YouTube Video Downloader

Setup

Install yt-dlp:

pip install yt-dlp

Optional: Install ffmpeg for format conversion:

# macOS
brew install ffmpeg

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# Windows
winget install ffmpeg

Download Video

Best quality (default):

yt-dlp "VIDEO_URL"

Specific quality:

# Best video + best audio (merged)
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio/best" "VIDEO_URL"

# 1080p max
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best[height<=1080]" "VIDEO_URL"

# 720p max
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]" "VIDEO_URL"

# 480p max
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]" "VIDEO_URL"

Download Audio Only

Best audio as MP3:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "VIDEO_URL"

Best audio as M4A:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format m4a "VIDEO_URL"

Best quality audio (original format):

yt-dlp -f "bestaudio" "VIDEO_URL"

With metadata:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata "VIDEO_URL"

List Available Formats

yt-dlp -F "VIDEO_URL"

Download specific format by ID:

yt-dlp -f 137+140 "VIDEO_URL"

Custom Output Names

# Custom template
yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "VIDEO_URL"

# With channel name
yt-dlp -o "%(channel)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "VIDEO_URL"

# With date
yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "VIDEO_URL"

# To specific folder
yt-dlp -o "~/Videos/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "VIDEO_URL"

Download Playlist

Entire playlist:

yt-dlp "PLAYLIST_URL"

With numbering:

yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "PLAYLIST_URL"

Specific range:

# Videos 1-10
yt-dlp --playlist-start 1 --playlist-end 10 "PLAYLIST_URL"

# Only first 5
yt-dlp -I 1:5 "PLAYLIST_URL"

Download Channel

Recent videos from channel:

yt-dlp -I 1:10 "CHANNEL_URL"

All videos (careful - can be large!):

yt-dlp "CHANNEL_URL/videos"

Download with Subtitles

Embed subtitles:

yt-dlp --write-sub --embed-subs "VIDEO_URL"

Auto-generated subtitles:

yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --embed-subs --sub-lang en "VIDEO_URL"

Thumbnail & Metadata

Embed thumbnail:

yt-dlp --embed-thumbnail "VIDEO_URL"

Full metadata:

yt-dlp --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --embed-chapters "VIDEO_URL"

Speed & Resume

Limit download speed:

yt-dlp -r 1M "VIDEO_URL"  # 1 MB/s limit

Resume interrupted download:

yt-dlp -c "VIDEO_URL"

Archive (Skip Downloaded)

yt-dlp --download-archive downloaded.txt "PLAYLIST_URL"

Common Format Codes

Output Template Variables

Notes

• Respect copyright and terms of service
• Some videos may be geo-restricted
• Age-restricted videos may need cookies
• Use --cookies-from-browser chrome for authenticated content
• ffmpeg required for merging separate video/audio streams
• Update regularly: pip install -U yt-dlp