Download Youtube Videos With Youtube-dl
This tutorial will show you how you can download Youtube videos through youtube-dl, an the open source project available on GitHub.
Installation
Option 1 - YT-dlp Alternative (Binary Download)
Yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork based on the now inactive youtube-dlc. The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project. I found that this works, and youtube-dl no longer does. However, I like to install it in place of the original youtube-dl binary so I don't have to change the way I do things.
wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux \
&& sudo mv -i yt-dlp_linux /usr/bin/youtube-dl \
&& sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/youtube-dl
Option 2 - Native Packages
You can install youtube-dl through ubuntu's package management system...
sudo apt-get install youtube-dl
However, doing this results in me getting the following error when trying to grab some videos:
ERROR: Signature extraction failed: Traceback (most recent call last):
...
Option 3 - Through Python Package Manager (PIP)
The best way to install the latest version is through the Python package management system (pip). Depending on your distro, you want to use one of the following commands:
Python 3 - I found with Debian 9, I needed to use this:
sudo apt install python-pip -y
sudo pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
Python 2 - This might be the one to use on Ubuntu 18.04:
sudo apt install python3-pip -y
sudo pip3 install --upgrade youtube-dl
Install From Master
In the extreme case where one needs the absolute bleeding-edge, one can use PIP to install from the master branch in git like so:
pip install git+https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl.git@master#egg=youtube_dl --force-reinstall
However, this is not installing a released version, and is likely to have bugs so it is not recommended.
Usage
youtube-dl [youtube video url]
Specify A Format
The tool should download the best resolution file by default, but doesn't always get the type of file you want. For example, I find that with Level1techs it will always grab the webm format. To resolve this, I just specify that I want the highest resolution mp4 file like so:
youtube-download -f "mp4" [youtube video url]
List All Options
If you want, you can list the different formats and resolutions available using the following command:
youtube-dl -F [youtube video url]
...which will give you something like:
format code extension resolution note
249 webm audio only DASH audio 53k , opus @ 50k (48000Hz), 15.05MiB
250 webm audio only DASH audio 71k , opus @ 70k (48000Hz), 18.85MiB
171 webm audio only DASH audio 124k , vorbis@128k (44100Hz), 29.31MiB
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 130k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (44100Hz), 37.45MiB
251 webm audio only DASH audio 131k , opus @160k (48000Hz), 33.97MiB
278 webm 256x144 DASH video 102k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 22.92MiB
160 mp4 256x144 DASH video 120k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 32.57MiB
242 webm 426x240 DASH video 235k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 35.37MiB
133 mp4 426x240 DASH video 255k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 72.56MiB
134 mp4 640x360 DASH video 331k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 66.79MiB
243 webm 640x360 DASH video 442k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 67.08MiB
135 mp4 854x480 DASH video 629k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 139.30MiB
244 webm 854x480 DASH video 792k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 112.19MiB
136 mp4 1280x720 DASH video 1191k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 281.08MiB
247 webm 1280x720 DASH video 1626k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 247.77MiB
137 mp4 1920x1080 DASH video 2327k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 533.65MiB
248 webm 1920x1080 DASH video 2773k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 534.38MiB
17 3gp 176x144 small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2@ 24k
36 3gp 320x180 small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2
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)
Use External Downloader To Speed Things Up
Youtube-dl supports using external downloaders. This can help mitigate artificial throttling that Google appears to be implementing.
I found that using aria2 made a massive difference in download speed. To use external downloaders, add the --external-downloader [downloader] option.
The list of supported external downloaders is listed in the download options on the github page, but I found it did not work with axel, even though it's listed.
Here is an example usage:
youtube-download --external-downloader aria2c [youtube video url]
sudo apt install aria2.
You can even pass in arguments that should go to the external downloader. This makes an even bigger difference as it allows us to tell aria2 to use 16 connections like so:
youtube-download \
--external-downloader aria2c \
--external-downloader-args "-x 16 -s 16" \
https://youtu.be/AItOfUS0pT0
Cheat - Use Aliases
To save effort, I set youtube-download as an alias for youtube-dl with parameters as shown below: youtube-download -f "mp4" [youtube video url]
alias youtube-download="youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=webm]+bestaudio[ext=webm]/bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best'"
This will download the highest quality webm (vp9) video before resorting back to mp4 (x264). This is because webm vp9 is somewhat comparable to HEVC (which youtube doesn't offer) in terms of compression, yet still plays perfectly on my now ancient nexus10 through the chrome browser.
References
- Ubuntu Forums - HowTo: Download YouTube videos (the easy way)
- Download only format mp4 on youtube-dl
- Stack Overflow - wget download with multiple simultaneous connections
- Github Issue - [YouTube] Unable to extract uploader id
First published: 16th August 2018