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yt-dlp
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Introduction
yt-dlp offers an extensive suite of tools for downloading audio and video content from thousands of online platforms. As a feature-rich command-line utility, it combines the reliability of its predecessor with significant enhancements in performance, customization, and compatibility. The software's format selection system provides granular control over output quality and container types. Users can prioritize specific resolutions, audio bitrates, or file formats, with automatic fallback mechanisms ensuring successful downloads even when preferred options are unavailable. Its unique combination of active maintenance, community-driven extensibility, and technical sophistication addresses both current and anticipated challenges in digital media preservation.
Key Features
- Extensive Website Support: yt-dlp provides support for downloading video and audio content from a vast number of websites, extending well beyond its original scope. The project maintains an active list of supported extractors for hundreds of online video platforms, social media sites, and news outlets. This functionality is enabled through a modular system of site-specific extractors.
- Advanced Format Selection and Merging: The tool allows users to list all available video and audio formats for a given URL and select specific streams for download based on resolution, codec, or bitrate. It can automatically download the highest quality separate video and audio streams and merge them into a single high-fidelity file using FFmpeg. This provides granular control over the final output file's characteristics.
- Comprehensive Playlist and Channel Archiving: yt-dlp includes robust features for downloading entire playlists or all videos from a specific channel. It supports custom output templates for file naming and organisation and can utilise an archive file to track previously downloaded items, preventing duplicate downloads during subsequent runs. This is designed for systematic content collection and management.
- Subtitle and Metadata Management: The utility offers extensive control over subtitles, including the ability to list, download, and embed multiple language tracks into the final video file. It can also handle automatically generated captions and allows for the preservation or modification of video metadata during the download process. This ensures that supplementary information is retained alongside the media content.
Uniqueness
yt-dlp provides enhanced downloading capabilities. It includes features such as multi-threaded downloading. Among its most notable features is the ability to throttle download speeds, enabling users to avoid bandwidth saturation while maintaining system responsiveness. Concurrent downloads further enhance efficiency, allowing multiple files to be retrieved simultaneously without compromising stability. Users could simply input a playlist URL and get all videos instead of copying the URL of each video in the playlist. Advanced metadata embedding capabilities allow for the inclusion of thumbnails, subtitles, and chapter markers, enriching the media library experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Open-Source?
Yes
Registration Needed?
No
Installation Required?
No
AI-empowered?
Workflow Automation
Specifications
y
Country or Region:
Community
Author(s):
MrS0m30n3
License:
Free
Operating System(s):
Windows, Others
Language(s):
English
Registration Needed:
No
Installation Required:
No
Video Demonstration
User Guide
This guide outlines how to use yt-dlp for downloading videos, extracting audio, managing playlists, and handling subtitles from the command line. (Reference Version: 2025.07.21)
Download and Install yt-dlp
| a. | Navigate to the website: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp; |
| b. | Click Releases on the right-side panel to go to the latest release page; |
| c. | Select the recommended executable for your operating system from the Assets section (Note: For Windows, this is yt-dlp.exe; for macOS, it is yt-dlp_macos); |
| d. | Place the downloaded file into a directory included in your system's PATH, e.g., C:\Users\UserName (Note: This allows the yt-dlp command to run in the terminal or command prompt). |
Download and Extract Videos
| a. | Open your command-line interface (Note: This is Terminal on macOS/Linux or Command Prompt/PowerShell on Windows); |
| b. | Input the following command and press Enter to download a video in the best available quality; yt-dlp "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| c. | Input the following command and press Enter to update yt-dlp to the latest version; yt-dlp -U |
| d. | Input the following command to install FFmpeg (Note: Please refer to the Scoop user guide for how to install and use Scoop); scoop install ffmpeg |
| e. | Type ffmpeg -version and press Enter in a terminal window to verify the installation (Note: This command should display information about the installed FFmpeg build); |
| f. | Determine the start and end times for the clip you want to extract, e.g., 01:15 to 03:40; |
| g. | Input the following command, replacing the times and URL, to download only the specified segment of the video (Note: The * indicates a time-based range, and this operation requires the successfully installed FFmpeg). yt-dlp --download-sections "*01:15-03:40" "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
Configure Video and Audio Quality
| a. | Input the following command and press Enter to list all available formats for a video; yt-dlp -F "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| b. | Identify the desired format code from the list and input the following command to download it; yt-dlp -f FORMAT_CODE "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| c. | Input the following command to download the best available video-only stream and the best audio-only stream and merge them into a single file (Note: This often results in the highest quality and requires FFmpeg to be installed). yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
Extract Audio from a Video
| a. | Copy the URL of the video you wish to extract audio from; |
| b. | Input the following command and press Enter to download the video, extract its audio track, and save it as an MP3 file (Note: The -x flag instructs the tool to extract audio, and --audio-format specifies the desired output format). yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
Archive Playlists in Bulk
| a. | Copy the URL of the playlist you want to archive; |
| b. | Input the following command to download all videos from the playlist into a new directory named after the playlist, with files numbered and titled correctly; yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "YOUR_PLAYLIST_URL" |
| c. | Input the following command to download only videos not listed in a specific archive file, and add the new video IDs to it upon successful download (Note: This prevents re-downloading content you already have). yt-dlp --download-archive archive.txt "YOUR_PLAYLIST_URL" |
Download Subtitles
| a. | Input the following command to list all available subtitles for a video; yt-dlp --list-subs "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| b. | Input the following command to download all available English subtitles; yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-langs "en.*" "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| c. | Input the following command to download automatically generated captions if no manual subtitles are available; yt-dlp --write-auto-subs "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
| d. | Input the following command to download the best video and embed the English subtitles directly into the final file (Note: This is supported for containers like MP4 and MKV). yt-dlp --embed-subs --sub-langs "en.*" "YOUR_VIDEO_URL" |
Educational Scenarios
Educators' Perspectives
Learners' Perspectives
Webinar Archiving
A professor archives a 10-part webinar series on Youtube using batch downloading. Custom format selection allows exporting both HD videos and separate audio tracks for editing.
Conference Recordings Repository
A librarian curates Youtube conference recordings into a searchable repository, embedding metadata like speaker names and event dates for easy cataloging.
Group Discussion Materials
An instructor downloads a playlist of recorded lectures on Youtube, exporting trimmed videos for students to view in class. After viewing the videos, students are required to discuss in groups.
Offline Study Opportunities
A graduate student downloads 3 Minute Thesis videos for studying in summer. The videos are available offline and he is able to study the materials during travel even if internet connection is limited.
Revision in Short Breaks
Language learners convert lecture podcasts to MP3 using yt-dlp's audio extraction. The audio is divided into small parts according to chapters. Learners could study the materials even in short breaks.
Symposiums Recordings
A research team archives parallel sessions in symposiums, using yt-dlp's concurrent downloads function to capture parallel sessions. The captured videos are transcribed with other tools. The transcripts are reviewed and shared to participants after the symposiums.