 0
It does recode to opus but since the bestaudio is usually in that format already, you don’t need it most of the time. You can skip the --recode opus part if you want to. I keep it because I like having a “uniform” collection. You can probably change the bestaudio/best part to simply bestaudio without losing much as well.
I use this app for it. Even adds the correct artist, title, album and such to the file aswell. I tried several similar apps but this was by far the best.
Oh I’m four days late but yes. The YouTube downloader also downloads audio, I didn’t realize they had a separate program that only downloads audio. Weird.
If you want an online tool, cobalt.tools can rip the original youtube audio if you choose “best” format in settings -> 🎶. It’s also FOSS with no tracker/ad garbage so I can recommend it as an alternative for yt-dlp which has been mentioned already.
if you use yt-dlp or youtube-dl’s -F flag you can get back a list of available formats. There are typically separately encoded audio tracks for most content on youtube, meaning you can just give it the stream id and get an m4a or webm file with no extra work.
Not a direct answer but for a while I had iTunes Match as a companion service which could be an imperfect workaround to get your hands on 256 Kbps AAC versions. (if it matches, which can’t be manually done)
I bailed when it glitched on a couple songs and syncing broke for a while. Direct iTunes sync hasn’t let me down since but it was nice while it lasted and the Matched songs I had are still kicking.
Of course it requires using iTunes and paying for that $25 for a non-guaranteed quality boost.
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Get yt-dlp then run: yt-dlp -x ‘video-url’
I believe if you’re willing to check the format codes on the video you can download audio only but both will get you the least compressed audio available.
I dunno about the qualilty but I do
yt-dlp -xand it downloads and extracts just the audio portion.deleted by creator
This uses ffmpeg under the hood and muxes the file into a .m4a file without transcoding. Basically keeping whatever compression youtube used for the audio (which is some sort of mpeg4 compatible audio, probably depends a little bit)
This still recompressed, but it’s the best you can do using youtube as the source.
YouTube compresses the video as soon as it’s uploaded, so it’s unlikely you can obtain any sort of lossless download. You may be able to get a .wav or similar download of a video’s audio track, but there will still be compression losses from the YouTube side.
deleted by creator
yt-dlp has the
-Fparameter to list the available stream formats. (uppercase F to list, lowercase f to select)I use
-f 251to download the opus audio stream, and afterwards useffmpeg -i file -c copy file.opusto copy the opus audio stream in an opus file format file (codeccopyso without encoding losses).Easiest way is to use an Indivious instance, if you are on desktop or use the Newpipe App if on Android.
This is what I use for my personal archive:
yt-dlp -f bestaudio/best --extract-audio --embed-metadata --embed-thumbnail --recode opus --audio-quality 0It does recode to
opusbut since thebestaudiois usually in that format already, you don’t need it most of the time. You can skip the--recode opuspart if you want to. I keep it because I like having a “uniform” collection. You can probably change thebestaudio/bestpart to simplybestaudiowithout losing much as well.Does it skip the recode completely if the format is already opus?
Yes, it does. It just repackages it from
.m4ato.opuswithout re-encoding the actual audio stream.I use this app for it. Even adds the correct artist, title, album and such to the file aswell. I tried several similar apps but this was by far the best.
+1 for MediaHuman, if you’re wanting a GUI. Super simple and powerful. It’s paid software but there are cracks around.
It’s not paid though?
I think the YouTube Downloader is paid and they might be getting it confused.
Oh I’m four days late but yes. The YouTube downloader also downloads audio, I didn’t realize they had a separate program that only downloads audio. Weird.
If you want an online tool, cobalt.tools can rip the original youtube audio if you choose “best” format in settings -> 🎶. It’s also FOSS with no tracker/ad garbage so I can recommend it as an alternative for yt-dlp which has been mentioned already.
if you use yt-dlp or youtube-dl’s
-Fflag you can get back a list of available formats. There are typically separately encoded audio tracks for most content on youtube, meaning you can just give it the stream id and get an m4a or webm file with no extra work.The fork yt-dlp already downloads in the highest quality.
The problem is that, that’s (sometimes?) webm format…
Your intended playback device impacts which format you’ll want. Or maybe I’m just fussy, I dunno.
WARNING: webm doesn’t support embedding a thumbnail, mkv will be used
Embed thumbnails, you’ll never see a webm again.
I resorted to a shitty script that gets the most m4a video quality using grep and awk.
Is the thumbnail embedding a yt-dlp feature?
yes but i think it’s also present in youtube-dl
--embed-thumbnailI believe Jdownloader 2 lets you do link grabber with YouTube links that can download audio only with a choice of format.
Not a direct answer but for a while I had iTunes Match as a companion service which could be an imperfect workaround to get your hands on 256 Kbps AAC versions. (if it matches, which can’t be manually done)
I bailed when it glitched on a couple songs and syncing broke for a while. Direct iTunes sync hasn’t let me down since but it was nice while it lasted and the Matched songs I had are still kicking.
Of course it requires using iTunes and paying for that $25 for a non-guaranteed quality boost.